Mercer County teen featured in TV report about foster care
A Mercer County teen in the state foster care system whose case is being handled by Butler’s Family Pathways was featured Nov. 7 on NBC’s “Today Show.”
Erie native and Mercer County resident Jamari, 19, whose last name was withheld for privacy reasons, was recently matched with a pre-adoptive family in Berks County thanks to Nic Landon, an Older Child Matching Recruiter with Family Pathways and the Older Child Matching Initiative.
“We were involved in meeting, evaluating, and interviewing the family prior to the match. We also monitor throughout and provide training and transportation,” Landon said.
He said boys and girls ages 10 to 21 are considered older children to be matched with adoptive families. Families adopting older children are not uncommon; Landon alone currently has 21 cases and has finalized 12 in the past year.
Landon and Jamari traveled to New York City and were featured in a segment on the nationally televised morning show.
It was part of an ongoing series with the “Today Show” interviewing foster and adoptive youth. Twelve families, not including Jamari’s, will have their adoptions finalized on the air.
Jamari, 19, has been in the foster care system since 2006.
She said she hopes to move in with her pre-adoptive family by Thanksgiving. The adoption will be finalized once she’s stayed with the family for six months. She hopes to find a school to attend once she moves there.
