Thoughts on Child Welfare: Change is Needed

I have been in conflict about a lot of things involving our child welfare system for well over 10 years. I have often believed most people have the best intentions when trying to help our children and teens out but there are some things that I have been in deep thought about, not without contemplating possible solutions 1. Many children, youth and young adults are eligible for adoption. I think adoption is amazing, but maybe we should put potential adoptive parents on a website, since they are consenting adults and let the kiddos look through and choose a match instead??

2. I have been doing this work for years and have mastered the art of raising awareness without exploiting kids stories.Where is the disconnect where foster/adoptive parents feel the need to tell personal stories in excess on social media? Many say for awareness, for encouragement, for support? I believe foster youth have rights to be able to maintain ownership and tell their own stories when THEY feel ready and on their own social media pages and then we can share. There are also several organizations that are working hard in the trenches to get awareness out without exposing kids identifies. Check out Second Shift of Alabama recent podcast HERE. 3. Should certain individuals be recognized for the philanthropic work they do for foster youth? For instance when I worked for a non profit agency a couple of years back, there was this constant request from donors to have some type of acknowledgement from youth in foster care that their gift to the agency affected their life tremendously, such as with a letter or video, etc.

4. Adoption is not the only option. I was once in a space with primarily youth in foster care who would likely age out without consistent and permanent family and witnessed someone literally give an award a young person for getting adopted and my heart dropped. Don't get me wrong I was SUPER excited for the one youth, but I also thought "How must the other youth there felt?" All permanency options should be treated equal and all.options for future should be acknowledged whether its going out on your own, going to family, embracing a supportive village or a variety of other options we often discuss here at Pro Dev with EK. Child welfare reform should be on the top of the mind of every citizen, every politician and every world leader! More importantly, we as helping professionals need to improve our level of consistency in how we address and communicate about the system in which we work everyday and the holes that create barriers.

Let's be different and think outside the box. Podcast coming soon.

What do you think about my thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Anymore to add, let me know and comment on this post! Until next time.