How did Multnomah County’s Commission on Children, Families & Community (CCFC) help one family obtain an essential childcare item in 42 minutes?By utilizing the innately fast networking capabilities of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the CCFC has been able to locate donations and support from the community in many different circumstances.
The CCFC has been on Facebook for nearly two and a half years but for the last eight months, the CCFC’s Foster Change Initiative has been using Facebook to find items that families request in order to keep children at home or with other family members and out of foster care. The initiative aims to both safely reduce the number of children in foster care by 20 percent, and also increase the number of children who are placed with relatives instead of strangers by 50 percent. Research shows that when children are placed with relatives and possibly even family friends, their placements are more successful than when they are put with strangers.
Most recently, with the help of community members and Facebook, the Foster Change Initiative facilitated bringing one family’s case with the State’s Department of Human Services (DHS) closer to a happy end. DHS was monitoring a family with a one-year-old daughter and a second baby on the way. They were working on completing an “in-home safety plan” that required, among other things, that the family have a double stroller. Getting a stroller was one of the last requirements the family needed to fulfill before their case could be closed, but they did not have the funds to purchase one, nor could they locate one in any other way.
Then the CCFC put a request for a double stroller on its Facebook page and in less than an hour, someone from New York had bought one and was having it shipped to the family in Oregon. Now the family’s case with DHS is scheduled to be closed in November.
In another situation, an 11-year-old girl with special needs wanted to be placed with family friends but they did not have enough space to fit her in with their family, or enough money to buy a space-saving bunk bed. The CCFC inquired about getting a bunk bed on Facebook and a family in Portland donated one they had sitting in their garage. The girl was subsequently placed with her family friends and avoided moving in with strangers.
Multnomah County has one of the highest rates of foster care placement in the country. Through the generous support of community members from all over the country, creative new ways of online networking are helping the CCFC keep kids safe with relatives or at home.
Visit the new Foster Change blog to find out how you can help. Learn more about the Foster Change Initiative or find the CCFC on Facebook.