WHAT IS FOSTER CARE

Foster care is a system that exists in many countries, in which a minor’s official custody is taken by the government from their parents, family, or other legal caregiver as early as immediately following birth or at any time before reaching their majority. The child is then placed for day-to-day care with either another family member (if approved), or in a group home, treatment center, residential care, or a private home with a government-certified or approved caregiver, typically referred to as a "foster parent" or “foster carer." The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency. The institution, group home or other home often receives financial compensation for taking the child.

WHY FOSTER YOUTH NEED ADVOCATES

Most survivors of childhood abuse and neglect struggle to become healthy, functioning adults. Most youth who enter foster care as teenagers don’t get adopted, or even end up in actual homes. The legacy of foster care lasts the rest of our lives in a myriad of ways educational, psychological, physical, and financial so it’s always more difficult to achieve the same outcomes as our peers.

In a way, foster youth are no one’s problem; by their very nature as youth without families stable enough to provide them with a secure home, they have few advocates. Most come from poverty. Due to privacy laws, their specific stories cannot be leveraged to improve their conditions. It’s rare for foster kids to come into the success and power that would allow them to become influential advocates for the next generation of foster kids. This is why their plight doesn’t get the kind of attention or support that developmental issues, diseases, and cancer get. These issues cut across socioeconomic strata, foster care largely doesn’t.

For more statistics and data about teenage foster youth in the USA, I highly recommend this post by the National Foster Youth Institute.

organizations I love

USA

CASA ❖ I didn’t have a CASA, but other kids in the group homes I lived in did, and these volunteers were like a stable liferaft in a storm. “The National CASA/GAL Association, together with state and local member programs, supports and promotes court-appointed volunteer advocacy so every child who has experienced abuse or neglect can be safe, have a permanent home, and the opportunity to thrive.”

The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative (by the Annie E. Casey Foundation) ❖ “A systems-change effort that works at the local, state and national levels to advance policies and practices to most effectively meet the needs of young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood.”

The National Foster Youth Initiative ❖ They “aim to transform the child welfare system and vastly improve outcomes for foster youth by empowering the youth and their families, building a grassroots movement in 435 congressional districts across the country, and partnering with committed policymakers. Truly transformative foster care reform will not come to fruition until the individuals who have personally experienced the child welfare system have a strong voice in the policymaking process. And NFYI is dedicated to ensuring their place at the table.”

The Joyful Heart Foundation ❖ I’ve long loved this organization, and I wear their “fearlessness” fundraiser necklace every day to remind me how I choose to survive and thrive. Their mission is “to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever.” They deliver on this mission to support survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse through healing, education, and advocacy.

Foster Care to Success ❖ “America’s college fund for foster youth,” their mission is “to provide opportunities for America's foster youth to continue their education, to increase awareness of the number and plight of older teens leaving the maze of foster care, to highlight the potential of America's foster youth and the importance of supporting their dreams, and to offer direct opportunities for citizens, business, and civic organizations to assist older foster youth.”

New Zealand

VOYCE Whakarongo Mai ❖ VOYCE is one of those rare and admirable organizations that puts foster youth’s voices at the front of all that they do, they are “an independent charity organisation that helps to advocate for the approximately 6000 children with care experience (children in foster or whanau care) in New Zealand. We exist to amplify the voices of these children and ensure that they are heard – so as to positively influence their individual care and to collectively affect change in the wider care system. VOYCE was co-designed by children with care experience for children with care experience.”

Foster Hope ❖ This organization runs a variety of programs to collect and distribute essential items to youth in care, both when entering and when moving into their first flat. I wish something like this had been available to me both when I entered care with my things in a ragged cardboard box, and when I moved into my first apartment at barely 17. They “believe that every child in foster care deserves to know that their community cares about them,” and “demonstrate this by providing them with a backpack of essential items, […] a symbol of our support and love for both the children and their caregivers. Many of these children arrive at their new placements with little more than the clothes on their backs.”

Black Children Matter

For every black adult victim of systemic racism in the US, there are many more black children harmed every day, because inequities in every society start with our young. The privilege granted me by the color of my skin led to a far different foster care experience than that of black children, who:

• are 2x more likely to enter the foster care system than white children

• primarily enter care for neglect (due to poverty), not abuse

• have the highest prevalence of having parental rights terminated

• are less likely to be adopted than white children

• have the highest rate of moving from child protection to juvenile detention

If we want to dismantle racism in America, we must start here. I support not only criminal justice reform, but also child welfare system reform in the USA.

Organizations to Support

National Coalition for Child Protection Reform ❖ They “work to make that system better serve America’s most vulnerable children by trying to change policies concerning child abuse, foster care and family preservation.”

Amara in Washington state ❖ A “not-for-profit that serves children in foster care and the families who care for them.”

Sierra Forever Families in California ❖ Their mission is to “transform the lives of children in foster care by building and nurturing permanent families.”

Black Family And Children Services in Arizona ❖ A “private, non-profit 501(c)(3) community-based social service agency in metropolitan Phoenix, serving children and families of all ethnic backgrounds since 1984.”

Amherst H. Wilder Foundation ❖ Their Kofi Program aims to provide black children with school-based mental health care in the Saint Paul area of Minnesota.

EVOLVE Family Services ❖ Their UMOJA MN camp “unites families by providing culturally inclusive programming that acknowledges and celebrates African American heritage and identity.”

Children's Defense Fund ❖ A non-profit child advocacy organization that “has worked relentlessly for more than 40 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation.”

Know of a great organization working with or on behalf of foster youth around the world? Want to see it added here? Drop me a note!