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.
