"I am 11 years old," say the words beside the child's photo. "I have been in foster care for two years because my mom's boyfriend broke my arm. My mom had to choose between him and me." Another card reads, "I am 13. I have been in foster care for three years. My mom drank all the time and didn't send us to school or buy us food. My brothers live in different foster homes." A third explains, "I am three years old. I have been in foster care since birth. I tested positive for alcohol and cocaine. I have been diagnosed with fetal alcohol effect."

While these brief descriptions reflect disturbingly common realities for those who work in the foster care system, a group of child welfare professionals in Racine County, Wisconsin believed that the greater community needed to know those realities too. William Adams, director of the Racine County Human Services Department, explains that the group organized the Journey Home-a bus tour that symbolically follows a child's path through the foster care system-to "put the needs of Racine's children squarely in the community spotlight."

The Planning

Representatives from the Human Services Department, juvenile court, public defender and district attorney's offices, public and private adoption agencies, and Wisconsin's Special Needs Adoption Network (SNAN) planned the Journey Home tour in six months. The group had already been meeting to break down systemic barriers that delay permanency for children. They quickly realized a primary obstacle was the lack of foster and adoptive families for waiting children. Director Adams relates, "The goal then became to find a way to not only draw attention to the need for adoptive resources, but also involve the whole community in taking care of its children."

The group set forth to inspire county leaders. They invited media professionals, county administrators, mayors and city council members, legislators, corporate CEOs, hospital and health care administrators, advocacy organization heads, foundation heads, and clergy to participate. Intensive, personalized follow-up phone calls drew in about 45 community leaders for the symbolic journey in January 1999.

Well in advance of the event, the planners assembled an informational packet for participants. Included were statistics on the county's children, information about employee adoption benefit programs, a promotional poster, a guide to special needs adoption with local contact numbers, and a book of photos and descriptions of waiting children.

For each stop, the planners located practitioners to speak, unscripted and casually, to the community leaders. Members of the planning group also arranged to be on the bus to interact in small groups with the participants and answer questions. Finally, the group appointed two facilitators (adoption and foster care experts) to ask questions of the speakers and keep the tour running smoothly.

The Agenda

Journey Home participants arrived at the Human Services Department just before 9 a.m. Representatives from the planning committee greeted each arrival, handed out name tags, and served coffee and a light breakfast. The agencies and offices involved set up a display of materials and played videotapes for the participants to see while they waited for the tour to begin.

The event officially opened when the Division of Children and Family Services' administrator and the state supreme court's Chief Justice welcomed participants and recognized dignitaries among the group. Adams, the county director, then provided an overview of the child welfare system and focused on the costs to children and the community-increased chances of homelessness or incarceration, reduced educational attainment, and greater dependency on welfare-when children are not well served. He concluded by handing out packets and garbage bags, and invited participants to board the bus.

As the bus traveled to the first stop, the facilitator asked participants to find the index card inside their packet. She instructed them to read the child's brief biography and look at the photo. For the course of the tour, she said, participants should imagine the journey through the system from that child's perspective.

The bus first stopped in a lower income area, where the facilitators pointed out that children in foster care do not all come from poor neighborhoods; abuse knows no income boundaries. A police officer and child protection social worker then boarded the bus. As they discussed responding to calls, visiting homes, and interviewing parents and children to investigate abuse allegations, they passed around life-sized photos of victimized children. Participants solemnly looked at pictures of burned skin and bruised limbs, absorbing the seriousness of the event and the urgency of children's needs. The police officer concluded by saying that in the hypothetical investigation on this journey, the child was removed from the home.

While the bus drove to the next stop, the facilitator asked participants to close their eyes and hold their garbage bags in their hands. She read a guided fantasy exercise (see sample on page 9) and told them that they had 10 minutes to pack everything they wanted to take along into their garbage bags. As participants imagined moving, not seeing their families, and adjusting to a new home, many were moved to tears.

The tour group arrived at their second stop, the hospital, and went inside to meet a doctor who specializes in working with abused children. The doctor talked about common child abuse scenarios he sees in the emergency room-broken bones, drug addicted babies, burns, and sexual abuse.

The Journey then continued as an experienced foster parent boarded the bus. The mother discussed what it is like when children come to her home crying in the middle of the night. She told stories of dirty, hungry, angry, frightened, and vulnerable children who hoard food or arrive infected with lice. She also talked about working to reunify children and birth families, building attachments with children who have experienced multiple moves, and helping her own family to understand her decision to be a foster parent. Highly curious about the foster mother's work, the participants eagerly asked questions. A foster care worker also joined the conversation, discussing the work of recruiting foster parents and sharing the qualities they seek in foster families.

The bus made a final stop at the courthouse where a judge discussed laws and timelines regarding permanency for children. The participants learned about terminating parental rights, the characteristics of children waiting for adoption, and agencies' work to find adoptive families. When the bus returned to the Human Services Department, an adoptive parent discussed the challenges and rewards of bringing an abused and neglected child into her family. Finally, after playing a video of a child who needed a home, the facilitator suggested ways that individuals and organizations could take the experience to heart and become personally involved.

In closing, the facilitator asked each person to look again at the child profile on his or her index card. She explained that children on cards with a yellow dot found a forever family through adoption. Everyone with a red dot returned home, where their birth families were successfully parenting them. Those with a blue dot were still waiting in foster care. The facilitator asked everyone to reflect on what growing up without a permanent family means to a child. Then she thanked everyone for attending and allowed time for questions.

Results

The Journey Home does not generate "instant families," says Colleen Ellingson, SNAN's executive director, but she believes deeply in the project's value because it persuaded people who were unfamiliar with child welfare issues to become knowledgeable supporters. Since the tour, several companies have joined SNAN's Companies for Kids project and now hang a waiting child poster in their employee break area each month. One company's CEO encouraged all of his professional colleagues to join Companies for Kids. Another corporation printed a special needs adoption story in its employee newsletter. The project also received positive press. A media professional who participated in the Journey published a front page article and several photographs in the Racine Journal Times.

Since the Journey, enthusiasm over the successful tour has spread into other group efforts and improved relations even among participants who traditionally prefer to point fingers at one another. Since planning group members have been working together, SNAN has realized a 13 percent increase in the number of Racine County children photolisted with their exchange and experienced an 11 percent increase in inquiries about adoption from Racine County families. The County has also experienced a 31 percent increase in adoptions since 1997, and a child's average time in care has declined from 3.3 years to 1.8 years as of the end of 1999.

The project's greatest success, however, has been the increased awareness and understanding of children's needs within the community. The planning group knew the Journey Home had met its goals when a legislative representative who attended the tour declared, "I could have read 50,000 pages of information and not understood the process as well as I do right now."

To learn more about creating your own Journey Home program, contact SNAN at 414-475-1246; e-mail: wiadopt@execpc.com.

Guided Fantasy Exercise

Adapted from NACAC's Family Preservation: The Second Time Around curriculum, the script below helps adults identify with children's moves through the foster care system. Facilitators should pause often, allow time for reflection, be prepared for tears, and help participants to process their feelings.

Relax, take a deep breath, and turn on your imagination. All of us here have one thing in common: we have a home. Think about that home. Think about the people who live with you-your partner, friends, children, parents. Maybe you have a pet. Think about your home.

Now listen carefully: I am an authority. My job is to move people. I am moving you to a new home with a new family. What are you thinking? If you think you'll run away, know that I will bring you back. That is my job.

Grab your trash bag. The move must take place quickly because your present family can no longer meet your needs. You have 30 minutes to pack the garbage bag. What will you put in? The new family doesn't have room for a pet. You can't take your bike. You can't say goodbye to the nice lady next door who gave you a cookie last week. You can't ask why.

We are driving to a new neighborhood. It's much nicer-bigger houses and better cars. The family you are going to live with has more money than the one you came from. What word best describes your feelings? Do you have questions? You're probably wondering, "Why are you taking me?" "How long will I have to stay?" and "When can I see my family?" These are good questions, but I don't have answers. How about your "left-behind" family? How do they feel about your sudden leaving? What questions might they have?

We are at the street where you will live. We drive up to a big house and knock. What words describe your feelings now? The door opens. This is your new family-new adults, new children, everyone smiling. They are excited you've come. How many of you adjust right away to your new home? How many are angry or sad? What will you do if you are angry or sad?

How soon would you like to see the family you left behind? How often? You are strong, so you've managed to adjust to your new environment. And so, time goes on. However, you cannot see your left-behind family unless I make the arrangements. Because I've got so many people to move, I haven't had time to do that. You have not seen your family and friends since you left. I do finally arrange for you to visit them in my office, under my supervision.

It is two years later. Guess what? I have wonderful news. You are never going home, but it doesn't matter. I've found a new family where you can stay forever. Now you have time to prepare to move. What will you take with you? How does your current family feel about you leaving? Do you want them to help you leave? I bring you to spend several weekends with your new family.

We are driving to your new house. You wonder if your first family still remembers you. Do they still live in the same house? You do not ask, because I already told you that this new family is wonderful for you. Now with your new family, what words best describe how you are feeling? Do you want to go? Are you ready to go? Most of all, will you ever be the same again?

Close your eyes and think about how this would change you. Thousands of children experience this each year. For some, there are only a few moves like this. Others move dozens of times before finding a permanent family or leaving the system with no family at all

Drawn from Journey Home: A Manual to Help Communicate Foster Care and Adoption to Community Leaders [by Wisconsin's Special Needs Adoption Network (SNAN)] as well as conversations with Colleen Ellingson, SNAN's executive director.