"Yeah, what she said..." Foster Care Advocate Rep. Karen Bass

"The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence."

I love this quote from Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life. I've repeated these words ever since I heard them spoken during a CNN interview with Piers Morgan.

I've also tried to live them.

In my own small circle of influence, I've committed to speak up for the fatherless -- children without families, without loving parents, without a safe place to lay their heads at night.

What encourages me even more is when I see or hear or read about someone else speaking up for the fatherless too -- especially someone with huge influence.

So I was excited to read an article in the May issue of Essence Magazine entitled "Fostering Hope: A powerful voice in politics works to reform America's foster care system." "Fostering Hope" highlighted California Representative Karen Bass, founder of the newly-created Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, whose "voice rings loudest for those she says are most silenced."

Rep. Karen Bass

As I read this story, I felt myself thinking, "Yeah, what she said!" 

Rep. Bass is committed to fight for foster care reform and new legislation created to empower U.S. foster children. 

So I'll share a little of what she said here...

According to Rep. Bass, the worst challenge facing today's foster children is instability.

"They know that at any moment a social worker can yank them out of their foster home or school. Foster youth don't get to be normal, outrageous teenagers... Because of this, these youngsters lack secure connections with adults, and without a stable home and parent, other issues arise, usually with their education and health. Some switch schools multiple times, while others run away, become homeless and abuse substances. And a new phenomenon is that older men -- and tragically even some foster boys -- lure foster girls into sex work, mostly starting at age 12."

Runaways, homelessness, substance abuse, sex trafficking... The future is bleak for many foster children.

Yet as much as I love the push to support foster children, recently God's been moving my heart to take a "step backward" in my advocacy for children. While I'm still very passionate about finding homes for children who need either temporary foster families or permanent forever families, I'm also rooting for ministries that support at-risk children before they are removed from their original families. 

I pray that more children can be supported before they become orphans.

I was delighted to discover that Rep. Bass agrees..

"Most states and countries have serious restrictions on federal financing for foster youth. The system normally requires social workers to remove a child from the biological parents before the foster care system can provide that child with money or resources. A better solution would be to use the money to help that child's family and, if possible, not put the child in the system at all."

All I can say is, "Yeah, what she said!"


**Think about it: Who are you using your influence for today? Who are you speaking up for today?

Carla

Hitting Home: Crisis in US Foster Care

What comes to mind when you hear the word orphan?

You may think of children far away, across the seas.

You may think of the Indian or Russian or Sudanese child that has lost his or her parents to AIDS or extreme poverty or civil war.

Your mind may conjure up images of the children you've seen on world relief organizations' commercials -- distended bellies, bodies like skeletons, flies landing on nearly every body part...

And while that image truly exists in many parts of the world, let's not forget a simple truth: There are orphans right here in America.

The orphan crisis in the US may look a little different from other countries, but it's still a crisis, one I've ranted over before.

Well, since it's May and happens to also be Foster Care Awareness Month, I feel the need to rant a little more. Please bear with me for just a bit...

Today over 500,000 children are in state foster care in the U.S. 

Unfortunately, most states don't have a sufficient number of foster care homes to take in these children.

Many foster children end up in temporary shelters and group homes, when what they really need is a safe short-term family.

Of these 500,000 foster children, over 100,000 are legal orphans, meaning while they may have at least one living parent, their parents' legal parental rights have been terminated in the courts of their respective states.

...Which means - there are over 100,000 children in our country waiting to be adopted.

Few of these children are blonde, blue-eyed infants.

Most of them are over the age of 6.

Some of them are teenagers that have bounced from home to home.

Many of them have special needs and behavioral challenges.

Many of them are African American.

ALL of them need a loving family - TODAY.

There are many wonderful Christian organizations working hard to meet the needs of foster children in their respective states: The CALL, Project Zero, Project 1.27, 4Kids of South Florida, just to name a few.

But they need individual Christians to join in their mission.

What can YOU do? What can I do?

It's a question we must ask ourselves.

It's a question we should seek God about.

Will you?


Carla