Abby’s Story
KANSAS: Abby was a sad and withdrawn 15-year old girl when Sue, a Placement Stability Specialist from Cornerstones of Care, became her caseworker. Over seven years Abby was placed in a total of 36 homes and residential facilities and experienced considerable trauma.
The Importance of Second Chances
KANSAS: Baby boy Zac needed a loving and supportive home. His family finding advocate from Cornerstones of Care used the Connect Our Kids technology platform and found an aunt who wanted to take in little Zac.
A Young Boy Reconnects with Neighbors
OHIO: Three years ago, Luke* was removed from the only neighborhood he knew growing up. Since then, he has lived in five different foster homes and lost track of all the connections he made in the first nine years of his life.
Teen Reconnects with Long-Lost Aunt
NEVADA: J.D.’s life has been chaotic since he entered foster care four years ago. In those four years, he has moved 13 different times, growing up in facilities, foster homes, group homes, an institution and an emergency homeless shelter. Not having a stable place to live, or a family to call on, has no doubt deepened his childhood wounds. For most of J.D.’s time in foster care, he has had no ties to his own family.
Connections Found for Child with Autism, Yet A Permanent Placement Is Still Needed
COLORADO: Tommy* is barely a teenager but he has already spent nearly five long years in the foster care system. He has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which poses additional challenges, and Tommy has not had contact with any of his own relatives while growing up in foster care.
Pregnant and Facing Emancipation Alone, Youth Finds Her Biological Family
OHIO: Tammy* had a very difficult life growing up. She was adopted when she was very young but many years later, she re-entered the foster care system because her adoptive parents were abusive. Now 21 and pregnant with her second child, Tammy thought she had no one in her corner as she faced emancipation from foster care.
Siblings and Grandmother Found
MINNESOTA: Cedric* is a teenage boy who has spent the last few years in the foster care system. Fortunately, an attentive caseworker paid attention to a casual comment about an adult half brother named Michael, a brother Cedric barely knew.
Introducing Our People Search Tool
For teams using paper files, digital systems like Connect Our Kids’ Family Connections tool are a dramatic improvement. Family Connections is a single purpose-built tool for discovering and engaging extended families and supporters of foster children.When we started building our new Family Connections tool, social workers, CASA volunteers, family recruiters, and other permanency workers quickly brought to our attention an invaluable missing piece: the absolute need for a people search tool.We discovered that these incredible workers were conducting exhaustive searches to find the most basic information for a distant relative of a child in the foster care system. And oftentimes, this information was out of date.So we took this helpful tip and did what we do best, we simply added a new “People Search” tool to our Family Connections tool – All for FREE!