TRUCKEE, Calif. (PRWEB)
May 12, 2022

iFoster, a national 501c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that every child growing up outside of their biological home has the resources and opportunities they need to become successful, has released The Voice of the Foster Care Community Report at http://www.VoiceofFosterCare.org. The Report is the largest-ever opinion survey of people inside the foster care system.

Congress established May as National Foster Care Month in 2021 as an opportunity to raise awareness about the challenges of children in the foster care system, and for advocates to encourage Congress to implement policies to improve the lives of these children.

“Each individual youth in foster care is alone. We have to worry about paperwork, we have to worry about food, we have to worry about school expenses, we have to worry about our future. I just want to go to college and get an education. … I’d like to tell the Biden administration that I and many other foster youth need support. Our families may have abused us, been unable to take care of us, or abandoned us, but we still matter. We want the ability to have hopeful futures, so please support us in our dreams. I want to have to stop worrying about court and paperwork. I want to feel secure, even if I don’t have a family. I’m alone, but I still want to be a part of this world, so please take us into account and give us an actual fighting chance.” – Currently in Foster Care Youth, California, From the Voice of the Foster Care Community Report.

The report, sponsored by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, will be published annually. The May 2022 Report includes responses from 2,411 people in the iFoster network, including 1,049 transition-age foster youth (ages 16 to 24), 1,134 caregivers, and 228 workers in 49 states and the District of Columbia. The Report marks the first time that the voice of youth in foster care, their caregivers, both families and institutions, and people working within the system, have spoken in such detail to policymakers. The survey for the May 2023 Report is now live at http://www.VoiceofFosterCare.org.

Angela LoBue, Senior Program Officer at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, said: “We are proud to support iFoster’s work lifting up voices within the foster care community. As the largest national online community in foster care, iFoster is uniquely positioned to tap into the lived experiences of the entire foster care community to provide real-time insights into the issues that need to be addressed to help young people in the foster care system achieve their full potential.”

iFoster is using the report as the basis for crosswalk analysis, comparing legislative agendas and proposed budgets to the clear mandates for change articulated by the foster care community. Starting in May with the release of the report, the foster care community will engage with taxpayers in every state to reach out to their elected officials via http://www.voiceoffostercare.org to ensure the voices of those most impacted by the foster care system are heard.

Key Findings from the report:

The System Fails to Prioritize Child Well-Being.

FACT: Children in foster care experience lifelong challenges not only from the trauma of maltreatment but also from their time in the child welfare system.

FINDINGS: Mental and physical health problems, food and housing insecurity, education, and substance use are often highlighted as priority needs. The system is focused on paperwork, policies, and procedures and does not prioritize the well-being of children and youth.

Structural Inequities Drive Child Welfare Involvement.

FACT: Minority and vulnerable communities are overrepresented within the foster care system.

FINDINGS: Children of color and LGBTQ+ youth face racism and discrimination, which affects their entrance to and exit from the child welfare system. Poverty intersects with discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and sexual identity, making poor youth of color and sexual or gender minority youth particularly vulnerable to child welfare involvement.

Providing a Stable, Permanent Family Needs to be a Priority.

FACT: The longer children are in the child welfare system, the worse their short- and long-term outcomes are compared to children not involved in the system.

FINDINGS: Greater efforts are needed to support biological parents prior to the removal of children and to help them regain their children as soon as possible. Though once children are removed, caregivers and workers and advocates identify the need to prioritize the well-being of the child versus the needs of the parents as the source for delayed termination of parental rights permanency.

Resource Scarcity and Inequity is Rampant throughout the System.

FACT: The child welfare system is under resourced and underfunded and this has dire consequences for children.

FINDINGS: Youth need more equitable access to the resources that do exist and more services as they age out of care without a family, services, like rental assistance, employment, and money for daily expenses, and broad support for achieving individual goals like a high school diploma and a college degree. There is consensus that youth deserve more time to achieve their goals. An important oversight is the unique needs of caregivers, as well as workers and advocates are often dismissed.

Teaching Youth Self-Sufficiency Must be a Priority.

FACT: Youth who age out of foster care are more likely to experience homelessness, as well as significant health disparities.

FINDINGS: Overall, transition-age foster youth fear for their futures because they feel ill prepared and under resourced to face emancipation in an evolving world. And caregivers worry they won’t have the stamina and financial stability to continue to care. The foster care community would like to see the child welfare system held accountable for, and adequately funded and supported to ensure all transition-age youth are prepared for independence.

Those Who Live and Work in the Child Welfare System Should have a say in its Functioning.

FACT: Current and former foster care youth are not part of the decisions-making process that impacts their lives.

FINDINGS: The community feels strongly they should have input into the decisions and policies that impact their ability to raise foster children. Both current and former foster care youth identified free or low-cost housing (98%), issues of homelessness (96%), and job training and employment opportunities (93%) as the main priorities for the Biden administration. Caregivers identified it was essential to ensure that children and youth get the services they are eligible for. They called for improvements in mental health and substance use treatment supports and increasing foster care and kinship care stipends. Workers and advocates identified issues of eligibility, improved mental health and substance abuse treatment, and increased child maltreatment prevention. In addition to these services, there was overwhelming consensus that Trauma-informed training should be mandatory for all foster parents and professionals working with foster youth.

About iFoster

iFoster is a 501c3 national nonprofit with the largest and most inclusive online community of young people, caregivers, and organizations in foster care, with over 70,000 members in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam. iFoster’s mission is to ensure that every child growing up outside of their biological home has the resources and opportunities they need to become successful.