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Project: Infants in Crisis

The Problem with Foster Care Today

The evidence is clear that the time for a change in foster care has come. There are thousands of children in Santa Barbara foster care, with more than a third of them under the age of 3. Of these children, typically only 10% are ever adopted, and most bounce around from home to home, never finding a permanent placement.

County homes are often overcrowded due to the severe shortage of foster parents. Due to the high demands, foster parents often take in as many as 6 children, in addition to their own biological or adopted children. Many of these short-term and often insecure placements take place after a stay at temporary shelter, and statistics show that in the year 2000 the average foster child under age 3 lived in 3 different locations in the first year of placement. Such instability would be difficult for anybody, but for a tiny, still developing baby, the effects are staggering.

Recent research by child psychologists and pediatricians, most notably Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley’s groundbreaking Ghosts From The Nursery, tells us that babies are much more sensitive to these changes in caregivers than older kids. Babies need a stimulating environment, with consistent and attentive nurturing and predictable caregivers, for healthy physical and emotional development. Any deficiency in these requirements actually prevents the parts of the brain that handle attachment and bonding from physically developing. And once the child has passed 3 years of age, it is physically nearly impossible for the human brain to make major physical changes. These deficiencies in bonding and attachment, in turn, stunt the development of empathy, trust, and conscience. And violent behavior is much easier for a person lacking in these areas. The evidence is clear: violent behavior toward self and/or others is fundamentally linked to a lack of healthy attachment mechanisms due to abuse and neglect in the first years of life. This is precisely what happens to too many children in county foster care.

People who have suffered this underdevelopment of certain cerebral functions can still change and develop later in life, but it usually involves costly and timely therapy or incarceration. As a society, we need to begin to proactively address the roots of violence instead of just trying to treat the symptoms after the damage has already been done.

The Angels Solution

Angels has adopted the pioneering approach to foster care first established by Cathy Richman, founder of the original Angels Foster Family Network of San Diego. As a child advocate in the San Diego County Juvenile Court, Cathy Richman painfully learned of this disturbing trend of instability among the very young, and she saw the tragic effects of such deficient early care in older children. In response, she founded Angels Foster Family Network in 1998 to counteract this phenomenon. The program solution she devised, the Infants In Crisis Project, has been successfully making a difference in the lives of foster babies since its first child placement in 1999.

By adopting this program, Angels Foster Care of Santa Barbara seeks to prevent violence toward self and others and promote healthy personal development by providing foster babies with loving, stimulating, stable families until the court makes its final placement decision. We ensure that every baby only receives the very best family by intensive recruiting, screening, training, and support of our foster parents. Each Angels family:

Can only foster one child (or sibling group) at a time, ensuring individual attention to each child’s special needs.
Must have at least one stay-home parent, ensuring stable caregivers for each child.
Commits to caring for a child continuously until the court makes its final placement decision. Undergoes extensive screening, including a psychological evaluation (MMPI-2), a financial assessment, and a home study, to ensure the healthiest environment possible for each Angels baby.
Attends 24 hours of specialized training in basic child care and bonding and attachment theory that fosters appropriate physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development in their babies.
Receives active support from an Angels social worker (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), who ensures that the baby is healthy and happy, and who addresses any concerns that the family may have.

Only by these stringent requirements can Angels provide the very best in foster care to the many abused, abandoned and neglected foster babies in Santa Barbara County.

Measuring Outcomes

Since 1999, the original Angels Foster Family Network Infants in Crisis Project has rescued over 100 children. In short, the program has successfully broken the cycle of instability so often associated with traditional foster care. To capture the lessons of the Infants in Crisis Project, the agency is collaborating with the Children's Hospital Child and Adolescent Research Center (CASRC) to compare outcomes of children placed in Angels foster homes with similarly matched children in traditional foster homes. Developmental evaluations already show positive outcomes for all children tested to date. Assessments progressively show improved and appropriate physical and psychosocial results for all Angels children, including:

Proactively addressed medical issues (i.e. hearing, vision, motor skills, etc.), mitigating long-term health consequences, reducing health care costs, and improving long-term health and development.
Enhanced psychological well-being of children, aiding development of healthy emotional attachment, central to the development of trust, empathy, conscience, and security.

Long-term results will take many years to evaluate, but based on the agency’s scientific foundation, the development of healthy adults is exceedingly probable. Experts have conclusively shown that most violent criminals never developed healthy emotional attachment mechanisms during their early years; so violent crime is much easier for them. The Infants In Crisis Project preempts that possibility at the earliest stage of development, preventing its babies from becoming society’s future problems. back to top

How You Can Help

Angels is a non-profit organization completely funded by private philanthropy. Your tax-free donation supports our projects and helps us place needy babies in loving homes.
Learn about donating

Call Now to Change a Child's Life
Call 805-884-0012 (effective 9/1/10) or contact us on-line to learn how you can make a donation or become a foster parent.