Workers rush to fill void left by Boston agency's decision
For two decades, Catholic Charities has occupied a small but crucial niche in the state's sprawling social safety net: helping to find homes for the most troubled foster children, including those with HIV and AIDS, mental and emotional problems, and histories of abuse.
The Boston agency's decision yesterday to abandon that service will eliminate that critical link between thousands of foster children and the families looking to adopt them. Adoption specialists say the risks for children are real: Foster children could face longer waits in an already backlogged system, and specialists say other agencies will have to scramble to pick up the Catholic Charities' caseload. Whether they can replace its network of seasoned, caring social workers is another question.
''Catholic Charities has really been a gold standard in providing adoption services to children in the welfare system for a long time, so this is a tragedy," said Marylou Sudders, president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. ''This is a tragedy for kids."
The numbers tell a powerful, though partial, piece of the story. Last year, Catholic Charities found more homes for foster children than any other private agency in Massachusetts. Of the 866 children adopted from the state Department of Social Services, 91 went through private agencies, and 28 of those through Catholic Charities. That was more than any of the other seven agencies under contract with DSS. In two decades working with DSS, Catholic Charities arranged 720 adoptions. Many involved the hardest children to adopt: adolescents, siblings, and children with serious physical and mental impairments.
Beyond the numbers, Catholic Charities played another important role in helping children find homes. Often, workers at other agencies, in desperate need of advice on how to handle a difficult child or find a suitable family, would call workers at Catholic Charities for counsel. Founded in 1903 for the sole purpose of aiding adoptions, the agency was a place they could turn to for experienced, sound advice, adoption workers said.
''I doubt if anyone at an adoption agency hasn't at some time picked up the phone and called Catholic Charities and said, 'Can you help me out with this?' " said the Rev. Richard W. Richardson, president emeritus of Children's Services of Roxbury Inc. ''Catholic Charities was always at the top of the list."
Workers said yesterday they were scrambling to fill the void that will be left when Catholic Charities of Boston quits adoptions June 30. Officials at the Home for Little Wanderers, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and other agencies said they would try to make sure that children do not wait longer than necessary for families. Foster children typically wait 11 months to be adopted, said Carolyn E. Smith, director of the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, an information clearing house in Boston. ''Right now, it's almost wait and see what's going to happen, and hopefully an agency will pick up what they were doing," Smith said. ''That's my hope. But if not, it's just going to be longer waits for children."
Said Paula Wisnewski, director of adoption for the Home for Little Wanderers, based in Boston, ''Our job has just gotten a little bit harder. It's going to be busier and more work.
''It's a shame," Wisnewski said, ''because it is certainly going to mean that fewer children from foster care are going to find permanent homes."
There were calls yesterday for the state to play a stronger role in helping to organize adoption agencies, to ensure there is as little disruption as possible for foster children. Sudders said her organization was willing to do what it could, but she was worried that was not enough. ''That's the main part of the story here," she said. ''There's 10,000 kids in the care or custody of DSS, several thousand waiting for adoption, and we have lost a valuable partner in finding loving homes for these kids." 