NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Home Reunites Biological and Foster Families

Rather than being a home built by a family, a modest house on Riverside Drive in North Hollywood is a home that helps rebuild families.

“What I wanted was my daughter back,” said Janine Deblasio of Canoga Park, who overcame cocaine addiction and spent time in jail. “I was willing to do anything to get her and I just about did.”

At a ceremony in which Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-Van Nuys) cut a ribbon draped over a playhouse in the back yard, officials of the Children’s Bureau of Southern California dedicated their new Family Visitation/Parent Learning Center, which is meant to serve as a neutral meeting ground for foster and biological parents.

Near the end of the ceremony, rambunctious 2-year-old Laci Deblasio happily ran around the back yard--nearly stepping into the middle of the proceedings before running back to her mother.

“It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been fun,” said Deblasio, who is celebrating her first month of full custody of her daughter.

Deblasio is now studying for a certificate in chemical dependency counseling at Mission College. She said she wants to help others overcome drug addiction as she has.

Deblasio credited the visitation center for reuniting her with her daughter.

The center opened in July, although it was not dedicated until last week. A pilot project, the center is designed to break a cycle in which foster care can permanently destroy families, said Alex Morales, executive director of the Children’s Bureau.

“Some parents are very angry about their children being taken away,” Morales said, adding that some parents feel too intimidated to continue to work with the foster family.

“If they bail out, then society is left with that child.”

A big problem is that foster parents and biological parents have no neutral ground on which to meet, where they would not feel as if they are competing with each other for the child’s affections, Morales said.

It is difficult, Morales said, when visits between parent and child are held in an impersonal county office with a one-way mirror so officials can monitor the meeting.

For Deblasio, those one-hour visits were frustrating because it was impossible to build a relationship with Laci. “She associated me with that office,” she said.

In July, Deblasio began her first visits at the family visitation center. It was her first chance to be a mother. She lost Laci when she was jailed on a drug-related charge when the girl was only 3 months old.

“I was so nervous,” Deblasio said. “I wanted so much to be good at being a mommy.”

But in the home-like atmosphere of the center, which has a play room, living room, kitchen, and a back yard with swings, Deblasio and her daughter got reacquainted during the six- to eight-hour visits every Saturday.

“The only thing that was really hard was when the foster parents came to pick her up,” she said.

But the foster parents helped by giving her advice and tips on what her daughter liked and how she reacted to different situations, she said.

“Up to now, it’s been worth every step,” Deblasio said.