Chosen helps caregivers with their triumphs and challenges.
Children in the child welfare system have suffered trauma because of abuse and neglect. These children are separated from their parents and placed in an unfamiliar family. Other times, they are placed with relatives who now have to transition to a parental role. On average, children in foster care move multiple times. If a foster family is unavailable the child will have to stay in shelters or other institutional settings. The impact of these hard histories leaves children vulnerable, lonely, and hurting. This vulnerability can leave children in a place of being unable to receive the love that their potential permanent family wants to give them.
Foster, adoptive, and relative caregivers welcome children into their homes with great intentions. The needs of these children can be so complex that the new family can be unable to handle how their child is working through abuse, neglect, and hurt. The trauma that their children have gone through often results in behaviors that cause stress for the entire family. The training that families have during the licensing process often focuses on state procedures. It can lack the training that helps parents handle trauma-related behaviors. This lack of trauma-informed education and support causes frustration, which can lead to some parents wanting to give up. At this point, their children are not on the road of healing, and the cycle of trauma is at high risk of starting over again.
