I once lived in an overcrowded, roach infested, public housing apartment in Astoria, Queens. From her lack of concern, you would think my foster mom enjoyed the roaches’ company. I certainly didn’t, and so I reported my discomfort to my social worker. The home was shut down, and my foster brother, Elijah, and I moved […]
My story is not typical of children who enter the foster care system. My mother was 15 when she had me. We grew up together, her mother raising both of us, in the Los Angeles projects once known as Aliso Village. I did not suffer horrific family tragedy; on the contrary, we were a very […]
Before foster care, I lived with my grandmother, my uncle and my older brother. I can’t remember exactly what age I was, but as a young girl I decided I would be a lawyer. I lived in poor communities where drugs, hunger and homelessness were normal, and I wanted to help people who were unable […]
At age 9, I entered a moment in my life that would change my future. I waved goodbye to the woman that gave birth to me. I was in a police car, on my way to foster care. At that moment, I felt liberated because I would no longer endure the pain of watching my […]
I was 16 when I was placed in foster care, and I went through four different placements in as many months. I felt like my life was in complete chaos. Not knowing what might happen to me was terrifying. Where would I sleep that night? How would I get to school? Seemingly simple things suddenly […]
“One of the greatest titles in the world is parent, and one of the biggest blessings in the world is to have parents to call mom and dad,” former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint once said. Like many foster youth, all I wanted was a family to call my own. I wanted parents to tell me that they […]
Bloggers Expose the Hardships and Silver Linings of Childhoods Spent in State Care NEW YORK, NY – On May 1, in recognition of National Foster Care Month, national advocacy organization Children’s Rights will launch its second annual Fostering the Future campaign to raise public awareness about life in state care. The campaign’s website, www.fosteringthefuture.com, will […]
It was 2010 when the idea first hit. Filmmaker Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza received a phone call from an old friend. It was Paul Griffin, founder of the Possibility Project in NYC,a nonprofit organization that works to empower youth. Each year, a group of young people who have experienced foster care come together to write and […]
When Children’s Rights Board Member Darryl “DMC” McDaniels recommended honoring Rosie Perez with our Children’s Rights Champion Award, he was on to something. We already knew about Rosie’s incredible artistic and philanthropic work — but only when she spoke at our annual benefit did we learn details about her childhood spent as a ward of […]
Amid outrage over recent deaths of children under the supervision of child welfare agencies in California, a newly formed commission is calling for sweeping reforms, according to a recent series of reports by the Los Angeles Times. The first report revealed staggering statistics about California’s foster care system: Those living in homes run by private agencies were about […]
