(Chapters 1 & 8)
• “In the long term, these young people who are pushed out of the system to save a few bucks are too often a greater financial burden to taxpayers as a result of homelessness, substance abuse and other unfortunate events they often encounter. Conversely, investment in our children provides them and society with a significant return” (2).
• “A holistic approach is critical; for independent living, we should provide, as a minimum, services to age 21 and every opportunity for former foster care children to pursue post-secondary education or training. This is good human service and economic policy” (2).
• “Like you, I talk about building families, reducing the number of children in foster care and rebuilding a sense of community and hope. While those are admirable goals, they will not become a wholesale reality without changes in a public policy that currently builds more prison cells than classrooms. Yes, the makeup of our state governments varies; however, we are all connected by some pretty indisputable facts. Nationally, the gap between rich and poor is widening, often as a result of public policy decisions” (2).
• “Many students in foster care are not being provided fair educations or opportunities for academic achievement. They do not have access to the many special programs, advanced placement courses, extracurricular clubs and sports, and other activities that are vital to obtaining a well-rounded education.” (Vacca).
• “In addition, many foster children are not encouraged to pursue advanced education. It is safe to say, moreover, that the education of foster children is often overlooked, and they are one of the most educationally vulnerable populations in our schools. School personnel must develop a deeper understanding of the challenge of transforming their schools into caring and cohesive institutions that focus on helping every student succeed” (Vacca).
Vacca, James. Breaking the cycle of academic failure for foster children. Children & Youth services Review. Vol. 30 no. 9 Sept. 2008. p 1081-1087
Artist Statement-
I must say the first few weeks of this class were quite intense and I was very overwhelmed and had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I had even considered dropping this course because I just am not good with technology and all this creative making material. However, I changed my mind and decided to stick with it, mostly because I really liked the foster care aspect of the class. I thought it would be a fun little project working with kids, which I love, so I kept with it.
As time went on I began to see what we would really be doing and I developed my ideas for the final project step by step along the way. After deep contemplation about my own life I had decided to focus on aging out of the system. From there I got matched with a CASA volunteer who I then interviewed on the topic. However, talking with him and walking around and taking pictures I had begun to stumble on a side and connected topic to aging out- that being the economic aspect of it all, and how economics plays its role in all of this and the stereotyping and so on.
After finally discovering my joint topic that I wanted to pursue I did some research and discovered some amazing facts. I learned that over all our nations crumbling education system single handedly could be one of the major causes of the increase for children into the foster care system. For poverty is said to be the biggest link between children and the foster care system. On top of that possibly the only way out of poverty is a good education and advanced education, which isn’t all that reachable without money. This is a vicious cycle that I stumbled upon.
As I come to the close of this project and class, I would just like to add that I am very happy I decided to stick with it. I think it has profoundly affected me and changed my views and opened me up to a lot about ‘life’ and understanding society and roles. It has added to my insight about possible solutions to problems bigger and outside of the foster care system. Mostly it has shown me a huge amount of good that people in a community are doing, that without this class I would have never known about or met or built any kind of relationship with; or to get to know someone of a very different background than my own. If I could pick just one thing about this class that has changed me and has been the most thought provoking would be something my interviewee mentioned. Different may not always be bad, it’s just different from you and what your norms are. A very true statement that can be applied over and over again in life, and I find that it keeps popping back into my head as I witness and experience new things. This class has opened me up to a lot but that one line carried with me from now on will be the most significant to me.
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Bibliography
Atkins,
Bridges. Spring 2008. p 8-9
Burroughs, Gaylynn. Too poor to parent?. Ms. Vol. 18 no. 2. 2008. p 42-45
Collins, Mary Elizabeth. The permanence of family ties: implications for youth transitioning from foster care. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Vol 78 no.1 Jan. 2008. p 54-62
(2)Conyers, Tony. Get our priorities straight with foster children. Policy & Practice of Public Human Services. Vol. 66 no.
Keegan, Mary. Poverty and Placement Outcomes of Intensive Family Preservation Services. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal. Vol.
Scott, Lionel d. Satisfaction with counseling among black males in transition from the foster care system. Children & Youth Services Review. Vol. 31 no.
(1)The intersection of race, poverty, and risk: understanding the decision to provide services to clients and to remove children. The
Vacca, James. Breaking the cycle of academic failure for foster children. Children & Youth services Review. Vol. 30 no.
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