Coalition Beckons to Foster, Adoptive Parents

A coalition of state, county and private social service agencies announced Thursday a two-year promotional and recruiting campaign designed to enlist more black and Latino adults as foster or adoptive parents of minority children.

It was obvious that Niemieh and Gertie Owens, sitting proudly in the press conference audience with four young boys dressed smartly in coordinated sweaters and slacks, already had gotten the message.

“We wanted to be foster parents because there are so many kids who need homes, and we had a home to share,” said Gertie Owens. So, five years ago--after their own children had grown and left home--the Owens started Family No. 2 by bringing Wayne, John, Jesse and Antonio into their home as foster children.

Within months, the children were put up for permanent adoption and, in the Owens’ minds, there was no doubt where they belonged.

“When you stay up with them when they’re sick and crying, and you love them as much as you do, it’s hard to give them up so they can be adopted in some other homes,” she said.

“So we adopted them,” she added.

And so it was that the Owenses, with the four boys from 6 to 8 years old, were held up by officials on Thursday as a model for other black families considering becoming foster or adoptive parents.

Of the more than 60,000 children statewide who are in foster programs, 44% are white, 31% are black and 21% are Latino, officials say. Department policy calls for children to be matched with parents of the same ethnicity, but if a home cannot be found in six months, a child can be placed with parents of a different ethnic background.

While she says she does not have percentage figures indicating the ethnicity of foster parents, Linda McMahon, director of the California Department of Social Services, said Thursday there are disproportionately fewer black and Latino foster parents.

Why?

“Because we haven’t done a good enough job in letting them know of the need for them to adopt children or become foster parents, and because they’re not particularly trustful of public agencies,” she said.

Her point was echoed by Vernard Winston, who with his wife, Phyllis, have adopted two children and expect to become parents of another on Monday. “I don’t think a lot of blacks understand how the system works, and they probably think it’s even more involved than it actually is,” Winston said.

To address that issue, several private, nonprofit agencies in California--including the Institute for Black Parenting which serves Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties--now invite people to adopt or become foster parents through them, at little or no cost and in a fraction of the time it would take to work through public agencies.

The bilingual recruitment campaign unveiled Thursday calls for extensive use of billboards, bus ads, radio and television public service announcements, brochures and a toll-free telephone line--(800) KIDS-4-US. The Latino slogan translates to “Our Children Need Homes.” The black slogan is, “Bring Our Children Home.”

The state has campaigned previously for minority foster and adoptive parents, but without great success because it did not enlist enough support from other public and private agencies, McMahon said. The most successful recruitment campaign occurred two years ago when the Inland Empire Urban League helped recruit 100 new families in six months in San Bernardino County.

Joaquin and Liza Feliciano said they adopted brothers Victor and Lorenzo two years ago even before they tried having children, partly because Joaquin himself was an orphan who spent his childhood in “at least a half-dozen foster homes.” In each home but one, he said, he was cared for by white parents.

“I don’t think a lot of Hispanic parents know how badly they’re needed,” he said.