Understanding Poverty And Injustice :

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

In America it is stated that 1 in every 84 children live in foster care circumstances via "Statistics on Foster Care". There is a numerous amount of contrasting children from various backgrounds and ages living within these special housing homes, and many are repeatedly in and out from unstable circumstances. As children grow and mature into the new faces of the world, they face many obstacles and tribulations that will alter their lives. Living in fostering homes is a substantial example and the effects of living in these institutions can truly be great.

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

In the United States 21% of all children are living below the federal poverty line. 2.9 million cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every year in the United States. 428,000 children are in the foster care system, and 107,918 foster children are waiting to be adopted. The foster care system is temporary out of home care for neglected, abused and impoverish children under 18. While the foster care system has all positive ideas, they fall short in providing certain needs for these children. Kids not only in America but all over the world that are living in poverty, are abused, neglected, and have an unstable home life. Nobody wants to live a life like that, especially not a child. They don’t know how to support themselves on their own, they need a family and a guardian that will take care of them, support, and love them.

Each year 542,000 children nationwide live temporarily with foster parents, while their own parents struggle to overcome an addiction to alcohol, drugs, illness, financial hardship or other difficulties (Mennen, Brensilver, & Trickett, 2010.) The maltreatment they experienced at home, the shock of being separated from their birth parents, and the uncertainty they face as they enter the foster care system leave many children feeling abandoned or lost. Children have many needs, but while in foster care these needs are not always met. A supportive family environment is created for those children whose parents are not able to take the

Unfortunately, there will always be kids who get abused and neglected, and there will always be people who live in poverty, but this issue can be improved. First, we need more educational training for foster parents, as well as educating the public about the foster care system. There needs to be more funding for foster care so that children have an opportunity to have an education, and foster parents have the right resources for their foster children. That is where this charity comes in, The Alliance for Children’s Rights.

Identifies skills, theories of change, program designs, partnerships, and ways of building schools where students achieve.

With the thousands of children in foster care, there is “an enormous financial and human cost” (Nakyanzi). The parents may want to get these kids the necessary things for school or their development, but cannot afford to get them; the kids will then not receive these necessities. If there were not so many children in the foster care system, it would not be such a huge expense and the children would receive the attention and necessities they need to develop. It does not help that the “federal foster care financing policies have created an imbalance in the funding of foster care over other child welfare approaches, resulting in children languishing in foster care unnecessarily” (Atwood). In doing so, the federal foster care financing policies are supporting a system that does not work for all the children causing them to be placed into a system for no good reason. If the federal foster care financing policies were to replace foster care with family preservation programs they would not lack with funding and the children would have everything that they would need. Even if they

Though I never entered foster care as a child and therefore, did not consider this topic directly related to my childhood; I see things differently now. The largest common denominator for the existence of foster care and the primary reason why children get placed is extreme poverty. Although I have gone hungry myself here and there in my life, and I also have encountered financial hardship throughout, it appears as really nothing compares to the histories of these families. The traumas they have endured living through despair and darkness of these circumstances is not easy to put into words. My research took me to different genders, different cultures, and different extremes of personal history. It was really heartbreaking to find out these facts via individual memoirs because it felt like they all sat in the middle of my room, up close and personal. What I do know now without a doubt is that I can clearly relate to the raw emotions which back up any human trauma out there. Any of these emotions are what connects humans all over the world; it gives people the key to relating to one another, especially in the space of suffering, as it will demonstrate through the call for and usage of foster care.

Helping these vulnerable children access the services, interaction, and the stability needed for them to grow-up to being successful members of society can be provided with foster placement. If the process is well planned and if the foster parents are given adequate support, the foster care system can be a valuable resource for abused and neglected children (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 321).

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

According to the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Robeson County’s youth death rate is 124 per 100,000, which is nearly twice the state average for 2004 through 2008.

An important issue that being unfairly under-discussed is poverty. Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. Almost 3 billion people of the world live on less than $2.50 a day. According to UNICEF almost 22,000 children die everyday due to poverty. Why is this not being discussed. There are less important issues being discussed in the world. It is not just about food it is also about education, well being, and health. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names and Infectious diseases continue to harm the lives of the poor across. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Keeping people fed, educated and healthy are just basic necessities. Why are these people being severely

I think Stevenson's statement that "the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice" (Stevenson 18) is saying that in today's society the plight of the poor is, a lot of the time, caused by a lack of justice. When one initially hears the word poor, I think most people associated it with a lack of money. While that is definitely one contributing factor, it can also encompass deficiencies in other areas, such as not having enough food, or lacking opportunities in education and housing. According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, "poverty is a multidimensional issue that concerns a person's level of health access and coverage, available educational opportunities and quality of life." (Santos) This multidimensional aspect shows that poverty can be a combination of factors, not simply the lack of money. Therefore, Bryan Stevenson does not associated wealth as the opposite of poverty. Instead, he associates it with justice. In communities that are characterized by high rates of poverty, the people lack the opportunities and resources to change this situation. In these instances, there is no justice for the poor. The lack of opportunities and unemployment contribute to the high crime rates in these areas.