The 2014 National Adoption Month campaign is focused on the importance of sibling connections. Approximately 75% of children and youth in foster care are separated by one or more sibling and these relationships are often lost once children are placed in permanent homes.
Here are some resources for working with sibling groups in permanency and adoption:
From the National Center for Child Welfare Excellence is Working with Siblings in Foster Care: A Web-Based Toolkit. Included in this toolkit is the opportunity for your agency to conduct an organizational self-study to assess how your organization is doing when it comes to promoting sibling connections for youth in foster care awaiting permanency.
The Child Welfare Information Gateway has an information booklet, Sibling Issues in Foster Care and Adoption that is a free downloadable pdf available here. This booklet outlines current research, intervention strategies, and resources to assist professionals in preserving connections among siblings when one or more are adopted or in foster care, in particular when they are separated in placement.
AdoptUSKids also has a free pdf resource called Ten Myths and Realities of Sibling Adoption for professionals and prospective families.
Ellen Singer at The Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE) has an article, Sibling Bonds and Separations that is downloadable for free.
The National Center for Youth Law has a publication, Keeping Siblings Together: Past, Present and Future by Emily Kernan.
Recommended Books:
Siblings in Adoption and Foster Care: Traumatic Separations, Honored Connections, by Deborah N. Silverstein and Susan Livingston Smith (Eds). This edited anthology pulls together contributions from experts in social work, psychology, and child development to discuss the impact of sibling separation in foster care and adoption for children and youth.
Welcoming a New Brother or Sister Through Adoption by Arleta James helps professionals and adoptive parents think through the preparing children when the family is planning to add a new sibling through adoption.
Camps: A number of camps have been developed to provide a space for siblings separated through adoption or foster care to re-connect.
Camp To Belong, founded by Lynn Price, has been helping siblings connect since 1995. Camps are provided in 9 states and Australia.
Camp Connect, founded by Promises2Keep in San Diego, provides a summer camp experience for children and youth in care separated from siblings.