State-Funded Adoption Agency Formed to Find Black Homes for Hard-to-Place

Concerned that a disproportionate share of foster children in the Los Angeles County welfare system are minorities, a group of black social workers Friday announced the formation of an adoption agency that will recruit black families willing to adopt hard-to-place minority children.

The Institute for Black Parenting, the first state-funded black adoption agency in Southern California, will initially focus on finding homes for those children who are hardest to place, organizers said. They include black males older than 8, handicapped, disabled and racially mixed children.

The group will also work to dispel some of the myths of adoption that still keep many black families from using traditional adoption agencies, said Zena Oglesby Jr., executive director of the institute and a member of the Assn. of Black Social Workers.

“We hope to be able to create an atmosphere of trust with families and hope those families that wouldn’t ordinarily go to traditional agencies will come to us,” Oglesby said. “Many black families are still under the impression that you have to own your own home, have a lot of money in the bank and that you can’t be single or beyond a certain age to adopt a child.”

Another major constraint for many families is adoption fees, which can run as much as $500 through the county Department of Children’s Services and thousands of dollars through private agencies, Oglesby said. The group has received an initial two-year state grant of $250,000, enabling it to provide all of its services for free.

Statistics compiled by the state Foster Care Information System show that as of January, there were more than 56,000 foster children in the state, about 54% from minority groups. In Los Angeles County, there are more than 9,000 black foster children, and officials say that better than 40% of these children will not return to their natural parents.

There are currently more than 350 black children in the county who are waiting to be adopted, and more than 1,000 who may be ready for adoption in the near future, county officials said.

The problem is not an unwillingness on the part of black families to adopt--state officials say the black community adopts at a rate commensurate with other ethnic groups--but the sheer numbers of black children entering the welfare system.

“It’s related to the general societal breakdowns in family life today that hit especially hard in the black community and led to more black children in the system,” said Mollie Cooper, chief of the county Department of Children’s Services Adoption Division. “For example, of the 353 black children waiting for homes, most will be adopted by relatives or foster parents. About 120 will still need homes, but that number is far greater than with any other group of children.”

State officials also associate the numbers of black children in the foster-care system with conditions that can lead to crime.

“You find that especially with black children, there are many episodes of being shuffled from foster-care home to foster-care home,” said Jim Brown, director of the Adoptions Division of the state Department of Social Services. “We find a vicious circle of abuse toward the child, of a lack of permanency and an inability to develop respect toward adults. It leads to aimlessness and a lack of social consciousness that can result in criminal activity.”

One of major aims of the institute, working in conjunction with the county, will be to streamline the adoption process, reducing the time it takes to place a child--from typically 12 to 18 months to three to six months.

“What this will ultimately mean is that more families can be seen more expeditiously, and more black children will be placed with families more rapidly,” Cooper said. “Because of the volume of adoptions the county must handle, an agency like the institute will be greatly welcomed.”