Setting Examples, Providing Support: Amy’s Story
Four years ago, Amy Borg’s empty nest in a central Connecticut suburb offered an opportune time to become a foster parent. But her desire to help youth, especially girls, began long before then.
As a mother actively involved in her daughter’s Girl Scout activities more than a decade earlier, Amy was always engaged in projects designed to promote self-esteem or provide girls with basic needs or other items. She also actively mentored teen girls from city settings for eight summers. One of the youth she mentored suggested that she become a foster parent, and she took the suggestion to heart.
Just after the start of pandemic in the spring of 2020, Amy signed on with Wheeler to become a foster parent and was part of the original class that took the full TIPS-MAPP preparation course online, which prepares prospective foster parents for the role of fostering a child or youth. TIPS-MAPP, short for Trauma-Informed Partnering for Safety and Permanence - Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting, is delivered by Wheeler’s dedicated, caring team of specialists, social workers, and clinicians who work closely with foster families from the start and continue as supportive teammates throughout the fostering process. Participants learn more about the foster and adoption experience, a child’s experience with loss and attachment challenges, the benefits of maintaining connection with the child’s biological family, and more.
"It was a very good course that gives you the confidence to be able to accept a child into your home so that you could give that child the love and support that he or she needs," said Amy. “Real-world examples were also shared in class so that we understood the kinds of situations we might face and that children face and how to handle them.”
While with Wheeler, Amy fostered 18 children and youth through full-time, short-term, and respite care. She worked hard to build positive experiences with each, engaging them in activities and day trips to museums, amusement parks, mini-golf, and more. She often documented their time together through notes and photos, which eventually became a scrapbook of memories that the child or youth could have forever. Amy exposed youth in her care to the value of volunteer work, often bringing them along to observe or participate in whatever project she was involved with.
As a foster mom, Amy emphasized good nutrition and stressed, particularly to the girls, the concepts of self-esteem, empowerment. “I was always trying to coach and to impress upon them to hold onto their own personal power, to not give it away, and always to help others, where and when they could.”
Amy’s time with Wheeler will soon come to an end as she moves south to be closer to her grandchild. But her involvement and advocacy for youth will continue, and she has plans to be trained as guardian ad litem, a role in which she will act on behalf of a child in court or other legal situations, and make recommendations for what is best for the child.
Amy is grateful for her time with Wheeler. “I am hard-pressed to find any agency as good as Wheeler,” she said. “The team is so caring, flexible, and supportive. They were always there for me.”
And, as far as anyone thinking about becoming a foster parent, Amy said, “Go for it, it’s extremely rewarding. It’s hard. It’s fun. But in the end, you know that you’ve done something to help a child who needs you in the moment. You know you can make a positive impact for however long that child is in your life.”
Finally, in terms of how Amy is perceived by the team at Wheeler: Kelly Hayden, a family support specialist with Wheeler’s Functional Family Therapy-Foster Care program, said it best. “Amy is one in a million, and I will miss her,” she said. “She always made every child feel at home.”
About Wheeler’s Foster Care Programs
Wheeler’s Foster Care programs, funded by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, provide 24-hour support to families and youth. Wheeler’s programs provide a higher level of care and resources, including support to meet the needs of children and youth and help them heal from abuse, neglect, trauma, and more. For information about Wheeler Foster Care opportunities, call 860.793.7277, email Fostercareprograms@wheelerclinic.org.
