In the System

[Music]

stop

look around you the person sitting next

to you could be one of the millions of

foster care children in the world

or one of thousands in oregon alone like

me in the united states there are over

400 000 foster care children i am one of

them

in 2016 there were 676 000 kids that

entered the foster care system

due to maltreatment these children ended

up

getting hurt by their parents they were

not fed

they had so many different forms of

abuse that led to this

i experienced several different forms of

abuse before entering the foster care

system

when i was 16 years old i entered the

system

with my baby sister who was only seven

at the time

it was one of the most painful things

that ever happened to me

i had taken care of her my entire life i

protected her from the people that

abused me

and we called them parents

my entire life was dedicated to my

sister in protecting her

so when my mother took her from me it

was the most

terrifying thing that had ever happened

to me

that’s when i made the call to dhs

my hands were shaking and tears streamed

down from my face as i had no idea what

would happen next

following that me and my sister found

ourselves entering foster care

the reason why we entered foster care

wasn’t because

of how many beatings i got from my

father or how many times my mother

called me names

it was because my father decided to

leave one morning when a judge

specifically told him

not to leave us alone with my mom

when we left the apartment i heard my

mother

scream and fall to the ground crying she

had no idea what was going on because

she was too mentally ill at the time to

understand

as we got in the car i looked out the

window and saw the apartment i once knew

once called home

i looked down at my baby sister and she

was

terrified i didn’t know what to do at

the time

so i just got in theater and told her

that we were going to be safe

but the truth was i didn’t know if we

were going to be safe

you hear so many different news reports

and stories about children being abused

in the system

that when you’re put into the system

yourself it’s like being terrified

and for me at the time basically being a

mother to a seven-year-old when i was

only 16

i didn’t know how i was going to protect

her anymore

there was one person that i was able to

latch on to while with my sister and

that was my first caseworker

she was kind sympathetic attentive and

cared about our well-being

i loved our first caseworker

she was so nice to me and understand the

fact that

i was basically my sister’s mom

she did her hardest

to find us a place for the night and she

found us a really amazing family

but the sad thing was we didn’t get to

keep her

and the sad thing is is that not all

children have an amazing first case

worker like that

my friend jaden who was in the foster

care system from the time she was a baby

had a

horrible caseworker every time this

caseworker would enter the home she had

placed her in she would ignore

all the signs of abuse that she was

struggling with

and she would just leave not all case

workers are like this though

many want to help youth navigate to a

better future

but just like everything else in the

world there are always bad apples in the

bunch

and you can’t help that it’s issues like

this that happen

to millions of kids around the world in

government care

as an example that happened to me i was

homeless twice while being in foster

care

i was a very lucky kid though i had an

amazing friend with a very

gracious family that allowed me to

enter their home and stay there for

about three months

day chess didn’t know where to place me

and that’s not because i was a terrible

teen

or because i was horrible to my foster

parents

it was because sometimes foster parents

don’t want to be foster parents anymore

and sometimes dhs puts kids inside of

temporary placements they don’t find

enough another placement in the right

time because

there aren’t that many placements and

the kid has nowhere to go because the

foster parents that they were with

were only temporary ones that is a major

issue

and that’s what has caused me to become

homeless twice while being in the system

and the second time i become homeless

i was able to go back to my friend and

her family

kids are not as lucky as i was

now not only did i have this amazing

friend with her gracious family but i

also had an amazing spitfire

casa named kathy casa stands for court

appointed special advocate

and my casa has helped me out through a

lot

she has always been there through court

dates and

the times that i needed her the most but

the main issue with casas

there aren’t enough of them in the state

of oregon

there are 11 000 children in the state

of oregon

on a day-to-day basis and they’re only

30 percent of causes to the amount of

children in the state

that means not every child has

a casa like kathy advocating for them

and being there for them in their time

of need

if we were to help the crossfad

foundation by

giving them more support more funding

more help it would prevent children from

having horrible instances

not being able to go their court tickets

because they’re terrified of seeing

their parents like i was

or just giving up completely

i’ve known what it’s like to live

without these programs

the first six months i was in foster

care i didn’t have these programs

and it was the most terrifying time in

my life

in 2018 i tried to commit suicide while

being in foster care

it wasn’t the first attempt on my life

but it was my darkest

but i’m not the only foster child that

tries to commit suicide

it’s a major issue in the foster care

community a foster child is four times

more likely

to commit suicide than the average kid

this means that not every child has a

person advocating for them like kathy

does for me

without kathy my voice and my needs

would not be heard

if every child in the united states were

to have a casa

the issues of the high numbers of

homelessness

drug issues and incarceration would be

dropped significantly

the casa program needs more volunteers

and more help

to help sustain it and bring it to its

full potential

other programs that have helped me while

being inside the foster care system

have been the iop program and the peer

mentorship program

ilpa stands for independent living

program it helps children 16 years and

older

to navigate slash prepare for the adult

life

it has helped me get money to live on my

own while being inside dhs custody

this program helps prevent homelessness

and early pregnancy issues

within oregon according to the national

foster youth institute website

after reaching the age of 18 20 of

foster youth become instantly homeless

seven out of 10 girls become pregnant

before the age of 21

and 60 percent of young men become

convicted of a crime if we were to help

support the iop program

it would drop these numbers

significantly another program that helps

drop these numbers

is the peer mentorship program the peer

mentorship program not only provides

help to parents that are wanting to help

take care of their children again

it provides them with parenting classes

and support that they need to take their

children back into their homes and into

their care

but it also helps foster children who

are still in the system

have a friend my peer mentor is ava

she’s amazing she’s been there for me

from times where i was moving home to

having to vent about my math professor

in early college

that was a bad time

she has helped me through everything

that a mom is supposed to help me out

with

and a friend if i didn’t have her i

would be

in a very bad place right now i’ve

talked to other youth that have peer

mentors

thankfully they’re a little bit more

accessible than casas

and they say that they have benefited

from this so

much more this program has helped so

many youth

and just like the other two it helps

prevent homelessness incarceration

in early pregnancy these programs need

your help

if you wanted to help these programs

there are many different ways you can do

it

if you wanted to help picasa program you

could become a casa

volunteer or you could volunteer during

their annual toy drive

around christmas if you want to help out

the iop organization

you could give your time by volunteering

or you could donate things and it

doesn’t have to be money

it could be toys it could be old clothes

same thing goes for the peer mentorship

program

volunteering always wanted and if you

want to help

out with donations money is always of

course wanted when it comes to

these programs but it’s not always

mandatory anything you can do to give

back helps

if you want to learn about more programs

inside of your area

you can go to your local dhs website or

you can call your local dhs during

normal business hours

if you really want to learn more about

how it is being a foster parent or

foster child

you can go to instantfamily.org or you

can even watch the movie instant family

i watched it and being a youth myself

i’ve experienced almost every single

scenario that they have

demonstrated inside the movie it’s about

this adopting family

that takes care of these three kids that

they are placed with it shows their ups

and their downs and

everything in between and it shows how

they eventually become an instant family

these programs and these children need

each and every one of you

it can’t just be me standing here

talking about

what happened to me it has to be people

like you

that are hoping to support us i’m soon

gonna be out of this system

i soon will not have the ted talk stage

to help

support these programs it’s not just

going to be me they’re helping these

kids

it has to be others it has to be future

generations

we have to make sure that there are

things for these children

please if you can do anything you can to

give back it would be greatly

appreciated

thank you