Foster System: The Effects Of A Broken System

1. What can we do to fix foster care and what can we do to make foster care easier in the world? What can we teach children that are in the foster care system before they age out?

The Boys & Girls Club Organization follows the Youth Development Strategy. This strategy describes how the impact of youth development professionals and volunteers interact with young people. All programs that are implemented purposes are to maximize opportunities and assist with the young people attaining the five basic senses; a sense of competence, a sense of usefulness, a sense of belonging, a sense of power and influence.

Our foster care system was developed in the 19 century, and it all started with Charles Loring Brace taking in homeless children. The system has come a long way since it started by passing laws, such as the child abuse prevention and treatment act, that protect children, and among another things, however, it still has problems. Some of the major issues they have are children placements, preparing them for adulthood, the rules and regulations with the foster parents, and drug abuse among teens in foster care.

I believe the foster care system should be changed for the better of the foster child. The system as many foster kids will say is messed up, and in fact I totally agree. The child feels that if he/she spoke up about what was going on in their “home” whether it 's abuse or other reasons they will be located right back into another home where this can just possibly happen again. The last thing any of these children is abuse and more relocation. Most of these kids just strive to be happy and in a forever home that they want to live in. Obviously, the child could have possibly already came from scary, abusive, or just a bad situation, they don’t want to go right back to this environment. After reading a few foster care stories, this one story about this one boy stood out to me. The website “www.fosterclub.com” had this boy’s

Foster care is not a perfect system. Many children that are put into the foster care system are separated from their siblings and put into harmful environments. These environments are supposed to be safe and give the child a chance at a better life. However, children living in group homes are not able to develop secure attachment to the people who are supposed to take care of them. Children bounce back and forth from house to house, family to family, causing them to live in an unstable environment through most (if not all of) their child hood. According to childrensrights.org, Children will be “further abused in systems that are supposed to protect them” (Newsroom/fact sheet). Some children end up back into that abusive or unsafe environment

Common misconceptions associated with being in foster care portray youth in the system as orphans. Youth in foster care are supposedly delinquents, and will perform poorly in academics compared to their peers who are not placed in these institutions. In society, these stereotypes are often pretended, but very little people understand the circumstances and factors the youth in the foster care system are facing. Youth in care are often juxtaposed to their community counterparts, to signify the impact of being a ward of the state, rather than being with a family member. However, youth who have experienced care, have faced harsher realities. According to fosterclub, foster youth are 5x more likely to develop a mental disorder, 25x more likely

Another way to improve the foster system is to have background checks, making sure that the people they hire, and foster parents aren’t abusive and horrible to the kids. The background checks for foster parents or caretakers could save abuse for the kids, and maybe even death, they can help determine whether or not if this is a person they want the kids around. This is shown in an article named, “U.S. Foster Care a Flawed Solution that leads to more Long-Term Problems”, they explain the lives of kids who have experienced awful people they were sent to live with. The author wrote, “Removed from the home of a mentally ill parent… Within months, the mother’s condition deteriorated and the child was killed,” (Stone, 2014). This portrays, how they

Children in foster care have been legally removed from their birth families and placed under the care and control of state-run child welfare agencies. Every year, almost 30,000 kids age out of the foster care system after childhoods when many moves from house to house and school to school (NPR). For most foster kids, as soon as they turn 18, they're cut off from a place to live and financial support. They're suddenly on their own, suddenly responsible to find housing, money, clothing, and food; while trying to continue their education, and in most cases, they give up pursuing the latter path. While other kids their age are still getting help from a parent or guardian. As a result, these adolescents experience psychological trauma, financial instability, which both combined to yield a vicious cycle of foster care.

My cousin and her husband once had a foster child in their home. At first, this child was blind to normal living and was very rude and not trained to normal family living, for example, going to amusement parks, having dinner every evening, sleeping in her own room, etc. These normal family activities really transformed that child within a matter of months. Everyone saw the total transformation in this child. Environmental development and social setting have serious effects on children in the foster care system.

Minors in care show certain themes that can damage their reputation in adulthood. Acknowledged by Ainsworth and Hansen, movement of homes while being in care puts children at risk to someday be placed as a juvenile offender, become a parent at a young age, and to endure poor educational achievement. Thirty-eight percent of males and thirty-nine percent of females in detention have a history of being in foster care services (89). Ainsworth and Hansen also report that there are a number of fosters who are under seventeen years old and are pregnant or getting someone else pregnant (89). Allen S. Barton and James S Vacca, authors of ¨Bring Back Orphanages- An Alternative to Foster Care¨ state, because of foster care relocation, children are left with educational problems and needs (6). Educationally, children may receive low grades due to poor understanding because of how often they move from foster home to foster home. Children are not just having difficulties in

This article is about how the transition into foster care can be hard for a child. Many social workers, psychologists, and therapists analyzed how a child's care and environment could affect their internal and external behavior. The social workers, psychologists, and therapists also studied how children in foster care defined their relationships with his or her foster parents. The researchers then asked foster parents how they defined the relationship between themselves and their foster child. The article ties the two main focus’ together to show how a child’s internal behavior such as depression, anxiety, withdrawn self-esteem; and external behaviors such as incarceration, pregnancy, homelessness, substance abuse, defiance, and running away can be greatly altered based on how he or she is treated in a foster home (Orme & Buehler, 2001).

In some states in the United States, youth age out of foster care at the age of 18, however in states such as Maryland and the District of Columbia youth age out of foster care at the age of 21. It was the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program, which was a part of the Foster Care Independence act of 1999, which promoted programs to assist youth in the process of making the transition from foster care. The primary goal of these programs were that youth become self sufficient. Such programs as the John H. Chafee Foster Care Impendence Program, assisted youth who have left in care but not yet reached age 21. While extending the age of emancipating from care to the age of 21, was created to form positive outcomes for emancipated youth,

boosts incredibly and their outlook on life is positive. The parents that emphasize good character and raise the children to be more than phenomenal, impact our society greatly; let alone the foster children’s lives. Those are the kind of parents we need to encourage to have open arms and embrace foster children to truly effect their lives for the best of them. It’s a tragedy that finding beneficial parents are so laborious.

Foster Care is a system where they take kids away from a family due to situations in the home that may harm the child. However, Foster Care could be the only salvation to a bad situation. Many believe that the absolute goal for the foster system is to get the family reunited, but that outcome is rarely achieved. Foster Care can mean different things to different people. Some argue that the Foster Care system is ineffective and causes more harm than good. Children are traumatized from being moved home to home and never feel a sense of belonging. Being in the system can cause emotional, social, and life skill problems that can affect a child future.

In this chapter, we learn about children in family foster care. The intent of foster care is to offer children care within a family environment when their homes are temporally unable to do so. Foster care is meant to provide the following; temporary emergency care of a child, relief for a parent when he or she cannot manage stress, time for parent to solve problem, a different home experience or protection for a child, care unit institutional treatment is available, and care until release for adoption is approved. There are also different types of foster homes for different situations. The role of a foster parent can be very stressful; they never know what to expect for example supervised meeting for the birth parents, school attended meetings