Homeless Child Experiment

In Spanish class, we were shown this video as an example of how we can be kind to one another and emphasize the ideas of random acts of kindness. The second I saw this video, I thought of how it relates to foster care. This video does deviate some from foster care, but by definition a foster child is a child who is not raised by his/her natural or adoptive parent, or a needy child. A homeless child would be considered needy. Many of the children in foster care end up on the streets by the time they are 18. Every year, 20,000 kids age out of foster care. Many youth who have run away had involvement with the foster care system. One of the main categories under the reasons that kids run away in family instability. In 2005, close to 11,000 foster youth had ran away from their placement. 40% of homeless people had spent time in foster care. 

Homelessness in foster care shows how reforms need to be made to better prepare those who age out of the system for independent living. Their main option should not be to become homeless. Furthering education should be an option so that they can have the opportunity to live like everyone else. Also, better background checks on foster families need to be done so that kids may be less likely to want to run away. Ways to make kids feel more comfortable in foster homes need to be found, so the amount of homeless children from foster care does not increase. 

What amazed me about this video is that the only person who stopped to help was another homeless person. He gave all he had to that kid by giving him his jacket. The man said how the homeless people had to stick together and how they had to help each other out. This could be the same thing that occurs in foster care. Foster kids stick together and work to help each other out. That is why so many of the foster care reforms are being driven by former foster kids. They want to fix the problems they faced in their experience in foster care. 

The situation in this video shows what many foster children or kids who have aged out of the foster system could face. Homelessness is an issue that needs to be further solved, along with the consequences of abandoning or aging out of the foster care system. 

Alaska Youth Call for Reform

I found this story of a recent attempt to reform the foster care system in Alaska. On Tuesday, February 17, members of the Alaska Youth Policy Summit met with legislators to share their stories of childhood trauma. The Alaska Youth Policy Summit is an advocacy group that recruits young people to talk to legislators about what they believe the problems in the state's social services system are.  This was part of the annual visit this group has to the state Capitol in order to give voice to children who are in the social services system. There were 5 presenters for this particular cause. The presenters talked about dealing with drug abuse, mental health, and being moved from place to place.

 Robin Ahqupuk is a 20 year old from Anchorage who was part of this summit. He spent 15 years in foster care and lived in 48 different homes. He wants to make sure that other Alaskan children will not have the same experience as him. He recalls how he felt like a loner and was never connected with people. He believes that the system makes children grow up too fast.

Benjamin Dahl-Rouzan is a 17 year old from Anchorage who was another presenter. He remembers dealing with multiple case workers and having to say you were doing one thing when you were really doing another. He was adopted at the age of 10, but not without spending 5 years in foster care first.

One of the main targets of the summit was the workload of caseworkers. Both boys agreed that lessening the burden of caseworkers was an improvement that needed to be made. Representative Les Gara introduced House Bills 27 and 28 in this summit. He says that, "Alaska is failing its foster youth. The state is its legal guardian; we need to treat them as we would treat our own children." Gara   understands the problems with the foster care system because he spent 12 years in it himself. He says that his experience was positive, but it did have its faults. The foster care system is declining because the social work staff is overburdened. His legislation is woking to keep foster children in the same school after moving to a different home. This would create a sense of permanency for the children. He also believes that children should be placed in a permanent home within 18 months of being in foster care.

The number of kids in foster care has increased in recent years. This is leading to caseworkers having to take on more work than one can reasonably handle. House Bill 28 proposes a $500,000 grant to support the staff of the Foster Care Independent Living Transition Program. This program currently has 6 caseworkers helping 300-400 older youth transition to adulthood. The department of Children's Services has not taken a position on the new legislations yet because they are uncertain that the new mandates on the department will be effective.

Below is a picture of Benjamin Dahl-Rouzan sharing his story at the meeting.

Foster Care Foundations

For the community outreach part of my project, I decided to make some kind of donation to a foster care organization. I started researching some of the different organizations there are. I have not decided who to donate to. These are a few of the projects that I found so far in my research. I do not know if I am going to donate to any of these projects or a different one. These are just a few that seemed to be interesting.
The first one is the Care Package Program through Foster Care to Success. This is a program that collects care packages to send to foster kids in college. The students receive three packages a year to help them feel like other college students who receive packages from home. They send out about 7,500 packages a year. Some of the items donated are school supplies, snacks, beach blankets, clothing, and more.
Another Foster Care to Success project is the Red Scarf Project. It stems from the Care Package Program. They collect handmade red scarves throughout the year that can be sent to the college students in a Valentine's Day care package. They have delivered over 20,000 scarves over the last 10 years.

This next project is not really one I am planning on donating to, but it is an interesting concept. It is the Project Meet Me Halfway. This was started in 2009 by country singer Jimmy Wayne. The purpose is to raise awareness to the youth aging out of the foster care system and not having the tools and support they need to be successful in life. Wayne felt guilty because he had been living a comfortable life, having toured with Brad Paisley for most of the year. He felt as though he didn't do anything to make a difference. He started this project the next month which consisted of walking halfway across the country (Nashville, TN to Phoenix, AZ) in the middle of winter to raise awareness for the kids who have aged out of the system and cannot live a comfortable life.

The third project is held in a foster care organization closer to home, The Butler County Children and Youth Agency. It is their Duffel Bag Project. The organization creates duffel bags so that children are not collecting personal items in black garbage bags and so that they have some personal items to take to their new home with them. They have a list of recommended items separated by age group that need donated to be placed in the bags so that they can be given to kids to lessen the trauma the child is going through. They also accept monetary donations. It takes about $50 to create one of the bags, but they accept any level of donation. This is the link to the brochure that has what type of items they need: http://www.butlercountyfostercare.com/upload/Duffle%20Bag%20Brochure%202013.pdf

The next interesting project was the Forgotten Child Campaign. The purpose is to help improve the future of a child in foster care. Statistic show that children in foster care are twice as likely as veterans of the first Gulf War to experience PTSD. Their goal is to help foster kids be able to have a successful future once aging out of the system. Some of the projects this campaign recommends is the Porch Light Project, a project that works to reform public policy so that all kids will grow up in a safe home, the Allegheny County Music Festival, which can always use donations, Project Prom, which provides formal attire to eligible high school students, or Running for Laptops, which raises money to provide laptops to disadvantaged kids who are attending college.

The last project is Project Linus. This is a non-profit organization that provides homemade blankets to children in need. One way to donate to this project is to give money. Another way is to be a "blanketeer" and  make a blanket and take it to one of the drop-off sites. The blanket can be any size and any style. They would just like a new, handmade, washable blanket. Their overall goal is to provide security through blankets.

Foster Care on TV

Foster care is a real life issue that people believe looks good in a TV plot. There are many shows and movies that have characters in them that were part of the foster care system. This week, I wanted to focus on two popular TV shows that I am currently watching.

The first show I want to focus on is The Fosters, which airs on ABC Family. The Fosters focuses on a multi-cultural family headed by a lesbian couple. Four of the five kids in the family are foster kids that they have either adopted or are living with them. The show touches on issues like abuse by foster parents and the messy emotions children can have about their biological parents. Two of the foster kids, Callie and Jude, are taken in after being removed from an abusive home. The twins, Mariana and Jesus, have a biological mother who Mariana stays in contact with in the first season. Her mother is a drug addict who Mariana financially supported by selling Jesus’s ADHD pills. Coming together as a blended family is a major theme in this show.

Because the show is called The Fosters, the factual basis of the show has been analyzed. The show ignores many realities of foster care. It does not show all of the work behind being a foster parent or how often families interact with Child Welfare. The show does show many situations that could occur in foster care, but does not show how they would be reported to Child Services. One main complaint is the parenting in the show. People criticize the hands-off parenting of Stef and Lena, which contradicts typical foster parenting, which is more active and hands-on. The children in the show are also too unsupervised. Many states have rules that foster kids cannot be out alone, and if real foster parents were supervising their kids the way Stef and Lena do, their house would be shut down. Though not completely accurate, the show does shed light on some of the serious issues in foster care, including racial diversity, older children and siblings in foster care, adoption from foster care, and the frequency of placement changes.

Another show that contains characters who were foster children is Once Upon a Time. The show does not focus on or revolve around foster care, but the main character of the show was a foster child, and this can be seen in many flashbacks to her childhood. Emma, the main character and savior of Storybrooke, grew up in foster care. She also put her own son up for adoption so that he could live a life better than she lived. Growing up in foster care caused Emma to rely on herself, which causes her to block everyone out so they do not become close enough to let her down.

Once Upon a Time is said to put a negative light on foster care.The show portrays foster care and adoption as not being a solution. Emma had a very negative foster care experience. Emma describes the parents in foster care as only doing it for the money, which is a real-life issue in foster care. The show had Emma bouncing from home to home, and then once aging out, turning to a life of crime. Though negative, these are still major issues that can result from foster care. People are angered by Emma’s negative experience in foster care, believing it makes the system look terrible as a whole. The truth though is that many of the situations Emma went through are true issues that do result in foster care. Though they are not the only outcomes, they are the ones that people still need to look towards changing. The show also constantly points out that Henry’s adoptive mother is not his real mother. The show does, however, show Regina, Henry’s adoptive mother, constantly saying that she chose to adopt Henry and look after him regardless of whether she is biologically related to him or not. Though foster care is not always accurately portrayed on TV, the plots surrounding it do bring awareness to the real issues of foster care and how the kids in it are affected.