COUNTYWIDE : Mobilizing Foster-Care Resources

By the end of the century, the number of children in foster homes in Orange County will probably triple to an estimated 6,000, according to one of the county’s largest foster-care services.

“We’re seeing more and more children coming from very dysfunctional families,” said Gail Humphry, district director of Holy Family Services, Counseling and Adoption. “The ever-growing need for foster care is largely a result of child abuse, neglect and substance abuse. We are doing everything we can to counsel families.”

Trying to gear up for the increase is Holy Family Services, a private, nonprofit, nondenominational agency that has placed more than 1,000 children in Orange County adoptive homes since opening 30 years ago.

“The most homeless person in the United States is a child who will never have a forever home,” Humphry said. “When we can get just one child into a sound family situation to grow up in, it affects generation after generation.”

Humphry said nearly all cases handled by the agency are children resulting from unplanned pregnancies, many of whom have “special needs,” specifically a minority child born with substance-abuse complications or other medical problems.

Holy Family Services has successfully placed minority children and those born with disabilities, such as deafness and Down’s syndrome, Humphry said. There is, however, an enormous need in Orange County for minority families willing to adopt as well as those willing to accept children at medical risk, she said.

“Most of the children we see have had mothers who abused drugs or alcohol,” she said. “Even if they’re not born addicted, there’s a lack of predictability. Families have to know this.”

Holy Family Services, which opened in Los Angeles in 1949 to help put an end to a black market for babies, started its Orange County office in 1961. Five social workers, in addition to outreach and support staff, are housed in the cream brick building owned by the agency on South Main Street in Santa Ana.

“The advantage of using an agency versus private adoptions is counseling,” Humphry said. “We are focused on the child’s needs, not the needs of the adoptive parents.

“When we do an adoption, it’s because the birth parents want it. It becomes a loving choice and a gift of love. We’re not out to compete with buying and selling children.”

Families wishing to adopt apply directly to the agency. After extensive interviews and educational seminars, families that are deemed suitable to adopt prepare profiles with photographs.

That material is reviewed by the natural parents who then choose a family for their child.

In almost all cases, the birth and adoptive parents meet.

Sometimes, the adoptive mother will be the labor coach to the natural mother. After the adoption, letters and snapshots may be exchanged on birthdays and holidays if all parties agree.

Humphry said most adoptions are handled right after birth at the hospital, but children who require temporary foster care for legal or medical reasons are placed in one of four Orange County foster homes certified by Holy Family Services for its exclusive use.

The fees for adoptive parents, which do not cover costs, range from $2,500 to $5,000 based on a sliding scale. If necessary, that amount can be reduced or waived.

In addition to providing adoption services, the agency has counseled more than 4,700 natural parents, some of whom chose to keep their children. The counseling and child-care programs include help in obtaining medical care, housing, finances and legal aid.