As many of you should know, the Foster Care System is a national program that finds substitute families for children who can't stay with their biological parents. This program can both save and kill a child, emotionally or physically. The children in the foster care system are taken from all kinds of family situations. From all kinds of different abuse to family on the street to dangerous living conditions. Usually, it's a good thing for the child to be out of the situation, but there are cases that the foster care system is worse than the original home. Most often, the child is in quite a few different homes during his or her time in the system. Sometimes, this is because they were in an abusive foster home, or they got into trouble or the family they were with couldn't deal with problems the child may have had. Due to this, the child could have trouble making friends. He or she will make new friends at the foster home, then if they're moved they will lose those friends, and at the next home they'll be to scared to make more for fear of being hurt if they are moved again. My point of this speech is to tell you about some of the things the children go through.
I have known quite a few boys in foster care. Most of them have had drug problems, or done drugs before, or have drank. A few of the boys I've known have runaway from the foster home, even when it seemed like a pretty good one to me.
The foster kids I've known have been through a lot of things. They've been abused, snatched out of one home and into another, lied to, lost friends, and many more things that we probable couldn't even imagine. One boy I became, and still am, really good friends with, told me "you never want to be in foster care," and I believe him. Another person I have spoken to, while never having been in the system that I know of, said this, "It takes a strong person to get through the Foster care system."
Some of the foster boys have had anger problems. This can get them into serious trouble. They'll get into fights, or make threats in their anger, or do something really stupid to get them taken away from their foster home. Whether by the social worker, or the police. One why to help these boys and girls is to provide someone they can talk to, a psychologist, or a friend, or someone else. Another way is to give them an outlet for their anger. Anything would help.
These boys and girls in foster care need more help than they're getting. They should be placed with relatives when they can be, and when they can't the social worker needs to check the foster family out thoroughly and explain to them the problems of the child and make sure they can handle it. If a child isn't placed in numerous homes during their time in the foster care program, they'll have a better chances of having the confidence they need to make friends, or get a job, or get good grades. They'll trust their current guardian more if they haven't been though a dozen before, and if they can trust their guardian then maybe they'll come to them for advise on what to do when they have a problem.
It would help the foster care program if we, the public, volunteered. Not just as foster families, but maybe as Big Brothers or Big Sisters, or if you know a foster child, you can try to become their friend. Talk to them, be that person they can rely on. Even if they are moved to a different home, give them a number they can call you at, an address. See if you can find out their contact information. Stay their friend. They need you.
