For more than 10 years, beginning at the tender age of 7, adoptive parent Celia “Cookie” Purvis’ daughter remained in foster care under a fragmented system, and she quickly began losing hope that she’d ever find a permanent home. Then on Oct. 16 she walked out of a courtroom in tears with a restored sense of hope — at the age of 17 Purvis’ daughter now has a home.
Unfortunately, she is only one of few, as many African-American children simply wait with hope that they too will be adopted. Their faith quickly fades after years of being subjected and represented at disproportionate rates in the foster care system.
November is National Adoption Month and Indiana is striving to bring awareness to the children in need of homes.
Across the board most agree that every child is wanted, and every child deserves a home. But what message is America sending Black boys and girls who, according to the Child Welfare League of America, represent 32 percent of the half million children in foster care? What message is being sent when many U.S. citizens are opting to go overseas to adopt children when there are many African-Americans here who sit in dire need of a permanent home.
Cassandra Porter, permanency manager at the Department of Child Services, says though the optimal goal is to unite children back with their biological families, she notes the premier permanency option is adoption. However, the problem that exists is the large number of African-American children who remain in the system and aren’t being adopted.
“They are taken into care at much higher rates than other children,” Porter said. “Once parental rights have been terminated, they are often past what most consider the optimal age.”
According to a report by the Department of Child Services, from 2004 to 2005, 70 Black children were adopted compared to 120 white children in Indiana. Other sources say Black children languish in foster care up to nine months longer than their white counterparts before moving into permanent homes.
Purvis says this is an issue that deeply concerns her, not only as an adoptive parent of six, but as a commissioner for the Indiana Disproportionality Committee.
“It’s sad there is a disparity and it’s unfortunate that it exists for our African-American children,” Purvis said. “It’s important for a child to feel like they have what I call a ‘forever home’ and a ‘forever family.’”
Statistics show that it’s more difficult to get an African-American male adopted past the age of 10 than any other ethnicity. Christina Morrison, executive director of the Indiana Foster Care and Adoption, concurs.
“I think there are myths of what it is like to raise an African-American male based on what they see in the media so people hesitate to do so,” Morrison said.
Purvis noted, “In my opinion people tend to be fearful of African-American males period when they don’t know the environment they have come from. But all children need love.”
According to Child Welfare League of America, for every 1,000 African-American children in the U.S. population, 21 were in foster care and with National Adoption Month, the urgency to enlighten Hoosiers is now.
“We created the quote it takes a village to raise a child. If one of our children is lingering in the foster care system then that is one less child that is not going to thrive in our communities,” Porter said.
With a current initiative under way in Indiana to recruit more African-American families to adopt, Purvis says educating the Black community about African-American children in need of homes is essential.
“We need to go into predominately Black institutions and talk to them about the children because often times hesitation exists where there is lack of knowledge,” Purvis said.
To date, Porter says federal legislation prohibits race from being taken into consideration in decisions about adoption from foster care and doesn’t want to deter other races from taking a colorblind transracial approach to adopting.
“There are a number of multicultural and multiracial families in Indiana,” Porter said.
Hoping to bring more awareness to this issue and adoption in general, the Indiana Department of Child Services and Indiana Foster Care and Adoption are launching its Heart Gallery Nov. 19 at the Children’s Museum. This free event at 11 a.m. will educate the public about adoption while displaying a mural of children’s photos still in need of homes.
“Saturday evening my daughter, who never thought she’d be adopted at 17, just looked at me and her eyes welled up, I asked her what was wrong and she said nothing ‘I’m just happy mom.’”
For more information about adopting visit www.in.gov/dcs.
