Imagine a life where something traumatic happens to you that people don’t understand or know how to help. 

This is the harsh reality for adopted, foster, and kinship children no matter where they live. These children can struggle with issues of trust, identity and belonging because of their early childhood experiences. Parents often need a team of support to help their children bond in their families and to do well in school. Navigating mental health care can be difficult for adoptive, foster and kinship families.

Too often school and private mental health support professionals are not adequately trained to understand attachment trauma and the behaviors and emotions it causes, or the best practices to treat it. There are almost 300,000 of these children in Illinois  and support for their care can involve long searches for experienced schools and support professionals who understand the complexity of their traumatic experiences. This is the case across the U.S. as every school can be set up differently. Without proper support, these children can struggle with academics, peers, family relationships and later on in life in college and jobs.

iCARE4 Adoptive And Foster Families believes every adoptive, foster and child living in a kinship family deserves to have a loving and permanent home with competently trained schools and support professionals to help them no matter where they live. Brain science has advanced, and training for attachment trauma and complex developmental disorder is now popping up in online workshops and webinars and it can be difficult to know where to start. 

iCARE4 Adoptive And Foster Families is your go-to source for families, schools, treatment professionals and policy-makers on attachment trauma and best practices.