Creating a coordinated child protection and well-being system is a challenge everywhere you go. How do we identify children in need of protection vs. families struggling with poverty? With economic resources limited, how can we provide the services necessary to keep children safe with their families? How do we coordinate the work of private providers and government officials? How do we negotiate the bureaucracies that often regulate and fund this work? How do we serve the needs of migrant children fleeing violence in their own countries, especially when many of our fellow citizens are clamoring for them to be sent back home?
Each of these questions is one we face daily in Georgia and across the U.S. This past week I had the opportunity to explore these issues in Lebanon while working with one of my favorite child-serving organizations, Kids Alive International.
If you haven’t been to Lebanon, you should go. It’s a green, mountainous jewel set on the edge of the Mediterranean. The food is amazing and the people warm, caring, and hospitable. At the Dar Al Awlad school and children’s home high on a mountain overlooking the sprawling metropolis of Beirut, they’ve been serving children for 75 years, educating and protecting both Lebanese and (increasingly) Syrian refugee children. Their day center in the south of the country provides education and assistance to the neediest children, including the Roma and Syrian refugee populations.
The organization’s staff and I spent the week meeting with juvenile court judges, leaders of other child-serving organizations, and child protection officials. The conversations were oddly familiar, as if I were talking with colleagues at a Starbucks in Midtown Atlanta. We talked about the need for a better system of assessing children before they come into care at Dar Al Awlad, so that we can make sure the home is able to provide for their needs. We talked about the need to add a psychologist and a social worker, especially as we consider taking on children with more complex trauma profiles. We talked about the need for case planning and closer collaboration with the juvenile courts and other organizations so that when children come into our care, we can begin working to re-integrate them into their own families and communities. And, in an echo of conversations I’ve had in Georgia for the past 20-something years, we asked each other why the Christian churches (of which Dar Al Awlad is a ministry) are so reluctant to embrace foster care.
It’s a complex problem. At the same time, I was struck by the optimism and dedication I felt from all those we met with in government and the private sector. This is a country that, over the past 75 years or so, has had its own civil war and has also been on the receiving end of its neighbors’ wars, with resulting waves of refugees. In 2019, the Lebanese economy crashed, and its currency lost 98% of its value. Once considered an upper-middle income nation, much of the population fell into poverty. Yet despite those struggles, which might turn others to focus on their own desires and success, the folks I met continue to focus on serving the least among them — the poor, the abused, the refugee. Their example, I believe, should humble the rest of us who complain about the difficulty of child welfare work but have it pretty easy in comparison.
In the news:
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Atlanta Angels. Glad to see their work featured in the press.
As I’ve mentioned before, Colorado has a program that pays family members to care for their children with complex medical needs. Here’s an interesting report on the program from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Maryland is the latest state to be sued over hospitalizing children with complex behavioral health needs.
The Miami Herald reports on a similar lawsuit in Florida that’s been pending since 2012.
You’d think this newsletter did nothing but talk about litigation! In San Bernardino County, CA, plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit contend the child protection system is “too broken to fix.”
Louisiana is considering the creation of a children’s ombudsman.
Virginia has made good progress getting kids out of hotels, but the Governor says they still have work to do.
Nice interview with ACF Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston.
According to Christianity Today, fewer Christians in the US are adopting and fostering even as pastors do more to encourage foster/adoption support among their flocks.