PS MAPP 6: Identity & Culture

Forgive us for getting a little behind on the blog updates. We spent most of last week in Chicago celebrating the wedding of Jon's cousin and I got to meet most of the family! 

Last week's class was about identity and culture.

What is identity, culture, race, and connections? 

Identity is who you are based on characteristics such as race, ethinic background, religion, primary roles and responsibilities, and gender. 

Culture is the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech and actions; the customary beliefs,  social forms and material traits of a racial, religious or social group or class as seen through an individual's perceptual lens.

Here is a good visual of identity, culture, race, etc:

As foster parents we will be responsible for helping the child connect with their culture. Makes sense, right? The goal of foster care is reunification so maintaining culture is obvious. I didn't realize how important it is for an adopted child as well but it is equally as important. There is truth to the quote "you don't know where you are going if you don't know where you're from." How do we help the child connect to their culture? It could be as simple as music, clothing, a museum, or celebrating a certain holiday. 

Overall an interesting class, definitely better than the first few classes. It seems the main thing to do is just to try to incorporate a little piece of their past into their life going forward.

At the end of each class we are assigned homework. Typically it's fairly easy questions to get conversation flowing in the household about the new adventure, however this week we were assigned to write a letter to birth parents. This letter will be in our Family Profile and may be shown to actual birth parents. How do you write a letter to someone to explain to them who you are and why you are qualified to foster or adopt their child? 

You'd think we'd be set with just one hard assignment this week but we also received our appointment for our home safety inspection. It's on the 29th which is about a week away. As you can see on our checklist we definitely have some things to get accomplished this week!