We did it!
Jon and I celebrated at our favorite Mexican place tonight because, as of today, after 4 1/2 months of classes and home assessments…
We are officially licensed in foster care!! 💚
We are under no illusions that this will be easy. But like Mother Teresa said “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love".
Please read on as I explain why this issue is so important and crucial to the narrative right now.
What we as a society are witnessing currently:
* Removal of quality education - trying to force teachers to quit so they can be replaced with loyalists and removal of public school funding in favor of private school vouchers that typically go to the wealthy.
* A public school to military pipeline, with an effort to make it mandatory for kids in public high schools to register with the military - but not for kids in private schools.
* Privatized, for-profit prisons that sell prison labor for 90 cents to $4 a day to fast food companies, Walmart, Starbucks etc, as well as the agricultural industry. Prison farms produce crops and animals that are sold to businesses and state and government entities. Turning formerly paid immigrants into prisoners in encampments is by design and feeds into this system.
Foster care facts:
* There are 16k children currently in foster care here in Ohio, and only 7k foster homes at any given time.
* In the US there are 400-600k children in foster care at any given time and only about 200k foster homes.
* There are roughly 780k homeless in the US at any given time and roughly 50% of the homeless population has spent time in foster care.
* After age 12 there is 40% chance kids in foster care won’t find a permanent placement. The chances of them finding a home drops for every year they’re still in the system.
* Kids in foster care are at a much higher risk for chronic health conditions with up to 80% suffering from one chronic health condition, and 25% suffering from 3 or more.
* Youth in foster care who identify as LBGTQ are more likely to have adverse experiences in the system and more likely to be hospitalized.
* Children in the foster care system are 4x more likely to attempt suicide.
* Only 26 states have programs that help youths who haven’t been adopted transition out of foster care.
* Only 50% of foster youth will have a job by age 21.
* 70% of girls from foster care will be pregnant by age 21.
* Less than 3% will earn a college degree.
* Within two years of leaving foster care, 25% of youth are involved with the criminal legal system.
* 70% of former foster youth were arrested at least once before age 26.
* 98% of children who are sex trafficking survivors had previous involvement with child welfare services.
Yet…
The federal government, KNOWING THIS, just cut grants that allow an abused child to have a court advocate or guardian ad litum to speak for them in court, and cut all funding to assist LGBTQ youth. This administration did that their first week in office.
What you and I see every day:
Criminalization of the homeless, with police hosing down camps in the freezing cold, putting concrete spikes up where the homeless might sleep on the ground, and putting partitions on benches so they can’t lie down.
We’re witnessing a foster care to homelessness to prison pipeline, folks. It’s that simple.
And more and more, I feel we’re in the presence of evil when it comes to our government. That’s why Jon and I have taken this step - to practice RADICAL INCLUSION AND KINDNESS and to make some kind of difference.
You can, too.
If you’re here in northeastern Ohio, I highly recommend reaching out to Northeast Ohio Adoption Services. We got licensed through them and have had a great experience. Wherever you are in the US, you can also reach out to your county to find out how to get licensed or otherwise involved.
If you have any questions about the process we went through, don’t hesitate to comment or reach out, and please share this and spread the word. 💚