Friday, November 27, 2009

Support Groups for Foster Children

In the modern post industrialised world, their are many children who are not living with both their parents. They may be in foster families (which have not got the best record), living with one parent, either through divorce or lack of marriage/co-habitation or prison or death, or living partly with one parent and then the other parent. They may live with other family members. All of these compromised situations leave the child vulnerable to the unethical or damaged. Their carers maybe depressed, or resentful of their position and what the child represents to them in that situation. To pretend a sense of duty is enough to provide for the child is dangerous. If people were as nurturing as is needed, half of the laws of the world would not be necessary.
What this suggestion is about is a support group at every school for these students, similar to the support group for immigrant children I previously suggested. The same long term productivity and economic savings are the incentives for governments putting the relatively low cost program in place.
Setting up a support group for these children of unfortunate circumstances, including foster children, single parent families, children living with other relatives, divorced parents children, and anyone who looks angry or downtrodden would give them the chance to feel as though the "authorities" care and so do their peers, which may reduce "antisocial" behaviours, and feel if they participate in healthier activities they benefit. This will save the community a fortune in rehab, prisons, policing, and general mayhem and tragedy. Also, combining children whose lack of a full parenting background and the various solutions may put their own situation in perspective.
The school counsellor could run it like a youth group (a lot of church groups don't quite know what to do with "strays" of unusual background). It could have aspects like a self help group. Activities like trust games, anger management, discussion time, body language reading, self esteem raising tasks, life skills such as basic cooking, form filling, art creation and appreciation, etc could make it fun as well as useful. A regular talk on their rights, and what an adult can and cannot do to them is, of course, essential. There could be guest speakers as well as fun outings. The speech and drama teacher could run the body language talk, the sports teacher could take a self esteem raising game, a community member who had a tough time as a child could give a talk on how they overcame the odds and created their own destiny. Trips to the beach or park, as well as "cool" stuff in the local area, such as the movies or arcade or art gallery could give it an air every now and then, and act as an economical reward for tasks completed.
Also, during the discussion group on their problems and possible solutions, it must be made clear to the children that there are counsellors, male and female, available, as well as legal backing if needed. If they are being beaten, psychologically abused, or sexually interfered with, they may need to feel like they can trust the people available to help them. Their trust has been messed with, and a general group is a way for them to know their rights, build confidence and trust enough to ask for individual attention. This with help the general community economically and emotionally in the long term, in productivity and healthiness.

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