Success for La Cuna

By Rachel Humphreys

As summer winds down and a change of seasons is in the air, change is happening within the homes of many La Cuna families right now as they become adoptive parents. By now La Cuna has placed 70 children in safe and loving homes. As of now, 11 have been adopted or are in process of being adopted by their La Cuna families. (Many more cases are still up in the air, and approximately 60% have been successfully reunified with rehabilitated family members.)

Although La Cuna tries to reunify our La Cuna children with biological or extended family whenever they can, they are also committed to permanency for each child, and their foster families are excited to adopt when reunification is not possible. They have incredibly heartwarming stories around their little adopted sweet peas and their loving La Cuna families. Below is one such example.

Little Arturo came to La Cuna on December 20, 2006 at the tender age of 11 days old. His parents were young teenagers themselves who are prone to violence and drug use. Cesar was born “pos tox,” with crystal meth in his system. For his first year in care, his wonder-parents, April and Ben Flores, tried very hard to help reunify him with his biological parents, and then when that could not happen, they tried to place him with a variety of extended family members. The latter were all ultimately unable to pass a background clearance check.

Along the way it became clear that Cesar needed a “forever home.” Meanwhile, along with his La Cuna parents, April and Ben, he was being equally adored by his La Cuna Grandmother, who lives with the Flores family. Cesar is now in process of being adopted by the Flores family.

“The level to which the Flores couple has remained calm and supportive of whatever’s best for Cesar has been truly incredible. They have been amazingly selfless in their quest to look out for the beautiful boy in their home.” Says Executive Director Rachel Humphreys.

Meanwhile Cesar has blossomed into a very healthy toddler! He not only meets all his developmental milestones, but he’s a wonderful, completely well-adjusted little man. He’s outgoing, sociable, and his favorite TV show is “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy.”

This story is yet another success story for La Cuna. La Cuna’s ability to intervene at a very early age has allowed two critically important things to happen to Cesar. One: He has known the luxury of one solid, terrifically loving family, as opposed to having multiple placements. Two: the cycle of violence and drugs that is self perpetuating among troubled teenagers most likely ends with Cesar.

Social Venture Partners has played an instrumental role in every important area of La Cuna’s operations: leveraging grant money; playing key roles in all our major events and fundraisers; developing infrastructure support through pro-bono advisors and technology support; brand-new, securing a state-of-the-art donated phone system; helping us implement our first donor database; developing our website and our branding identity; helping us outreach to find quality La Cuna families; and sponsoring various retreats for us such as board development, fundraising and strategic planning retreats. If that isn’t support, I don’t know what is!!