Poem Girl, Age 11: I Feeling Sadly For Foster Care

Many children are suffering due to various complications in their life. Children of all ages end up in the foster care system year after year. Their hardships influence them to feel really depressed and stoic. Many people do not read autobiographies, but the book, Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter teaches people about the complications of a first-hand foster child, how the foster care system is, and book reviews of famous authors and well-known magazines, as well. The story gives hope to people who believe there is no way out anymore, and it influences upon the world’s culture greatly.

The Foster Care System with the kids who are in it is a massive social issue that America is facing today. There are more than 640,000 foster children in the United States every year. There are 23,000 foster children living in group homes at one time. There are 32,000 who live in institutions, and twenty-seven states do not meet federal abuse and neglect standards. (Attention) Personally, I am a foster sister, because my family currently fosters. Therefore, we see the issues and needs of fostering, daily. (Rapport and Credibility) This speech will discuss the importance of the nature of foster care, the catastrophic problems of foster care, and the proposed solution for the foster care system in America. (Preview)

In todays’ society many Americans never think about our foster care system. Foster care is when a child is temporarily placed with another family. This child may have been abused, neglected, or may be a child who is dependent and can survive on their own but needs a place to stay. Normally the child parents are sick, alcohol or drug abusers, or may even be homeless themselves. We have forgotten about the thousands of children who are without families and living in foster homes. Many do not even know how foster care came about. A few of the earliest documentation of foster care can be found in the Old Testament. The Christian church put children into homes with widowers and then paid them using collection from the church

Foster care is supposed to be temporary, but for many teenage youth in foster care it is often a permanent solution. Foster care was never meant to raise children into adulthood. Even though foster care is supposed be temporary, most teenage foster youth reach their 18th birthday and become emancipated and end up living their lives without a family. Currently, 40% of foster youth in the system are between the ages of 11 and 21 (Child Welfare 3). Foster care is supposed to be a temporary arrangement in which adults provide care for children whose parents are unable to do so, due to issues within the family such as neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or homeless. The earliest documentation of foster care can date back to the Bible, which

“Family is forever.” Many people believe that this quote happens to be true. Everyone wants to believe that their family will always be there for them, and support the decisions that they make. For a normal family is quote would be accurate. On the other hand, there are families that will not be together forever. This is not just a choice that these certain families make, it is forced upon them. At this very moment hundreds of thousands of children around the country are spending quality time with their family. But, at the same exact moment, there are over five hundred thousand children living in the foster care system. These children do not know what it is like to spend quality time with their actual families. Instead, these children are forced to live with complete strangers, and suffer. Government officials say that foster care is for the safety of the children, but many do not share the same views. Foster care does not benefit children because of extensive developmental, social, and economic problems later in their lives.

The author, Nina Biehal, tells of the treatment in foster care and the need for correction in her article, "Maltreatment in Foster Care: A review of the evidence." The author gives many facts about how the government needs to change the level of care provided for the children. This article is more of a constant reminder of how much still needs to change and the level of care offered to children of abuse today. Unlike the article by authors Kristen Turney and Christopher Wilderman, which bases their article on the number of children in foster care receiving mental health care, Biehal gives evidence to support the problems that result from being in foster care. My essay can use this article to paint a picture of the number of children in detrimental conditions and how foster care developed problems with their system to support my argument.

For many years, foster care has been a difficult subject throughout our society. When the idea of foster care comes to mind, many immediately think of screaming children, distressed parenting and uphill battles. Before foster care existed in the United States, orphaned children were sent to orphanages. While these institutions were often the best option available to children with nowhere else to go, they often lacked the necessary staff, structure and resources to adequately care for all of the children in need. As a result, some orphanages were overcrowded, and children lived in poor conditions. Some children even died due to the lack of sufficient care (Adoptions, 2017). In order to give children better living situations, the United

I remember it like it was yesterday. There i was a eight year old child, standing there in our front yard when the social worker dropped off our very first foster child. My parents placed the baby in my arms and as i stared down at it, i remember the very first thoughts running through my head; what the heck are we supposed to do with this!/ we are supposed to take care of this thing Well six months later, surprisingly, the baby still lived, but we had all just began a journey that would continue throughout the rest of my life. The one thing conclusion that i have come throughout these past 8 years is that foster system is indeed a problem that needs to be recognized and addressed by EVERYONE. And i hope to persuade you on this by exploring the problem, privileges, and promise for these kids.

Many children can have social problems, identity problems, and many other difficulties. Many studies have been observing that the established structure of foster care can diminish the status of a foster child, and the view of the foster child has been stereotyped bringing many consequences and negative effects on the child. Throughout being in foster care, adolescents experienced low self-esteem and depression. The long term consequences of these conditions are slurred self-identity, social isolation, lack of a true family connection, low self-confidence, and lack of future goals. Also, they are more likely to separate themselves and experience depression and many other disorders, asking themselves what did they do wrong for their biological parents to leave them, or why doesn’t anyone truly want to take care and love them. If Jeannette and the other siblings would have been sent to foster care, Lori, Jeannette, and Brian would not have been motivated to move out on their own and pursue their dreams. If they would have been sent to foster care they also would not have each other, and as one can see, the Walls children were close to each other, often relying on one another for

The life for a child in foster care is much different than any other child’s. While growing up children look up to their father or mother. They aspire to be like them and follow in their footsteps. For the children placed in foster care all they see is that their parents could not take care of them. They will not have the memoires of growing up with their family, but instead memories of the different homes they have been transferred too. Foster parents love and care for all of the children that come into their homes, but it’s hard for the children to accept someone who moves in and out of their lives.

60 percent of kids who age out of foster care are dead, homeless, or in jail within a year. There needs to be more focus on the foster care system and child homelessness. Children should not be living on the streets, they need a home and a loving family so that they can grow up and live a stable, independent life.

No two children in foster care have the same background. The youths can vary by the age when placed into care, the number of times they were put into care, the quality of the home and family they lived with, and the youths own emotional outlooks (Zlotnick 539). They can develop abandonment issues due to being separated from their biological parents, and stunted emotional growth due to the trauma that foster care puts on a young child. Children need to be raised in a stable and safe environment, and while plenty of foster care parents are loving and nurturing to the child, they may still be affected by being raised by multiple families in a negative way. Every year, over 1 million children experience maltreatment, and about half of these children enter foster care (Greeson et al. 92). Those who enter foster care have usually encountered multiple traumatic events, from either their parents or another caregiver in their lives.

More than two-hundred and fifty thousand children enter the foster care system each year, making it extremely difficult to find the right caregiver for each child. There are so may effects on the child that last their entire lifetime, making it difficult for them to trust others. Not being able to trust their peers, they often find it hard to make friends and long-term relationships last. Fortunately, there are many results that can improve everyone’s position in placing the child. Foster care agencies repeatedly create destructive situations due to the selected caregiver, as well as the plethora of glitches that are created. Due to the unacceptable and inappropriate selection of foster parents, the child frequently experiences difficulties and disadvantages later on. Most children are placed into foster care because of mistreatment and experience the same treatment in their foster homes. Unfortunately, a lot of times the foster parent will take their anger out on their foster child, making a wide array of short-term and long-term complications for the child.

Everywhere across the world, more and more children are being placed into foster care or a welfare type system. Foster care can benefit children or harm them; the effects of foster care differ for every individual. These types of systems often have a major effect on young children’s physiological state. Children entering in foster care are often malnourished and have untreated health problems. A high percentage of children who are placed in these types of systems have mental health, physical health, and/or developmental issue which often originates while the individuals are still in the custody of the biological parents. Children in foster care should be provided with a healthy and nurturing environment which often provides positive long term results. The age of children in a foster care varies across the world, but it is often seen that majority of these children are young (George para. 1). There are more young children in the system because younger children require more adequate care than older children that are already in the system. Placing these children in welfare systems is supposed to be a healing process for them. Although this is supposed to be a healing process, statistics say these children have a negative experience while being in these systems, but this is not always the case. A number of children in foster care fall sucker to continuous neglect and recurrent abuse with the lack of nurturing and an unstable environment. These same children often have unmet

Recently I read an article in the San Diego Union Tribune entitled "Setting Up Foster Kids for Success" by Assemblyman Brian Maienschein. The article focused on helping foster kids succeed. The article points to statistics that show around half of foster kids who stay in the system until they age out wind up in dire straights - homeless, in prison, or victimized in some way. Some even wind up dead.