Encouraging Agencies to Consider More Factors in Placing Families

Our guest blogger this week is Nancy Elwood, the co-founder of PACE and the executive director of SHARE. At SHARE, Nancy leads a staff of education consultants serving throughout Europe and Eurasia. Nancy and her husband Mike live in Budapest, Hungary, and have two adult sons. She enjoys opening her home to guests and playing “Words with Friends.” This year, she and her husband celebrate 30 years of ministry in Europe.

Consultants, do you feel that you have influence with your agency in helping shape decisions that relate to the placement of families? Does anyone “at the top” listen to you when you offer suggestions about important factors that will surely affect whether a family thrives? I hope that as you gain experience and understanding, you will find that your expertise is sought more and more often by those making placement decisions. Whether they know it or not, decision-makers need your voice speaking into the process.

Agencies have come a long way in their understanding of the challenges that parents and their children face as they live cross-culturally. But is it possible that even with cutting edge technology surrounding us and an increased awareness of member care needs, there are still families lacking basic options and services necessary for their family to thrive? Yes, of course it is possible. It is reality.

Whether a family is headed to a remote corner of the earth or to a metropolis, their field placement is often based on factors other than what educational services are available or what options are offered in a particular location. Appointment of agency staff more often depends on two factors: a sense of calling on the part of the potential staff member and/or an opportunity or project that the agency is seeking to staff.

What then is the responsibility of an agency to factor in the availability of services and opportunities that a family may need in order to thrive – services like appropriate, affordable schooling options, special needs therapies, or specific medical or mental health care? In many cases, a sense of call to a particular location seems to prevail even when red flags are evident. So we continue to see families placed in situations that may lead to insurmountable challenges for one or more children in the family.

Should the calling be questioned? Should agencies take a hard look at placement decisions no matter how strongly a family feels about a particular location? What responsibility do agencies have in placing a family where they have a greater hope of seeing each family member thrive? We could probably get quite a discussion going on this issue.

Placement decisions made by personnel committees or field teams may be missing critical factors. Have they examined all or at least most of the factors that will impact a family in a particular location? Have they asked enough good questions, drawn on available wisdom, talked with those “in the know”? There is a proverb that speaks to this issue, “For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.”

My role at SHARE Education Services brings me into contact with families from a myriad of agencies living in diverse places. I marvel at the care and wisdom shown by many agencies as they place families where they are most apt to thrive. Yes, some families are placed in difficult places but allowances are made by setting up the needed conditions for them to overcome the challenges. There are intentional plans made to ensure that both parents and children have the potential to thrive. This plan might include a “lifeline” to an education consultant who checks in on a regular basis or it might include regularly scheduled time away from the stress of isolation to attend a conference or visit another family.

On the other hand, I have observed that when education care is not factored into the plan, the resulting stress can overwhelm a family. This brings to mind one North American couple I met recently that had hoped to homeschool their children, ages 9 and 12, while attending language classes. But life overwhelmed them as they struggled to figure out how to keep their heads above water in their new home. Homeschooling never really got off the ground – well, they had never homeschooled before. And each child began to show symptoms of stress from the lack of structure and familiarity and friends. Not even nine months into their “adventure,” they were ready to call it quits. I’m sure that you, my consultant friends, would join me in wondering whether more advisors could have been brought to the plan and ongoing care of this precious family.

I understand that families can’t all be assigned to cities where there are schools and homeschool co-ops. But is it responsible to place families with vulnerable children in isolated places without any hope of needed services or in places where needed options are clearly not present? Or do we fall back on the idea that “everything will turn out OK if they are following their calling?”

Yes, many TCKs have turned out well even after having endured isolation and out-of-the-box educational experiences. But how many have not turned out well? How many families returned home having been adversely and permanently affected by their failure to thrive, wondering how they could have misunderstood their calling? How many of those children continue to suffer the adverse effects of isolation or the lack of needed therapies for maximizing their learning experiences?

I’d like to believe that we each clearly hear and understand our calling in momentous life decisions. I know, however, that there’s a reason we are expected to live and learn in community. It’s because we need each part of the body to function as it was created to function. We need the counsel and wisdom of others who know more than we do about the issues and decisions we are facing. And your agency needs you, my fellow consultants, whether they know it or not. They might not appreciate an aggressive approach, but your reasoned, even-toned insights could change the destiny of a family headed toward a dangerous precipice. Consider whether you need to step forward and offer your input in this pre-appointment process.

What are your observations regarding the role education plays in the field placement of families?

© 2012-2023 PACE
All rights reserved