Please let me introduce you to Judith AM Denton. Placed in Foster Care at the age of 9, growing up through the system, Judith experienced exclusions from School and College, a run in with the Law, and then as a Care Leaver, she experienced a period of poor Mental Health. But thankfully her story doesn't end there....

Life isn't all fairytales and glass slippers... 'Cinderella', I wish! is the powerful true story of Dominique DeVeraux's life. Beginning with her early childhood as a young black child living with loving white foster parents, Dominique is content and adored. But when Nanny dies suddenly, Dominique is taken away from the loving home that she knew and thrust into a world of trouble. Dumped in a new home with strangers, Dominique's life turns to one of difficulty and misery. In her fight for happiness she faces more and more abusers, domestic violence, rape and murder. Ploughing on regardless, Dominique chooses love as her weapon and shield. In this story of courage, our protagonist rises above the challenges she faces to celebrate life and to love herself indubitably.

In Transfers of Belonging, Erdmute Alber traces the history of child fostering in northern Benin from the pre-colonial past to the present by pointing out the embeddedness of child foster practices and norms in a wider political process of change. Child fostering was, for a long time, not just one way of raising children, but seen as the appropriate way of doing so. This changed profoundly with the arrival of European ideas about birth parents being the 'right' parents, but also with the introduction of schooling and the differentiation of life chances. Besides providing deep historical and ethnographical insights, Transfers of Belonging offers a new theoretical frame for conceptualizing parenting.

'I was made in Coffee Bay. Right there on the beach, in the sand.'

From the opening lines, we are drawn in and engrossed by this startling memoir of a singular childhood. Suzan is adopted as a newborn in the late 1960s into a seemingly loving and welcoming family living in Pietermaritzburg. But Suzan is set on a collision course with, most particularly, her adoptive mother, and society, from her very beginning. Suzan's relationship with her mother is fraught with drama, which veers over into a level of emotional abuse and needless cruelty that is shocking.

At the age of thirteen, Suzan is sent to a place of safety as a ward of the state, effectively 'orphaning' her. From there, she spirals out of control – fighting to survive in a world of other neglected, abandoned and abused children. She becomes a 'runner', escaping at every opportunity from her various places of confinement, grabbing her schooling in snatches, living on the edges of a drug and prostitution underworld, finding love wherever she can.

Suzan’s young life was the stuff of movies, but it is her writing, in a voice that is unforgettable and true, that transforms her memories into something magical rarely matched in South African literature. A new classic.

This book significantly deepens the contemporary discussion of the theology and practice of adopting children. Though adoption appears prominently in Scripture, contemporary adoption practice has thus far proceeded without serious theological engagement. This book seeks to fill this gap by offering a theological and ethical perspective on adoption that not only clarifies and complicates contemporary understandings of adoption, but also throws fresh light on family, community, vocation, and even what it means to be human. Both interdisciplinary and international, the volume is brings together theologians and ethicists from Europe, the UK, Canada and the United States. A rich set of reflections from both practical and theoretical perspectives offers a unique and uniquely insightful vision of Christian adoption. Contributors are: Dale P. Andrews, Jana Marguerite Bennett, Marco Derks, R. Ruard Ganzevoort, Bill McAlpine, Kirsten Sonkyo Oh, Sarah Shea, Paul Shrier, Henning Theissen, Hans. G. Ulrich, Karin Ulrich-Eschemann, Heather Walton, Brent Waters, Nick Watson.

It is common for adoptive families to need support and services after adoption. Postadoption services can help families with a wide range of issues. They are available for everything from learning how to explain adoption to a preschooler, to helping a child who experienced early childhood abuse, to supporting an adopted teens search for identity. Experience with adoptive families has shown that all family members can benefit from some type of postadoption support. Families of children who have experienced trauma, neglect, abuse, out-of-home care, or institutionalisation may require more intensive services. This book serves as a guide to postadoption assistance.

About 14 percent of the more than 400,000 children in foster care nationwide lived in congregate care at the end of fiscal year 2013, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) data. This book examines how selected states have reduced their use of congregate care; and some challenges with reducing congregate care placements, and efforts HHS has taken to help states reduce congregate care.

Many families want to adopt, but do not have the large amount of money it takes to complete a private domestic or international adoption. Some quickly give up the idea of adopting and are left feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and discouraged. Those who choose to proceed often take out large loans or borrow from family and friends which adds to the financial pressure on the family. Author Julie Gumm shares proven strategies from her own experience as well as from others that include applying for grants, creative budgeting, and fundraising that prospective adoptive parents can use to prepare for and avoid those high costs associated with adoption.

Title IV-E of the Social Security Act provides federal support for foster care and adoption assistance programs. Since 2008, 5 tribes have been approved to operate their own title IV-E foster care programs, although more than 80 tribes initially expressed an interest in doing so. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides development grants and technical assistance to tribes interested in establishing a title IV-E program. This book examines obstacles facing tribes interested in directly operating a title IV-E program; and the assistance HHS has provided. Under title IV-E, states are entitled to open-ended reimbursement for the cost of providing foster care, adoption assistance, and (in states that choose to provide it) kinship guardianship assistance. Additional mandatory funding is available, on a capped basis, for services to youth who "age out" of foster care, or are expected to, and for Tribal Title IV-E plan development and technical assistance. The conclusion of this title provides information on child welfare proposals under the Title IV-E program.

Children leaving out-of-home care for adoption or other family permanency require preparation and support to help them understand the past events in their lives and to process feelings connected to their experiences of abuse and neglect, separation, loss, rejection, and abandonment. Child welfare, foster care, and adoption agencies often assume that permanent families will provide the healing environment for these children and youth, and these agencies spend considerable resources to recruit, train, and support foster and adoptive parents to provide legal permanency and well-being for these children. While a high percentage of these adoptions are successful -- in that they are not legally dissolved -- both children and families often struggle or suffer from stress that might have been mitigated by better preparation practices for all parties. This book discusses services for children and youth to address their readiness and preparation for permanent relationships. It also explores research, intervention strategies, and resources to assist professionals in preserving connections among siblings; provides a factsheet for child welfare professionals who work with families interested in adoption and/or who are about to receive a referral or foster or adoptive placement; discusses ways to help professionals guide birth and adoptive families who are contemplating open adoption or who are already having postadoption contact; and is intended to support adoption professionals in addressing the needs for postadoption services and meeting common challenges in their delivery.

Each year, approximately 25,000 youth exit the foster care system before being reunified with their family of origin, being adopted, or achieving another permanent living arrangement. These youth often have limited resources with which to secure safe and stable housing, which leaves them at heightened risk of experiencing homelessness. This book documents a series of research activities designed to address knowledge gaps related to the housing options available to youth who have aged out of foster care. Furthermore, this book describes the extent to which -- and how -- communities are using Family Unification Program (FUP) to support youth; reviews the characteristics of the young people, their risk of homelessness, and the barriers they face in securing stable housing, along with relevant federal and, to a lesser extent, state policies; and describes a wide range of housing programs for young people aging out of foster care, present a program typology, and conclude with the identification of a small group of innovative housing programs that may warrant closer exploration.

While most young people have access to emotional and financial support systems throughout their early adult years, older youth in foster care and those who are emancipated from care often face obstacles to developing independent living skills and building supports that ease the transition to adulthood. Older foster youth who return to their parents or guardians may continue to experience poor family dynamics or a lack of emotional and financial supports, and studies have shown that recently emancipated foster youth fare poorly relative to their counterparts in the general population on several outcome measures. The federal government recognises that older youth in foster care and those aging out are vulnerable to negative outcomes and may ultimately return to the care of the state as adults, either through the public welfare, criminal justice, or other systems. This book provides background on young people in and exiting from foster care, and the federal support that is available to these youth as they transition to adulthood.

Approximately 400,000 children were living in foster care in fiscal year 2012, according to the most recent data available. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is an omnibus child welfare bill designed to ensure greater permanence and improve the well-being of children served by public child welfare agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees states' implementation of federal child welfare requirements. This book examines steps states have taken to implement selected provisions of the act and challenges they have faced, and the extent to which HHS has monitored states' efforts.

Lisa A. Mazzeo, LCSW, BCD is a veteran social worker who brings to life for readers her 30 years of working with children and youth in the foster care system. She takes readers on a journey inside of the system and shows us the children and families that the system touches. The outcomes of youth that leave foster care without a family are abysmal - many end up homeless, in jail, unemployed, and suffering from mental illness. Lisa shows us how we can change outcomes through the curative power of love, kindness and nurturing parenting. As she "catches the moon" for these youth, she leaves readers with a sense of hope and inspires them to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable youth everywhere. www.whocancatchthemoon.com "This book is not just for people in the profession, the general population needs to read these heartfelt accounts in order to understand the most neglected in this country: our children. Who Can Catch the Moon? so brilliantly shows that it takes all of us together to make a difference in the lives of children." Maria C. Castillo, LCSW Contributing author in "Miracles Happen: The Transformational Healing Power of Past-Life Memories" by Brian L. Weiss, MD and Amy Weiss, MSW "Share the tears and laughter of adopted and foster kids and their caring, creative, life-changing therapist. Don't miss this riveting look inside the world of human resilience and healing." Elizabeth Murdoch, LCSW Director of Behavioral Health, Family and Children's Agency "With joy, humor and real understanding, Lisa Mazzeo generously shares her memories and lessons with us in Who Can Catch the Moon?. She is a dedicated and honest social worker - and now author. Lisa presents this collection of stories as a gift, to help us to connect with her, with her experience, hopes and challenges as a social worker and, most importantly, with the children she has loved and cared for for so many years. We are so grateful." Meghan Lowney, MSW Former Executive Director, Operation Hope of Fairfield, Inc. Founder, Ripple Effect Consulting