La Cuna<\/a> \u2013\u201ccradle\u201d in Spanish \u2013 since its launch in 2003. Founded by Rachel Humphreys, now retired, the North Park agency specializes in finding foster homes for Latino children from birth through age 5. About half the children in San Diego County\u2019s foster care system are Latinos.<\/p>\nAlthough 13 of the 87 children La Cuna has placed were later adopted by their foster parents, the agency\u2019s executive director, Sandy Rees, is quick to point out that La Cuna\u2019s program is not \u201ca fast track to adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to reunify and rehabilitate the family unit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
La Cuna does that through therapeutic services for biological parents. Foster parents also receive 24 hours of specialized training in Latino cultural and language issues and go through a rigorous evaluation process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as easy as people think to become a foster parent,\u201d Rees said. \u201cBut ultimately we are looking for real, honest, genuine love.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the program works: La Cuna has a 96 percent success rate in achieving permanency for child placement, which means a foster child remains in one home until returning to a biological family member or being adopted by a La Cuna family. Those characteristics \u2013 plus the agency\u2019s willingness to accept any child regardless of race \u2013 make La Cuna a preferred source for foster care in the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to minimize the change and trauma to kids when they come into the system,\u201d said Margo Fudge, spokesperson for the county\u2019s Child Welfare Services. \u201c[La Cuna is] able to help put children in a family setting, often in their own communities, rather quickly with fairly little notice. That helps us in what can be a very stressful and overwhelming situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Cuna has a $425,000 operating budget but receives no government funding. Instead, the agency is supported by private donations and grants, including a California Endowment grant that requires La Cuna to prepare a manual on how to duplicate its culturally sensitive model. <\/p>\n
Finding ways to improve foster care is a crucial task, Rees said. The current system results in a high school graduation rate of only 46 percent for foster children. As many as 25 percent of foster children become homeless adults and 84 percent become parents themselves within 12-18 months of leaving foster care. Eighty percent of all prison inmates are former foster children.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we allow children to continue in a broken foster care system, we end up trying to fix broken men and women,\u201d Rees said. \u201c[La Cuna] is a pilot program that is recognized to help in the long-term and bring change. We are saving taxpayers a huge amount of money by helping these children now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That urgency was a call to action to Carlos and Gloria Velarde in Chula Vista. When Carlos saw a newspaper article about La Cuna in 2007, he left a note attached to it for Gloria: \u201cLet\u2019s do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already parents to Carlos Jr., a student at Cal Poly, and Freddy, a high schooler, Carlos and Gloria were \u201cfacing an empty nest,\u201d Gloria said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe always wanted to have more children and we knew the way to do it was through adoption,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we were intrigued by the article so we decided to try fostering first. We wanted a child from our same cultural background but even more we wanted a child who needed us most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within four months the Velardes had completed La Cuna\u2019s training program and were certified as foster parents. They received six-month-old Angel in April 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got him we were told that we needed to understand there was a very strong likelihood he could be returned to his parents,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cBut from day one we fell in love with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gloria\u2019s large extended family, the Velardes\u2019 neighbors and their son\u2019s schoolmates and teachers surrounded Angel with attention, often dropping by gifts for him. Meanwhile, Freddy Velarde went from being a \u201cgood\u201d student to being a \u201cgreat\u201d student, his mom said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAngel came to us with very few opportunities. He brought an awareness of those opportunities to Freddy. He had taken them for granted,\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>\n
Freddy, who became student body president at his high school, wrote his college essay about Angel\u2019s influence on his life. He will be a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania this fall.<\/p>\n
In December, the social worker\u2019s initial warning about Angel leaving the Velardes came true when she informed the Velardes that Angel\u2019s mother would be regaining custody. They were crushed.<\/p>\n
A day later, Angel\u2019s mother was arrested. Soon after, the court terminated her parental rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis name is \u2018Angel,\u2019\u201d Gloria said as she described her family\u2019s surprise and delight over the news they could keep him. \u201cThat isn\u2019t a coincidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it took a year for Angel\u2019s adoption to be finalized, Gloria said the wait and all of the extra emotion and effort was worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe owe a lot to Angel,\u201d she said. \u201cInstead of us giving to him, he\u2019s always given a lot to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worthington and Kensen have had a similar experience. Aiden has been with them since January 2009 but during that time they also have foster-parented two other children \u2013 Mateo and Xavier. While they knew Xavier\u2019s placement was temporary, they were told Mateo would be available for adoption when instead he was later reunited with family. <\/p>\n
Jazelle\u2019s initial paperwork indicates she too will be eligible for adoption, but after their disappointment over Mateo, Worthington and Kensen are trying not to let their hopes get too high.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not easy, this rollercoaster,\u201d Worthington said. \u201cThe emotions you would feel as a (biological) parent \u2013 joy and sadness \u2013 you stretch those even further as a foster parent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those feelings are intensifying again as Worthington and Kensen now face Aiden\u2019s probable departure to his biological father. His mother has relinquished custody to him \u2013 she sees him often \u2013 but his father will appear in court later this month to attempt a reunification with the boy. <\/p>\n
Worthington and Kensen hope to be granted custody, yet they understand the courts tend to favor biological parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of talks with Aiden about it,\u201d Worthington said. \u201cIf the courts decide his family members are the best place for him there will be hurt and emotion, of course. But we are not his parents at this point and we have to realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not difficult to understand Worthington and Kensen\u2019s anguish over Aiden leaving them. When they picked up him at Polinsky \u2013 much like Jazelle \u2013 he was an overweight, undisciplined toddler with a biting habit. Now he thrives on nutritional food, enjoys trips to Hawaii and is a happy, well-adjusted preschooler. They say they worry about what Aiden will face with his dad in Florida but they trust that their positive influence on him will endure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is so rewarding to know you are putting a child in a much better place, even if it isn\u2019t forever,\u201d Worthington said. \u201cYou hope whatever they experienced with you stays with them for good in their life. We know the time he\u2019s been with us we\u2019ve really changed his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s changed ours too,\u201d Kensen added. \u201cWe\u2019re not the people we were a year ago.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Christy Scannell SDUN Senior Editor The call came on a Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. Todd Worthington, manager of the U.S. Bank branch in North Park, was rushing out his office door to a couple of appointments. But when he saw Jeannelle Bitterlin\u2019s number pop up on his cell phone, he answered. \u201cWe have a […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1287,"featured_media":243578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Agency for Change: North Park\u2019s La Cuna offers unique foster care program","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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