My observations today regard the organization known as Foster Care Alumni of America. This is an organization whose stated mission is "to connect the alumni community and to transform policy and practice, ensuring opportunity for people in and from foster care."
As an alumnus of foster care who lived in foster care for 11 years, and as an advocate for those currently and formerly in foster care, it is my strong belief that Foster Care Alumni of America should be headed by a foster care alumni.
After all, it would be un-thinkable for a white person to lead the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) or the Urban League. Moreover, men do not lead the National Organization for Women (NOW), heterosexuals do not lead the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, and young 20-something-year-olds do not lead the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). It is likewise unthinkable that a non-foster care alumnus leads Foster Care Alumni of America.
It’s time for the board and funders of Foster Care Alumni of America to be sensitive to their stakeholders and find and hire an executive who is an alumni of the foster care system, to do otherwise is a slap in the face to those of us who survived foster care.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Let me start with foster care reform, which is more critical now than ever before. Over 800,000 vulnerable young people enter care every year, and about 500,000 vulnerable young people are in care at any given time. Most of them come out of care more damaged than when they entered care. A just society with vast resources ought to be ashamed for tolerating, and even accepting, the preventable suffering of so many vulnerable young people.
While there have been many policy changes, more attention paid, and more resources directed toward foster care, much work is left undone, and our efforts are still falling woefully short. Someone needs to be an authentic voice and an indigenous presence in foster care reform. Who will be their voice and represent their presence? I guess the responsibility falls to people like me who lived in 15 damn foster homes to lead the charge as there are so few of us in a position to do so.
Yes, I sometimes do get weary, but I have a unique set of skills, insights, gifts and experiences, and the need for dramatic reform is unrelenting, so I must be unrelenting as well. I am confident that civil rights leaders; equal rights leaders for women, and the leaders of other important movements must be weary at times, but they soldier on in search of social justice.
I am convinced that an innovative and critical approach in foster care reform is to build the capacity of the largely underutilized resource of foster care alumni.
Certainly, the historic child welfare leaders have been largely ineffective. After all, why not invest resources in foster care alumni as a change agent? Everything else has failed and it is time to think outside of the box.
While there have been many policy changes, more attention paid, and more resources directed toward foster care, much work is left undone, and our efforts are still falling woefully short. Someone needs to be an authentic voice and an indigenous presence in foster care reform. Who will be their voice and represent their presence? I guess the responsibility falls to people like me who lived in 15 damn foster homes to lead the charge as there are so few of us in a position to do so.
Yes, I sometimes do get weary, but I have a unique set of skills, insights, gifts and experiences, and the need for dramatic reform is unrelenting, so I must be unrelenting as well. I am confident that civil rights leaders; equal rights leaders for women, and the leaders of other important movements must be weary at times, but they soldier on in search of social justice.
I am convinced that an innovative and critical approach in foster care reform is to build the capacity of the largely underutilized resource of foster care alumni.
Certainly, the historic child welfare leaders have been largely ineffective. After all, why not invest resources in foster care alumni as a change agent? Everything else has failed and it is time to think outside of the box.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Foster Care Alumni Issues
The Fatal Flaw in Pew’s Foster Panel
By John Seita The foster care system is broken and needs substantial overhaul. That much is evident. It is also clear that most of the recommendations that have been made over the years for improving that system have failed.Which brings us to the latest effort, from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care.
The commission released a report last month recommending significant changes in foster care financing and ways to strengthen the courts to better help foster children. As a former foster child, my concern is not about how many of the recommendations will become policy or if they would work. Both are impossible to predict.
What disturbs me is the composition of the commission.
I agree that improving foster care must be a priority. I lived in more than 15 foster homes. I understand the misery of feeling alone, unwanted and unloved. I have experienced the difficulties of life both in and after foster care.
The 16-member commission includes one foster care alumna. In the old days, people of color called this kind of representation “tokenism.”
The commission lacks the alumni participation to be credible. The participation of alumni at the table of power is essential to the design of foster care policy, practice and resource allocation. Yet the views of foster care alumni are barely included. Instead, a cartel of the usual suspects has commandeered the process, which will result in the same old sorry “reforms” being rained upon foster kids – without the input of those in care or formerly in care, who are the real experts.
Few of us would endorse the findings of a civil rights commission composed of 15 Caucasians and one person of color. Few would embrace the conclusions of a women’s commission composed of 15 men and one woman. Why would anyone embrace the views of a foster care commission that systemically denies the importance of a representative alumni role and partnership?
In my communications with the Pew Commission more than a year ago, I urged that more alumni be included on the commission. The commission staff informed me that “focus groups” would gather the input of alumni and that views from those now and formerly in care would be gathered through the Internet. Therefore, there was no need for increased alumni participation on the commission.
The commission apparently doesn’t realize that for many alumni, this patronizing approach renders its findings suspect. The composition of the commission cannot reflect the views of the population it purports to represent. Rather, its elitism and exclusion continue a pattern of stifling participation, denying empowerment and marginalizing its consumers.
If the Pew Commission were a business, millions of former foster kids would boycott it.
While consumer inclusion might seem radical to the Pew Commission, the involvement of consumers on boards and commissions is not uncommon in other fields. The United States Commission on Civil Rights, for instance, is a diverse and balanced group of eight people, including Caucasians, African-Americans, a Native American and a person with a disability. The Michigan Council on Developmental Disabilities includes people with developmental disabilities, family members of people with such disabilities, and professionals from agencies charged with improving opportunities for developmentally disabled people.
Similarly, former foster children must be an integral part of the decision-making process for improving foster care policy and practice. Clearly, those in charge of foster care have not done a good job on their own. One thousand blue-ribbon panels made up of non-consumers cannot fully know how to improve the foster care system.
I urge Congress to take no action on the Pew recommendations until a commission of foster care alumni reviews the report and issues its own findings. We cannot continue to harm foster children through ignorance and arrogance. Otherwise, we risk following the adage, “If you want more of the same, keep doing what you’re doing.”
John Seita is on the faculty of the School of Social Work at Michigan State University. His most recent book is Kids Who Outwit Adults.
By John Seita The foster care system is broken and needs substantial overhaul. That much is evident. It is also clear that most of the recommendations that have been made over the years for improving that system have failed.Which brings us to the latest effort, from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care.
The commission released a report last month recommending significant changes in foster care financing and ways to strengthen the courts to better help foster children. As a former foster child, my concern is not about how many of the recommendations will become policy or if they would work. Both are impossible to predict.
What disturbs me is the composition of the commission.
I agree that improving foster care must be a priority. I lived in more than 15 foster homes. I understand the misery of feeling alone, unwanted and unloved. I have experienced the difficulties of life both in and after foster care.
The 16-member commission includes one foster care alumna. In the old days, people of color called this kind of representation “tokenism.”
The commission lacks the alumni participation to be credible. The participation of alumni at the table of power is essential to the design of foster care policy, practice and resource allocation. Yet the views of foster care alumni are barely included. Instead, a cartel of the usual suspects has commandeered the process, which will result in the same old sorry “reforms” being rained upon foster kids – without the input of those in care or formerly in care, who are the real experts.
Few of us would endorse the findings of a civil rights commission composed of 15 Caucasians and one person of color. Few would embrace the conclusions of a women’s commission composed of 15 men and one woman. Why would anyone embrace the views of a foster care commission that systemically denies the importance of a representative alumni role and partnership?
In my communications with the Pew Commission more than a year ago, I urged that more alumni be included on the commission. The commission staff informed me that “focus groups” would gather the input of alumni and that views from those now and formerly in care would be gathered through the Internet. Therefore, there was no need for increased alumni participation on the commission.
The commission apparently doesn’t realize that for many alumni, this patronizing approach renders its findings suspect. The composition of the commission cannot reflect the views of the population it purports to represent. Rather, its elitism and exclusion continue a pattern of stifling participation, denying empowerment and marginalizing its consumers.
If the Pew Commission were a business, millions of former foster kids would boycott it.
While consumer inclusion might seem radical to the Pew Commission, the involvement of consumers on boards and commissions is not uncommon in other fields. The United States Commission on Civil Rights, for instance, is a diverse and balanced group of eight people, including Caucasians, African-Americans, a Native American and a person with a disability. The Michigan Council on Developmental Disabilities includes people with developmental disabilities, family members of people with such disabilities, and professionals from agencies charged with improving opportunities for developmentally disabled people.
Similarly, former foster children must be an integral part of the decision-making process for improving foster care policy and practice. Clearly, those in charge of foster care have not done a good job on their own. One thousand blue-ribbon panels made up of non-consumers cannot fully know how to improve the foster care system.
I urge Congress to take no action on the Pew recommendations until a commission of foster care alumni reviews the report and issues its own findings. We cannot continue to harm foster children through ignorance and arrogance. Otherwise, we risk following the adage, “If you want more of the same, keep doing what you’re doing.”
John Seita is on the faculty of the School of Social Work at Michigan State University. His most recent book is Kids Who Outwit Adults.
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