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