Columbus agency helps foster parents learn to care for Black children
Each morning, 6-year-old Isaiah stands in the bathroom of his Newark home, chattering excitedly as his mother, Marci Hare, sprays conditioner into his curls.
They fix his hair just before the two leave with Isaiah’s four siblings for school. Hare follows the conditioner up with a curl activator cream she massages into his locks.
Hare, 38, had to learn the routine, as Isaiah’s hair is different from hers. Isaiah is Black and Hare and her husband Rob, who are white, adopted him in April after fostering him for almost two years.
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She quickly learned that his hair needs to be cared for a bit differently than hers. It needs to be styled in the morning and washed only once a week.
A Columbus organization that trains and licenses foster care parents offers classes about cultural humility and hygiene to help families like the Hares and to break down barriers to fostering children.
The Buckeye Ranch hosts 150 trainings per year for foster parents, including those on hair and skin care.
It’s “extremely common” for children to be placed with a foster parent of a different culture or race, said Amy Nims, Buckeye Ranch’s director of foster care.
There are more children of color in the foster care system. In 2020, Black children accounted for 28.4% of the children who entered foster care in Ohio, while making up only 14.5% of Ohio’s total population of children, according to data from the federal Administration for Children and Families and Census Bureau data.
It’s a problem that isn’t unique to Ohio. Nationally, 22.75% of children in foster care are Black, while making up 13.7% of the children in the U.S., according to the National Conference of State Legislators data.
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Despite agencies’ effort to recruit people from diverse backgrounds, more than 42% of Ohio foster parents in 2020 were white according to data from the federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System.
“We really work hard to find helpers who look like our community that we need to serve,” Nims said.
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Systemic problems and “inherent racism” within the adoption and foster care system are partly to blame, said Beth Hall, executive director and co-founder of Pact, a California-based adoption alliance that works with children of color.
The system doesn’t do a good job of inviting Black and brown families to become foster and adoptive parents, she said. And Black and brown children are removed from their homes at a higher rate than white children for the same issues.
‘Breaking down barriers’
Though Buckeye Ranch has been offering hair care training for at least 10 years, this was the first time that participating foster parents got to see a hairstylist in action and practice the techniques themselves, Nims said.
The stylist talks about various hair types, appropriate styles and tools and sends parents home with items they may need, said Kamilah Twymon, vice president of community based and education services at Buckeye Ranch. She also does a live demonstration of styling a young Black girl’s hair.
“The families have the best intentions and sometimes struggle to maintain hair care and hygiene practice based on experiences,” Twymon said. “Being able to address some very basic needs goes a long way.”
The Buckeye Ranch is hoping to offer the cultural hair care class again in December, Twymon said.
It’s still very rare that foster care agencies like the Buckeye Ranch would offer trainings like the hair care one, said Kanisha Tillman, who has created a business out of helping white foster parents style their Black children’s hair.
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Tillman, of Greeneville, N.C., is a transracial adoption hair care coach. She uses the trainings she does to educate parents on racism and build a community of families in similar situations build a network to support their children, she said.
Nims said it’s important to work on recruiting more Black and brown foster families but “while we’re working on changing that we have to have people who are able to competently and kindly, compassionately handle children who might not be their same race or culture.”
‘The best intentions’
Even before Isaiah came to live with the Hares, Marci Hare was asking friends and fellow foster parents for advice about how to care for his hair and skin.
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She then found a specialized barber so Isaiah feels special and like he belongs.
“Isaiah knows he looks different from us and he knows that he is not the same,” she said.
The Hares have shown Isaiah photos of his biological family.
They’ve also told him: “‘God loves you and he made you this way for a purpose. It wasn’t a mistake. He placed you with us for a purpose.”
@DanaeKing
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