Book Review: Issues That Concern You: Foster Care

by Pam Connell | More from this Blogger

11 Apr 2009 01:01 AM

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy the Opposing Viewpoints series of books, such as Opposing Viewpoints: Adoption. Greenhaven Press now has another series, aimed at students, called Issues that Concern You. These issues include Date Rape, Discrimination, Dieting, Electronic Devices in Schools, Gangs, Zoos and Animal Welfare, and other issues that may be relevant to students' everyday lives, to things they care about, causes they may wish to support, or issues they may vote on when they become adults.

Issues that Concern You: Foster Care is one such book. Like the Opposing Viewpoints series, the book is an anthology of writings about different aspects of foster care. This is one of the more recent books available about adoption. It was published in 2007.

There are opposing viewpoints expressed. In this volume the three essays which most uphold the tradition of opposing viewpoints are "Homosexuals Should Not be Foster Parents", "Foster Kids Have Mixed Feelings about Gay Foster Parents", and "Gay Parents Can Solve the Foster Parent Shortage". The other essays express personal views, but are not necessarily point-counterpoint in format as the other series' books are.

The first essay in the book is a short essay on the history of foster care in the U.S. Then there is an article called "Public Ignorance Hurts the Foster Care System", followed by an article on the training (or sometimes lack thereof) of helping professionals such as social workers and counselors in dealing with the dynamics of foster families. (Some counselors, for example, focus on the parents' marriage as a source of stress in the family, instead of acknowledging the role of the children's prior experiences in multiple placements.) There is an article on grandparents and on providing support and encouragement to kinship caregivers. There is an article from The Economist magazine on reforming the way foster care is funded. There is an article arguing that family preservation makes more sense-that contrary to the common assumption, kids are less likely to be abused in their families (receiving appropriate support, presumably) than they are in foster care.

The other two articles focus on what happens when kids "age out" of foster care. One article appeared in a publication written for and by foster children by a young man who was in a group home from age ten to age seventeen, and felt unprepared for life when he got out-not knowing how to cook or what documents to bring to a job interview. Another essay is by a former foster child who is now head of a state children's services office. It suggests that foster care "alumni" should be proud of what they survived and offer their strengths to each other and to current foster children, helping to remove some of the stigma of foster care.

The last article is on facts and trends of foster care in America. The book concludes with an annotated list of organizations, books and websites for learning more and reaching out to foster children. Ther e are also a few suggestions given for readers who are interested in adopting a child from foster care, young people who have a friend in foster care, and young people who are in foster care themselves.

Learn more about Pam Connell

Pam Connell is a mother of three by both birth and adoption. She has worked in education, child care, social services, ministry and journalism.

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