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25% of foster children develop ptsd, this is twice the rate of war veterans 😳 we need to change this and better preserve the family unit.

https://youtu.be/yrhBmcKS_-w

Twenty thousand to thirty thousand young adults age out of foster care each year in the United States, this goes unnoticed by the masses seemingly or simply not yet affected by this broken system. In some personal interviews with ten personally known former foster youth, I was able to evaluate what each person felt intrinsically affected by during their course in care if any. I also asked about their housing situations since aging out of care, and what they felt hindered them most in their effort to obtain and sustain adequate housing. We briefly touched on services offered to them upon exit and their age upon leaving.
Of the ten individuals, nine felt bad placements were the main obstacle while still in care, which had also been my issue. The remaining respondent felt it was due to a lack of mental health care and the overuse of medication, which was cited in quite a few recent research studies. The Boston College’s Journal of Law and Social Justice where the opening passage spoke about the su***de of a seven-year-old boy speaks to the danger of over-medicating for behavioral conduct and no real necessity.
About seven of my personal respondents reported prolonged intervals of homelessness (6-18 months at a time) while two say they were briefly displaced until getting stable on their own, and the last said they went back to family members they were originally taken from. Though this is a small sample group it is apparent that housing is another gross disadvantage for this population. Each respondent reported a lack of sufficient family and community support, this is where I know the system fails us the most, rendering us the most vulnerable adult population for security.
I suggest we start at the root of this issue, the breakdown of the family unit. If we diverted the money used to place children in out-of-home placement and instead used those funds for the preservation of said families, we would be able to avoid the long-term detrimental effects of the separation. In many states, adequate housing is the most prevalent reason for separation stemming from poverty and educational lack. If this family is offered the resources needed to be stable, they have a greater chance of recovery from whatever hardship together instead of the constant uncertainty of life in care for both parent and child/ren.
The Family Unification Program (FUP) is run by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); its target population is those dealing with child protective services. This program (though grossly underused) is also available to youth aging out of the foster system with a referral from a supervising or community agency. In a data report provided by HUD and published May of 2014 it is shown that more families participate in FUP, and that many aging out youth are rarely referred with a whopping seventy percent of public child welfare agencies reporting to have never referred any youth.
I think to myself if the need is so great and even more apparent, why aren’t these people offering them to the population it is designed for? Why not offer help to children you discharge knowing their time in care is approaching its end. I fathom the oversaturation of cases paired with limited workers could play a part. Even the fact that many workers aren’t well informed about these resources in whole, but why would that be? The federal government manages these programs and local resources are typically what these local agencies cover, maybe they need to manage them as well. Or simply draw on the idea of providing these resources since they are proven effective.
If the local governments funded these programs, I know greater access to proper support can be available to those who truly are in need. Also, as a former waitlisted foster youth and again as a parent the help often is not readily available (especially in larger metropolitan areas I’ve noticed) for those in true need. As mentioned in the earlier referenced data report, many children are either able to avoid separation or be reunified with their original families. This is where each local government can truly help those they serve with more referrals to the existing programs, and the creation of more like it to suit the needs of their youth populations.
This can give the local governments the ability to help these families in a timely manner, and lessen the load on social workers, foster-parents, and facilitators. They can also:
 Save money without the costly overhead fees per family displaced
 Preserve the family unit together and address any other issues
 Create more pleasant experiences for families involved with CPS (Child Protective Services)
 Assist families in becoming self-sufficient in turn teaching the youth in question better responsibility and accountability.
 Aid in dismantling the fear associated with the families they serve.
When we look at this population of parents and the way these experiences shape their own abilities, we can better understand why early prevention stands as the only way we may truly ensure the effects are short-lived. As a unit the family's efficacy is likely to increase and the same is true for a family separation where it decreases. The Special Committee on Child Separations conducted a review showing many discrepancies portrayed by DHS against biological parents. Many having children removed with allegations and no actual evidence to support them with Philadelphia being a sort of “hotspot” for these occurrences. A Philadelphia Family Court judge was recently reprimanded for failing many families by way of insults, neglect, and not allowing due process keeping many separated families alienated from each other.
If these families instead are offered the estimated thirty-five thousand dollars per child per year it takes to keep them apart and support these families, we can change the course of the coming generations. Right now, places like Philadelphia are incentivized for separating families with the very funds that can be used for preserving the same families. It has been shown through FUP that addressing and eliminating housing barriers works for families dealing with side-effects of poverty, and usually stabilizes the families and allow them to accept resources they previously could not because of financial insecurities left untreated. Now imagine there being safeguards in place for families in contact or under the supervision of CPS. Local resources need to be prioritized so that they are available to these families to meet the actual goal, preserving the family and protecting our most vulnerable population, our children.
I propose thirty percent of funds given to any state for the protection of their child population be allocated for housing communities dedicated to these families on an emergency basis. Steven Volk wrote “Philadelphia has reduced the city foster rolls by about 29% since June 2017, according to DHS figures. But that success pales against calls for a reduction of 50% or more, including from the deeply influential Casey Family Programs, the largest operating foundation focused on improving foster care and child welfare. Philly still removes youth from homes experiencing poverty at a rate about twice that of cities like New York and Chicago.”
Imagine being a victim of domestic violence, your abuser is the bread winner and to leave means to protect you and your child/ren but also to become homeless. Imagine seeking help but all resources are full and have no space or funding available, so they suggest respite care, so your children are not affected. Sounds helpful and even innocent right? A parent who refused and decided to stay with family was reported and investigated for not allowing her family to be separated during such a traumatic time. Had the proper resources existed she would not have been taken away from her children (as she saw it) and later committed su***de. I found an article showing the epidemiology of parents who pass prematurely by avoidable causes (like su***de) and found that biological parents die 3.5 times more than their counterparts.
Many issues can be resolved by being sure that we protect our children better than we have in the past, and without tearing them away from home. We can restore parents' trust in their local government's commitment to assisting them, this will make it more likely for parents to seek their assistance. We can stop the lasting effects of parental alienation and child attachment disorders by never forcing them apart. We can help those in need decreasing homeless populations worldwide, and this will build the stronger communities we dream of.
This remedy can save lives across our great country, and by strengthening these families we can strengthen our economic standing overall. More parents at work, more children at home, more families recovered, more children's dreams preserved, and most importantly more lessons learned. Can we give tomorrow a chance? No more shaming parents for needing help, or the homeless for being homeless, or the impoverished for facing poverty. Each of these issues has different roots and the only way to discover them is by first restoring and nurturing its final product; us. So, can we give tomorrow a chance?
Eventually these children age out of foster care and are left with family to fall back on, this can easily be avoided by supplying the needs of each family for so long as no real danger is present. We have a huge problem, and when I say we I mean every nation not protecting these families which can save generations to come. We know remedies that work efficiently to address this issue and we need to expand on it before it’s too late and we are flooded with childless parents, and parentless children. Are we willing to give tomorrow a chance?



DHS Give Us Back Our Children https://scribe.org/catalogue/dhs-give-us-back-our-children
Advocates fighting to reunite families and protect unaffected families from social injustices portrayed by the Philadelphia Department of Human Service.

https://whyy.org/segments/philadelphia-parents-separated-from-their-kids-protest-city-state-agencies/
Protest in Philadelphia’s City Hall outside of Family Court with Every Mother is a Working Mother and DHS Give Us Back Our Kids.


References
Ortiz, E. (2021, July 30). 'she was a bully': A judge's misconduct reveals Havoc of Pa. Family Court. NBCNews.com. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/one-disaster-after-another-how-family-court-judge-failed-families-n1275562
Research, M. P., Kleinman, R., Dion, M. R., Kauff, J., Dworsky, A., & Hall, C. (2014). Housing for youth aging out of Foster Care. HUD User. Retrieved May 13, 2022, fromhttps://www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/pdf/youth_hsg_main_report.pdf
Volk, S. (2022, April 22). The Philadelphia agency responsible for keeping children safe is failing families, says scathing new report. Billy Penn. Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://billypenn.com/2022/04/22/philadelphia-dhs-child-welfare-abuse-reform-council-report/
Wall-Wieler PhD student in Community Health Sciences, E. (2018, May 9). Losing children to foster care endangers mothers' lives. The Conversation. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/losing-children-to-foster-care-endangers-mothers-lives-93618
Cummings, M. M. (2012). Sedating Forgotten Children: How Unnecessary Psychotropic Medication Endangers Foster Children’s Rights and Heath. Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice, 32(2), 357–390.

Losing children to foster care endangers mothers' lives Mothers are dying prematurely after their children are taken into foster care.

Kensington, Philadelphia Soft White Underbelly images of the drug addicted and homeless community in Kensington, a neighborhood in Philadelphia.Here's a link to a GoFundMe campaign t...