I was watching the news the other day and I saw a story that touched my heart. You see, I am a foster child. I was a ward of the State of Colorado until I was 18 years old. As a matter of fact, before I had even turned 18 years old, the system released me with no where stable to go. I was at the mercy of my boyfriend (if you can't sense it, that was a bad situation).
I can remember my emancipation worker telling me of programs that help to transition foster children to the real world. Unfortunately, my case worker dropped me and my stuff off in the driveway of my boyfriend's mother's house not long after my high school graduation. I was only 17 years old.
I was watching WFMY News 2 and they did a story on I Am Now, a group that has been housing the young men of Greensboro who have aged out of foster care. They have now opened a house for young women too. I wish that I could find a way to help with this program, but unfortunately volunteering for a program that would take a lot of gas money to get to is out of the question.
These programs seem sparse throughout the country. They are out there, but I wonder how many youth they have to turn away because they are full. I wonder how many young adults who were abandoned as children grow up not knowing anything and then are just left in a driveway somewhere when they turn 18 years old.
Some may think that teaching a foster child would be the responsibility of their foster parents. Unfortunately, that is usually not the case. There are foster homes out there that are in it for the money. There are even more out there that begin their foster family career with the best of intentions and hope, but eventually, out of necessity, they harden their hearts. They can't bear to keep investing their hearts and emotions when the "system" treats these children so cruelly.
In my three years in foster care, I lived in 4 different homes, I saw little children come home from their parents house with rug burn on the their neck and yet the "system" would not deny their parents rights. I saw children that should be in the system, safely away from their parents, sent back home. And yet, I even knew one girl who should not have been in the system and yet they would not return her to her loving mother and stepfather. What foster children endure and what they see is traumatic enough, but then to set them on the street when they turn 18 is just plain cruel. These children have to sink or swim. Luckily, I swam...but I saw so many sink.
What this Greensboro company is doing has benefited many young men and I am sure that it will benefit many young women, as well. There should be more of these houses out there.
I can remember my emancipation worker telling me of programs that help to transition foster children to the real world. Unfortunately, my case worker dropped me and my stuff off in the driveway of my boyfriend's mother's house not long after my high school graduation. I was only 17 years old.
I was watching WFMY News 2 and they did a story on I Am Now, a group that has been housing the young men of Greensboro who have aged out of foster care. They have now opened a house for young women too. I wish that I could find a way to help with this program, but unfortunately volunteering for a program that would take a lot of gas money to get to is out of the question.
These programs seem sparse throughout the country. They are out there, but I wonder how many youth they have to turn away because they are full. I wonder how many young adults who were abandoned as children grow up not knowing anything and then are just left in a driveway somewhere when they turn 18 years old.
Some may think that teaching a foster child would be the responsibility of their foster parents. Unfortunately, that is usually not the case. There are foster homes out there that are in it for the money. There are even more out there that begin their foster family career with the best of intentions and hope, but eventually, out of necessity, they harden their hearts. They can't bear to keep investing their hearts and emotions when the "system" treats these children so cruelly.
In my three years in foster care, I lived in 4 different homes, I saw little children come home from their parents house with rug burn on the their neck and yet the "system" would not deny their parents rights. I saw children that should be in the system, safely away from their parents, sent back home. And yet, I even knew one girl who should not have been in the system and yet they would not return her to her loving mother and stepfather. What foster children endure and what they see is traumatic enough, but then to set them on the street when they turn 18 is just plain cruel. These children have to sink or swim. Luckily, I swam...but I saw so many sink.
What this Greensboro company is doing has benefited many young men and I am sure that it will benefit many young women, as well. There should be more of these houses out there.
Wow, how heartbreaking. I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that. It's a sad sad world when parents don't want to love and raise their own children.
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