Adoption Disruption

We are very glad to welcome a guest post by Clare, Shannon and all the people in the “Adoption Disruption UK” support group.

I met Clare a few months ago on Twitter. Clare and Shannon, her partner for this project who lives in Canada, met via the Facebook group “Adoption Disruption UK” where they forged a friendship and shared their adoption breakdown experience.

We believe adoption breakdown is an aspect of adoption not talked about and often kept too quiet. Many adopters who are going through the experience or struggling with their adoption don’t know where to find support and emotional help. We hope this post can be of help to all those people, and it can be a starting point for a more open talk about the struggles and thrives of adoption.

Are you ready to have your family life sabotaged every day? Are you willing to keep fighting for support for your child and get nothing in return? Are you happy to not be listened to or believed by the authorities? If you can answer “Yes” to any or all of these questions, then continuing with the adoption placement may well be for you.

However, if your very last ounce of resilience has gone and your belief systems have been shattered, you probably find yourself in the position of considering ending the placement. We understand – this is not a decision which you are going to be taking quickly or lightly.

Adoption disruptions and family breakdowns are the areas not really covered in any pre-adoption training, not portrayed in the happy “forever family” images on adoption marketing materials, or indeed on any television or media programmes that we have seen. Adoption nowadays is not the same as when girls “got into trouble” and the child was put up for adoption so as not to bring shame on a family. The children who are placed now are traumatised human beings whose needs have not been met, who do not know how to be parented and often do not know how to attach. Disruption as a potential outcome from an adoption placement has to be seen as a reality and should be explained up front as such. None of us adoptive parents enters into adoption thinking a disruption will take place or wanting it to, but the fact is, adoptive family breakdowns do happen and this is a global issue, not one just confined to the UK.

Expectations and excitement levels are high on both sides when a match is found, but would placements be better if a child (UK cases) was placed with an Adoption Support Fund “budget” pre-agreed and pre-approved alongside a parenting plan to match the child’s established needs? Would placements be less at risk of breakdown if they were always “foster to adopt”? Should the words “forever family” be replaced with “growing up family”? If phrases like these were used instead, then neither the child/ren nor the adoptive parents would feel the same pressure to “make it work” and could try to get on with building the family unit in a much less pressured environment. Maybe, any subsequent breakdown might then not be so impactful.

We all know the adoption application process is tough, but building the family is tougher, surviving living with children who do not know how to attach is heartbreaking, and, making the only decision possible for everyone concerned is devastating. But, it doesn’t stop there, the aftermath, grief and loss of a family breakdown is hugely traumatic for the adoptive parents who thought adoption would give them the family they so longed for or who wanted to add to their existing brood or wanted to be able to change a child’s life for the better.

“Surviving living with children who do not know how to attach is heartbreaking, and making the only decision possible for everyone concerned is devastating”
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When the placement ends and your family unit has been broken and the child or children have left your home, the only way to describe it is a mix between (a) when you know you have ended a relationship for the right reasons but you still want to know how the other person is, what they are doing and if they miss you, and, (b) as if someone has died. Some people have experienced great support, kindness and empathy from their family and friends following the family breakdown, others not, leaving them isolated. In addition to losing the child/ren, along the way, some people have also lost friends and family members who could not empathise or understand.

Adoptive parents are left feeling anxious, with high levels of stress, guilt, concern for the child, loss, grief, anger, frustration. We have to start rebuilding a new life which we never thought we’d have. We feel disappointment and huge sadness it didn’t work. We think about our children every day.

Adoption breakdown stories (well, they are not “stories”, they are real people’s real lives), are all different but also all so very similar. We are members of an online support group and amongst ourselves, we’ve shared what some of the reasons are which caused our adoptions to break down and discovered that the breakdown can happen from as early as during the Introductions stage, right through to 10 years or more post-adoption order, and at any time in between. There are so many reasons for adoptive families to break down – lack of support from the authorities, “new” medical diagnoses that were not provided in the child’s paperwork, lack of therapy for the child, false allegations by the child and involvement from the police, the child becoming beyond parental control due to drugs and violence brought into the family home. The list goes on and is not necessarily even just one of these reasons in isolation.

There is a need for change.

We know this blog will be read by people in different situations and we thank you for reading thus far.

If you are an adoptive parent who is considering ending the placement, or you have already experienced this type of family breakdown, or you are just trying to find answers and kindred spirits, then do get in touch. We understand living through and surviving the fallout.

And if you are a person reading this who was adopted and then the placement later disrupted, please know that the family you were with did everything in their power to try to prevent this from happening to you and ended up having to make the only decision possible for everyone.

We also recognise that, in addition, birth children, adoptive siblings, grandparents, wider family members and social workers also suffer the impact of adoption disruption – its ripples are far-reaching.

Thank you to Laura for giving us the opportunity to post on this blog as a guest and open up this discussion to a wider audience. We appreciate being able to start the ball rolling to remove the taboo of adoption family breakdowns and hope that we have provided some food for thought to stimulate discussion – and we ask you to remember, do not judge us, you have not walked in our shoes.

Just to finish, we are running a survey and also a book project for adoptive parents affected by adoption disruption. Again, if you are in a similar situation and would like to contribute, do get in touch. Through this work, we hope to raise awareness of this very important adoption topic.

Please help us bring about some change in the system – for the right support and therapy for preservation of adoption placements, for services to be put in place to help future families who will face making this very difficult choice. Talk to us, not about us.

Thank you for reading!

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A Letter to England

I arrived to live in England short of 20 years ago. I was young, naive, then.

I arrived carrying only my luggage, overflowing with CDs. My life was all about music, I couldn’t even imagine a life without music. I remember walking towards Diego’s flat. My luggage breaking. CDs and records spilling out of it. And I was still smiling, happy with the prospect of a life in the UK.

Days passed by. I got my first job. A customer service job. I recall this Irish guy marching at my trade till at 7.30am asking for some water. His van was stranded just outside the store and he wanted to fill up his radiator. I was looking at him, trying hard to understand what he was saying, w-wa-wawa, woha… nothing! I felt tears coming to my eyes, what was I doing in the UK? I wouldn’t have made it alive.

Life was hard. I was living in a place I couldn’t understand. The effort I was putting in trying so hard to understand, fit in, find my way, was just giving me headaches at the end of every single day.

And then, one random day, it happened. I was at work. I was sitting down in the canteen on my lunch break. My usual corner, the only place I felt safe from people trying to interact with me. I was sitting there, it was so crowded. I was attempting to read my very first book in English. And suddenly it happened: someone made a joke and I found myself laughing at it. I wasn’t even listening to the conversation, I was reading my book, but I got the joke!

Let me tell you: things changed from there. I got a better job, a better home, a better English. That joke gave me the confidence to build a better life for myself.

Years passed. Happy years. I had a career. I got married to Diego. We travelled. We laughed and we fought. We bought our first car and then a house. Then we bought our next house, the first place that felt like home in a very long time.

This house, this marriage, this life in the UK brought us our son. Our wonderful, unique, quirky son, who makes our lives so complicated, fulfilled, exciting and happy. Never thought someone could make me love him so much, and pushing all my buttons at the same time.

England was a dream destination when growing up, it became the place I was living in, and then just my life. Now I’m leaving England, and I feel a sense of emptiness in my heart.

“I will miss my England, the gossiping of the mums at school run, the whispering of the wind through our back garden trees, the birds that wake me up at dawn”
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I will miss my England, the gossiping of the mums at school run, my “get fit” 2km school run, the whispering of the wind through our back garden trees, the birds that wake me up at dawn, the smell of take-away, and the multitude of languages and cultures.

I’m going to love telling my son about the place his coming from, the wonderful people we’ve met here, about his troubles at school, the first friendships he made, his foster family and his long-distance brother. I will be so proud, and a tiny emotional, in telling him how loved he was by the friends he made in here and everyone he met.

And I will always be a bit regretful for taking him away from all this. I will always be wondering “what if”. A part of me will always feel guilty about moving away. I just hope I can live up to his expectations and give him the life he deserves.

So, I guess this is my goodbye to a wonderful place, and to the great people that have seen me grow up and became the woman I’m today.

I raise my glass to England, the place where I feel at home.

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Those Three Words

Disclosure: We received a free copy of this book from the publisher in order to share our review of their product. We only ever feature products we consider worthy. All opinions expressed in this post are based on our personal view.

Those Three Words is a book about adoption written by a woman who falls pregnant at the age of 19, and after briefly considering taking her own life, decides to live and deal with her new reality.

After regaining a better sense of perspective, she takes the pragmatic decision to terminate the pregnancy, so that no one would need to know about it, her family first of all. While in the process of planning her covert abortion operation, and all along struggling with the implications of her choice, she stumbles upon the news of a violent protest outside of an abortion clinic. The shocking messages and attacks of pro-life campaigners add more distress but she perseveres, and with the help of a friend she organises a fake holiday trip in one of the states where abortion is legal. She’s moments away from terminating her pregnancy and giving in on this baby, but at the last minute her conscience prevails and she decides to cancel the clinic appointment.

Her options at this point are either to keep the baby or find someone who could look after her. It would seem I kind of gave the end away in the opening sentence of this post, except this is not how the story ends; that’s just the beginning. This book is about the life of a woman after she decides that her child should be given for adoption.

Those Three Words is the first book I’ve read that was written by a birth mother. I read about adoption almost every day, but what I read always starts with the adoption. It’s easy to forget that these children were the children of their birth parents first. What happened before the adoption is hardly ever mentioned, unless it is tragic, that is, and even less common for me is to read what happens to the birth parents after the adoption is finalised.

Reading this book has been hard at times because it forced me to live a part of my child’s life I’ve never even bother considering before. I never thought about how the months of pregnancy must have felt for his birth parents, the doubts about the decision they had taken, and the pain of holding the child in the first moments of his life and having to say goodbye only minutes later. And anything I could imagine doesn’t even come close to the account of a woman who lived through all of that.

“I prayed for all the mothers who had placed their babies for adoption. We are members of a silent sisterhood, sharing a rite of passage that no one outside our circle could ever begin to understand.” – Christine Bauer
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As the adoption is finalised, the mother in this book can carry on with her life. She rejoins college and goes on to complete her degree. She embarks in her career, and later starts her own family but, in all this, the pain of losing her child never really fades. The adoption is part of a past she cannot and does not want to forget, even when it taints otherwise joyous occasions, like the birth of her first nephew, or the birth of her “first” child.

What strikes me the most, tho, is the amount of gratitude this mother shows towards the parents who adopted her child. Being an open adoption, she meets with them at the beginning of the process and over the years they get to know one another through letter exchange. She chooses them, although the match is completely fortuitous, and knowing that her child is loved and supported by the family she chose brings her comfort. It was a good reminder of how important the exchange of contact letters can be for birth parents. But reading about it I couldn’t help wondering if the birth mother of my son would have picked us, given the choice.

Throughout this book, I gained a new perspective. Although I will never truly understand what it feels like being a birth parent, at least I’m more aware of what it meant for this mother who loved her child from a distance for so many years. Reading it stirred many different emotions, often negative ones. Some about a past I conveniently decided to ignore for so many years, others about future events that one day I may have to live, like the reunion between my son and their birth parents. But I’m glad I did read it.

Those Three Words, thumb

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Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD): The Essential Guide for Parents

We are very glad to welcome a guest post by Keri Williams, a regular blogger at raisingdevon.com and author. In this post Keri writes about her journey into raising a child with reactive attachment disorder, on which her book is based.

What if? It’s a question that haunts me and many parents of children with reactive attachment disorder (RAD). What if I’d known sooner? What if I’d done things differently?

Today my son Devon is 16. He’s very dangerous – violent towards adults and children, has suicidal ideations, and causes thousands of dollars in property damage. Due to safety concerns, he’s been unable to live at home for the last several years. He’s angry, sad, and hurt. It’s not what I dreamed of when I adopted him as a friendly, jabbering three-year-old with round cheeks and a bright smile.

From the time Devon came to live with us at three, I knew something was seriously wrong but had no idea what. He played with feces, threw screaming tantrums for hours, and seemed defiant and willful. I tried parenting strategy after parenting strategy, but nothing worked.

I was still trying to ‘fix’ him when, at nine, he pushed his then four-year-old brother down the stairs in a rage and karate chopped him in the throat. That was my wake-up call. We needed help.

After a few hospitalizations and intensive in-home services, Devon’s behaviour continued to decline and he was admitted to a psychiatric residential treatment facility. There he was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD). What a huge sigh of relief – finally we could get some treatment.

“He pushed his then four-year-old brother down the stairs in a rage and karate chopped him in the throat. That was my wake-up call. We needed help.”
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Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that there are no quick answers or easy solutions for kids with RAD. I struggled to find therapists and treatments to help, I became increasingly isolated from family and friends. Over time, however, I learned how to navigate the system, how to advocate for my son, and how to get the support I needed. Raising a child with RAD is a hard road to follow especially when you don’t have a support system or know where to go for help.

This is why I wrote the guide I wish I’d had a decade ago. My new book, Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD): The Essential Guide for Parents, is written from the trenches. No platitudes or false promises – only key information, practical suggestions, and resource recommendations.

I can’t help but wonder, what if I’d had this information when my son was three, or five, or ten? Would things have turned out differently? Maybe. RAD is a disorder that is stealing our children’s futures and devastating families because we too often don’t have the knowledge and resources to do any better. My hope is that this resource will help families find a way forward.

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), thumb

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Wouldn’t you want to know?

If you suspected that your child had a mental health problem, wouldn’t you want to know?

I had an odd conversation not long ago with a mother who thought her 6 years old son could suffer from autism, she even mentioned Asperger, but was hesitant to investigate the matter further.

I first thought she was being irrational, but then I heard her reasons. She worried that knowing for certain her son had a mental condition would label him forever, preclude him a normal life, and she didn’t want that for him, particularly because the whole family had learned to cope with his behaviour well.

They love their child for who he is–bad behaviours, cheeky smiles and all–and they would hate for anyone to look at him any different. So they’d rather take the criticism of relatives and the glances of random strangers, rather than giving them the chance to stick a label on their child and be done with it.

I didn’t want to judge them, also because I was too busy pretending not to notice how much of the unusual traits of their child behaviour mirrored my own child’s behaviour, and worry that my son could have Asperger too. I didn’t openly disagree with this parent, but I still thought she was wrong.

Pretending everything is fine when it might not be is unfair to her child. Autism would make his life so much harder, and not recognising it as a disadvantage will end up hurting him.

The stigma around mental health illnesses might be partially to blame here. It would have been a completely different conversation if she suspected the problem was with one of her child’s legs. I’m sure in that case she would have wasted no time in seeking medical advice rather that having him limping for the rest of his life.

Or it might be that when your child is involved, it’s much harder to be impartial. Much of what she said was challenging about her child’s behaviour sounded too familiar for comfort, but I didn’t exactly hurry to look for our GP phone number to find out more.

Some of you might be in a situation very much alike this family, or have been in the past. What advice would you have for them?

Thanks to Jay Wen for making the feature photo used in the article available freely on Unsplash.

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An Essential Guide To Keeping Foster Children Safe Online

The internet is an extraordinary place. It’s an endless resource of information allowing individuals to learn, teach and entertain. It can have a huge effect on society in general and can influence certain ideas and perceptions of matters that we may have never engaged with face to face. However, since the growing reputation of social networks, there’s a risk that many of those connected with them are in danger of experiencing negativity online.

Foster children generally come into care from having a challenging background which can affect their self-esteem, confidence and cause depression. Social media can be a vulnerable place for those who get too caught up in the activities available online.

Understanding Risks and The Impact

In this section, the types of risks involved with being online will be outlined and how they can have a negative effect on children.

Cyberbullying

This is probably one of the main risks for children that they face online. The growth of mobile phones and social networks means children can be easily targeted with abusive jokes and threats. Essentially, children will be targeted through a joke that can later escalate to something far more serious. It can normally start from those who claim to be a close friend or trolls who remain anonymous making it easy for them target children. The longer that the bullying goes on it can be extremely detrimental both physically and mentally to the victim. So, if you get any hint of cyberbullying try to stop it as early as possible. Even if your foster child is causing the abuse, make sure to monitor it and stop it appropriately.

Mobile Games and Apps

Apps have been a common feature for smartphones allowing people to use services and products at the touch of a button. However, there are some applications and games available in app stores which aren’t suitable for younger children and are normally applied with age restrictions. The biggest risk with mobile apps is that in order for them to improve the user experience for the benefit of their business, they look to access personal information and sensitive data which the downloader must provide.

This can make children extremely vulnerable as apps information can be easily accessible for cyber-criminals. It’s important to make sure that you monitor the types of apps that a child is downloading and it’s not an app that easily shares personal data.

Grooming Online

The internet can be scary considering the ease at which individuals can create false personas and profiles online. This has disturbingly made online grooming incredibly easy to do. Online grooming is when an adult creates a profile or remains anonymous online and contacts children in a friendly manner. Soon enough they create a relationship with the child, easily gaining their trust and using it as a way for them to take advantage of them. It then provides them with the opportunity to meet up face to face which can be extremely terrifying. It’s a popular method for child groomers as children are unfortunately more likely to trust people they meet online than the ones they meet in person. They can also easily target those who don’t have their internet use monitored.

Other risks that are not as commonly known

The ones outlined above are the more common risks when it comes to the dangers of online, however, there are also other risks that you should be aware of:

  • Hacking/identity theft
  • Blackmail
  • Promotional content about self-harm or drug use
  • A section of the internet known as ‘The Dark Web’ where illegal online transactions can take place (It’d be worth educating them about the matter if your child is tech-savvy)
  • Sharing of information which appears to be false news

Methods That Can Be Used To Help Protect Young Children

Young children have become familiar with how the internet works due to the influence it has on their lives growing up. Unfortunately, this can’t necessarily be said for parents and carers making it difficult to protect them from online use. In order for you to have the knowledge to deal with matters that can help protect them from the online world, we’ve outlined some steps that you can take that can help towards protecting them for misuse of the internet.

With any electronic device that has the access to connect to the internet, they provide the option to have parental controls so that you can manage the content they see online. Look to do this for both the main computer you use at home and also their mobile or tablet devices. Just try not to make it out like you’re controlling them though, do it in a way that allows them to understand the reasons you’re doing it.

Sit with them whilst they’re on the device and ask questions about the game they’re playing or the app they’re using. Then they can be involved in the process of applying privacy settings when you choose to ask about it. They’ll be more familiar with the device to access the section of the app or game, but you can help them to understand why the privacy settings are needed. It can be used as a way to teach others.

A setting called ‘location services’ is something that apps/games can use to share the device’s location. This can potentially be shared with strangers without knowing it so check to make sure this isn’t being used. You can normally find this in the settings menu.

Always be sure to keep the apps up to date too, as the majority of the time the app developers will provide an update to keep the security improved.

Try not to make it out like you’re controlling them, use parent controls in a way that allows your children to understand the reasons you’re doing it.
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Being a foster carer you still want to encourage your children to grow and make decisions for themselves, so where possible show them how to report abuse if they receive any. This way, you’ll find it easier to trust them if they do receive negative comments online.

It can be easy as a foster parent to be left behind when it comes to online resources so it’s important to take advantage of the resources available to you. Regular communication and involvement between you and your foster child can be key to making the process easier with protecting them.

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Manoeuvring In The Dark

There are moments in life when it’s clear that the decision you’re about to make will affect the rest of your life. When you have a family, you have to cast the dice on what is best for you, your partner, and your children. It’s such an impossible task, a huge responsibility, and nothing can prepare you for it.

That was exactly the kind of situation my husband Diego and I found ourselves a few months ago. It took us countless evenings of pondering, discussing, arguing, and fighting. Then planning, swaying, rethinking, and replanning. But eventually, we reached a resolution.

And here we are today, surrendered by boxes and empty shelves. Where once were furniture, now there are only dents in the carpet. They are deep marks, indentations that won’t easily disappear. We have been at this crossroad before, but not as a family.

We have sold our much-loved family home, and most of its content too, because in a couple of months we’ll say farewell to this country and head back to Italy.

I’m overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions this change brings up, and I find it really tricky to explain how I feel. Excited, afraid, happy, worried, panicky, overpowered and so much more all at the same time.

We will have to figure out how to bring a bit of England back with us. For our son, this place is part of who he is, where he was born. We don’t want him to forget his origins. And for us, after almost 20 years, this place is part of who we are too.

“Since becoming parents, at every turn, we have been finding ourselves wondering how we’ll justify our decisions”
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This decision has the potential to be one of the hard conversations waiting for us in the future. Since becoming parents, at every turn, we have been finding ourselves wondering how we’ll justify our decisions. Adoption gives even more chances for difficult conversations. Every word exchanged in contact letters with birth parents and relatives has to be chosen carefully, because we are keenly aware that one day our son will judge us on those words, and the choice we took for him. This time is no different.

I don’t know how I will explain to my son Ben that, although moving to Italy with us meant sacrificing part of his heritage, it was what we thought was best for him, and in the process he gained a life surrounded by a larger family. That we didn’t intend to hijack his life, or tear him away from what happened in the early part of this life story. We will always support his relationship with his birth parents and brother, correspond with both of them, and never forget about them. Moving doesn’t need to change everything.

We are striving to make this move as smooth and stress-free as possible for him. Our little Ben is enthusiastic and he’s already planning what to sell and what to take with him. His telling his friends about the big lorry which will collect all our stuff, and the plane that will take us in the new house.

I heard a song playing on the radio not long ago. It fitted so perfectly well in our life. I want to believe that those words are true, that what matters in the end is just being together, no matter where.

Cause they say home is where your heart is set in stone
Is where you go when you’re alone
Is where you go to rest your bones.

It’s not just where you lay your head
It’s not just where you make your bed
As long as we’re together, does it matter where we go?

(Gabrielle Aplin – Home)

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From foster care to {F}OSTER

A few months ago a new contact popped up on my Twitter feed, his name is Sirrele. I was captivated by the story of this young man, by his courage and his determination in making a difference in somebody’s life.

Sirrele’s life wasn’t an easy one. He was removed from his mother’s care before he was 2 and placed in the system. The placement became an extremely abusive environment that continued until he was in junior high school. After trying to protect his younger brother from abuse, he was placed in a juvenile detention center, then into a multiple group homes. He left one of the group homes to live on his own for 4 months at the age of 14. Then had an opportunity to reconcile with his mother in Sacramento. In Sacramento, he met two individuals that changed his life, Charles Kidd and Ed Manansala, who he now considers his dads. It was through their unconditional love and mentorship that helped change his trajectory in life.

You can watch him talk about his life story, and about {F}oster, his new project for children in care.

Sirrele has two big passions. One of them is helping children in foster care. At the age of 15, he began his advocacy for foster youth to help provide a voice to a community that needs it the most. His other passion is software engineering. He is the founder of {F}OSTER, a virtual free-of-charge coding mentoring program for foster youth ages 14-24.

Sirrele hopes to create a safe space for foster youth in the competitive world of computer programming. He knows first-hand that without a humble, responsive, sincere mentor, many youths–especially foster youth–can feel alone without a shoulder to lean on. {F}OSTER is that shoulder! {F}OSTER is that support system!



Sirrele agreed to a short interview. Here’s what he told us.

Where the idea of {F}oster comes from?

I wanted to combine both of my passions, Foster Care and Software Development in a way that I could give back in an impactful way. Mentorship and programming have saved my life and I want other foster youth to experience the same thing.

How far into the project are you?

We are starting the actual pairing of Foster Youth and programmers in May 2018 (foster care awareness month). In the meantime, we are actively developing partnerships and internal processes to ensure that mentors and mentees have the best experience. My main goal is to get as many foster youth and programmers as possible!

Have you collected any material to use as reference?

Our mentors will be assisting mentees in a Code Academy course of their choosing. Each week they will use Discord, which is like Skype on steroids, to communicate with each other. The commitment is an hour, however, we do encourage that they spend more time together if possible. Before we pair the mentors, we will have training so that the mentors get a better understanding of the community they are going to be serving.

What reaction have you had so far?

Everyone has been extremely supportive! I have connected with 14+ organizations (school districts, foster care organisations, and tech companies) and plan to grow our partnerships. There are many youth across the states that are wanting to be mentored. Programmers are seeing this as an opportunity to get away from there daily code and give back.

What kind of commitment is required of programmers who want to join the initiative? Can small groups of programmers offer tutoring for the same child?

Right now we are looking at a week commitment. However, I have been posed this question a lot, and even more so by programmers. I really want to think about this a little more. I really see the value of one-on-one mentorships. I don’t know how the mentees will deal will having too many mentors that may be less involved.

What kind of technologies are kids more interested in? (general programming, web programming, hardware automation, etc)

I think it’s hard to answer this. Most people getting into programming do not have a full conception of all the options. My goal is to have the mentors introduce them to those options and pair them with a programmer in a field that they find interesting.

What kind of help do you need to promote {F}oster?

I would like AS MUCH help as possible! I would like to be in the position that there are too many youth or programmers interested! Any support to help get as many programmers and foster youth would be really appreciated!

How can people interested in the project get in contact with you?

I can be found on social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Feel free to reach out to me. I’m always happy to hear from people interested in the project.

I hope you believe this project as much as I do Please, add Sirrele to your contacts, and help spread the voice about this worthy initiative.

{F}oster is accepting applications for mentors and mentees! If this sounds interesting, please fill out this online form!
Read about @sirrele_’s story and RT to spread the word about the {F}oster project
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