are referrals up, down or the same?

May I ask what county you are from? I know my agency told me they have many families that have waited longer then me( and next week I am waiting 1 whole year) somehow I doubt that very,very,much !!!! I think with my agency if you have a disagreement with ANYONE in the agency they put you on some kind of a waiting :coffee: list.....

7brats: do you have a deadline for referrals for that agency? I am thinking that if I hit the 6 month mark with nothing they I am DONE DONE DONE. If I have an adoptive placement by then, I might consider staying longer. I also might switch sooner but I don't think I would last more than another few months. How do you do it?

I keep telling myself that this will be the week,hoping and praying it will. On March 24th it will offically be 1 year. I really hope that by then I will have a placement,if not I will either switch over completely our terminate. I thought the need in Pennsylvania was great,actually I still think it is , I think because I had a very bad disruption on my first and only placement they don't want to use me again. I have asked them if that is the case several times and I get NO everytime,but the actions are speaking a lot louder then the words. I even emailed my old caseworker and she never even responded back. I guess I really am hoping that they would place with me because I do not want to go through all the papaerwork and hassle of changing agencies. I have addressed my concerns with the "director " of my well known foster care agency and guess what? She never even responded at all,even when I said I was thinking about switching.........

I am with Bethanna, a private agency working mostly out of Philadelphia and surrounding counties. I am in Lancaster County and they do not even work with that county. If any of you decide to switch to Bethanna, PM me for my name and tell them I referred you, then I will get a little bonus! :)

Wow, you may not believe this but my first adoption 12 years ago , the foster parents were with Bethanna, they lived in Lancaster County and my daughter is from Philadelphia!!! They were great with supervison, do you get a lot of activity with them? If so I would be willing to switch:banana:

Lifeinashoe: How do you handle family visits that far away? Thanks for the encouragement....we've been waiting 7 months and it's killing my nerves!

The distance can be tough. We simply have to deal with it! We are told up front that we are responsible for getting the children to their visits. I usually take very small babies and special needs children, so it is not unusual that the agency asks the bioparents to come to the Lancaster office for visits at least part of the time. So if they have visits every other week and the parents come to Lancaster every other time, that means I only go to Philadelphia once a month. They also have a system where the parents have to call the day before by a certain time to confirm that they will be coming to the visit. If they do not call on time, the visit is cancelled. That happens a LOT, actually. If they do confirm, but then not show up two times, they are asked to confirm again the morning of the visit. If they don't call, no visit. If they call twice and still don't show up a time or two, the foster parents do not have to leave home until the parents are physically at the office, then they have to sit there till the foster parents can get there with the child which is often an hour. And then, of course, if the case worker does not have time in her schedule to supervise at that late hour, the visit is often cut short. This is a great system which takes the foster parents time into consideration so we don't end up doing a lot of driving for nothing. We do get reimbursed for milage, too. I would much much rather deal with a few inconveniences then sit and wait for placements for months. :) 7brats, that is interesting about you adopting a child in a Lancaster Bethanna home. I am curious who the foster parents were, if you want to share. If not, that is fine. Yes, I stay as busy as I want to with Bethanna, sometimes too busy, lol! Sometimes new families wait a few months for their first placement but then after that almost everyone stays pretty much full. Bethanna has a very good reputation in Philadelphia, and especially the Lancaster families seem to be highly respected and considered very good families. (as a rule) The Lancaster workers are great to work with, very conscientious and helpful.

No I do not have a problem in sharing the name because they were a great christian family. The Horst family, did an excellent job in taking care of my daughter from almost birth to the age of 4. We adopted her at four.I think they lived in East Earl . They were great to us as well. I would like to contact your and see if I can foster from where I am,transfer paperwork over. It is at least worth looking into.

7brats - Not sure what to say....I know they are receiving placements/referrals. Im not even open for foster/adoptive placements (only respite) and Ive had 2 referrals within the past week and a half for two foster placements (not just respite). But as our agency has stated, most of the refarrals are for older children. One of our referrals was for a 16yr old boy and the other was an 8yr old girl. You want my honest 2 cents? If you've gone up the chain threatening to leave with no response, then maybe the best decision is for you to switch? Im not sure why you have fallen into the situation you have, but I know you have been vocal and it hasn't worked to your advantage. I think you've only had a few calls in the past 6 months... I don't know why or the whole story as to why you aren't being contacted but you seem very committed to wanting to provide a home and I think you need to find a way to make that happen, even if it means switching agencies. I wish you luck in figuring out how to proceed in the future...

Thanks for your honest " 2 cents " . To be honest with you ,I also don't know what the problem is except to say that " someone" in the agency is not favoring me to well. Right now my family is on hold but I think there are some that like it that way. I was made aware of the 8 year old girl and also a 2 year old, in fact they seemed happy to tell me because I am on hold. I just see no reason why it has been almost a whole year with no one placement at all and yes, I have taken my complaint as high as I could and got no response at all from her. On March 24th it will be one year and again yes I am now looking into other agencies. I feel my family has a lot to give and I am not going to spend over a year wasting it with this agency. I also know they are getting referrals but they seem to try to make me think they arent getting any.........

Today I contacted your agency and spoke to a worker who is sending me a packet. If all goes well I may be switching over shortly. I also contacted the director of my own agency, who offered me nothing but excuses. I asked her could she tell if waiting 1 year for a foster care placement to her seemed about the norm, what I got was one excuse after another.Almost as if they just don't care, just don't care if I leave or ever get a placement. She told me that referrals are down,which I know they are but I also know they are getting placements.... I am thinking that due to the fact that your agency deals with a bigger county I am hopeful my phone will start to finally ring.........

Oh, thats exciting! Will you be working with the Phila or Lancaster office? Hope it all works out and be sure to give my name as the person that referred you!

Thanks, I will be working with the Lancaster office.Got my paperwork today.Hoping to set up for training next month. Thank you, I think they will keep me busy,she says they deal with Philly alot and we know thats one of the bigger Pa counties

I am told today by my worker, that Pennsylvania has really hit a low and referrals are really,really slow now:coffee: :coffee: :coffee:

your current agency worker or the one with the agency you are looking to go with?