2007-2008 Foster Child Evaluation Project
In April 1, 2005 there were nearly 6000 children in San Diego County's foster care system; 858 children entered in 2005 alone. Last year, 65% of the children entering foster care in San Diego were under the age of five and about 30% were less than a year old. UC Berkeley's Child Welfare Research Center records show the average length of stay in foster care is 33 months. After 12 months of placement, 40% of San Diego foster children under the age of five have been placed in three or more homes. These statistics are alarming. Simply put, normal healthy attachment requires consistency over time with a loving primary caregiver. These are the basic ingredients that can not be achieved when a child is moved three or more times before the age of five. Children with higher numbers of placements show more emotional, relational, coping and behavioral problems than children who have had fewer placements.

La Cuna, Inc. was founded with the mission to ensure that Hispanic foster children grow up happy and healthy and to develop best practices that improve the lives of Hispanic foster children across Southern California. To that end, La Cuna is embarking to develop and fund an evaluation project in partnership with the County of San Diego Child Welfare Services to evaluate how Hispanic foster children newborn to 5 years of age are doing in foster care settings. The evaluation project aims to expose what we are doing well to ensure the health and well-being of our children newborn to 5 and areas where we need to improve. The ultimate goal would be to define best practices that are being utilized and to ensure that these best practices are replicated wherever possible to ensure that all foster children grow up happy and healthy.

Evaluation testing will be designed and coordinated by Dr. Laura Proctor, Clinical Psychologist at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, a collaborative undertaking of Children's Hospital, UCSD Department of Pediatrics, and SDSU's Departments of Psychology and Public Health.

Watch this site for news of the evaluation project as it develops over the next several months.

Channel 10 recognition during the month of May
KGTV/Channel 10 News will spotlight La Cuna during the month of May via television as well as the following website: www.10news.com

State-wide Public Radio recognition- the California Report and local KPBS' reporter Beth Ford: "New Agency Places Latino Babies In Stable Foster Homes"
Air Date: June 22, 2004

It's not unusual in San Diego County's foster system to take babies just a few days or few months old from abusive, neglectful, or drug-addicted parents. And when these children are shuffled from home to home, it can cause lasting problems with their ability to bond and trust. But a new non-profit agency hopes to open its doors soon. La Cuna will aim to place babies in stable homes within the Latino community. The agency will be the only one of its kind in the county. KPBS education reporter Beth Ford has more.

It may be a bit of an understatement to say family plays a big role in the lives of Emilio and Aurelia Correa.

Correa: "My husband's family is a total of twelve, nine boys, three girls, I come from seven girls and two boys."

The Correas spend every weekend at Little League games, BBQs and picnics with their three-dozen nieces and nephews. But the San Diego couple has never been blessed with a child of their own. Emilio hopes that will soon change.

Correa: "It would just be the greatest thing to take a child home and just to see them grow and see their path that they have taken, it's just, it's the best reward you could get."

The Correas plan to become foster parents through a new non-profit agency called "La Cuna" which means "cradle" in Spanish. The goal of La Cuna is to match Latino foster children younger than age one with families of the same ethnic background. There are roughly 7,000 foster youth in San Diego County. One-third is Latino. But only one-quarter of foster parents is Hispanic.

Rachel Humphreys is the founder and driving force behind La Cuna.

Humphreys: "When children come in they're placed with any home that will take them and often they don't speak English and they're placed in a home that doesn't speak Spanish, and that's really traumatic for a little kid, so we really want to try and match them linguistically and ethnically when we can."

Humphreys has worked for years in different foster family agencies. She says research shows foster children younger than two who are able to form a bond with a loving family are more adoptable as they grow older. Humphreys also has a Masters degree in Latin-American studies. She says recruiting Hispanic foster parents in the past hasn't been easy. Many don't realize a need for their help exists.

La Cuna will extensively screen and train all parents who apply. The agency will also continue to be involved in supporting foster parents long after a child is placed with the family.

Humphreys says once it's off the ground, La Cuna should help take some of the burden off the county's child welfare department. And that's welcome news to Ann Fox, manager of the county's foster home system. She says state budget cuts have carved away at support staff, and the county has had to do more with less.

Fox: "We have to keep protecting our children and supporting our families, we cannot stop doing that just because of a budget cut, so any resource that is available, to the children and to the families, is just essential to us."

Because it is a not-for-profit agency, La Cuna receives no money from the state. It survives entirely on donations and grants. The group is still several thousand dollars shy of what's needed to begin placing babies with families.

But that hasn't stopped Aurelia and Emilio Correa from getting their house ready for a new arrival. Aurelia says they've already got a room decorated and filled with toys in anticipation of the big day.

Correa: "I think taking home a child that needs a lot of love it's the blessing we've been waiting for."

La Cuna hopes to start placing babies with families by the end of the summer. Beth Ford, KPBS news.