“Teens in care should
be supported in becoming participating citizens, a loftier goal than
‘self-sufficiency,’ the current objective for foster care
independent living […] Participating citizenship is a standard
that recognizes both the individual dignity and potential of each
teen in foster care and the principles of our democracy.”
~ The Future for Teens in Foster Care
“The social workers weren’t competent and the child-care
workers weren’t competent, so I felt like the whole process
of the group home was day to day. Keep the kids contained, keep them
quiet, if they get out of hand kick them out and put another one in
that bed. Keep it moving.”
~ a foster teen, The Future for Teens in Foster care
“Each year hundreds of teenage girls living in foster care have
babies, and must cope with the child welfare bureaucracy that often
seems to be set against their efforts to build a strong family.”
~ Caring for our Children
“Teen parents feel they are not being supported in their efforts
to parent their children, and that because the system expects them
to end up on welfare, they are not given the skills or support to
become independent.”
~ Caring for Our Children
“The purpose of [case conferences] is to plan what will happen
to you while you are in care and when you leave care. This includes
where you will be placed, where you will go to school, when and how
often you can visit your family, what kind of services you should
be receiving and where you will go when you leave care.”
~ Rights and Advocacy Guidelines
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  other
publications
The
Future for Teens in Foster Care
Since founding Youth Advocacy Center nearly 15 years
ago, Betsy and Paul have talked to hundreds of teenagers in foster
care about their lives. We have found that you can ask one set of
questions and be overwhelmed and saddened by the forces that surround
youth: poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, violence and incarceration.
You can ask another set of questions and be outraged by the injustices
they have suffered in foster care and the violations and humiliations
they endure each day. Or you can ask a different set of questions
and be inspired by their hopes and dreams, their varied interests,
their commitments and passions and their desire to participate fully
in society.
In this report, as in our work at Youth Advocacy Center, we focus
on the third set of questions. Teens in foster care must have the
opportunity to become participating citizens; we define participation
as pursuing one’s interests and contributing in the public
sphere through employment and civic engagement. Too frequently,
the foster care system does not provide this opportunity.
Enormous gaps exist among child welfare policy, its practice and
teens’ actual experiences. This report is informed by our
own experiences as lawyers and program developers working in the
foster care system. More importantly, it is informed by the perspective
of youth in foster care and those who have left the foster care
system.
To order a hard copy of our report for $12, please email yac@youthadvocacycenter.org
or call 212.675-6181.
Caring
for our Children
Published in 1995, this report by Betsy Krebs, Esq.,
and Nedda de Castro, CSW, documents the foster care system’s
shortcomings in effectively working with teenage mothers.
Each year, hundreds of teenage girls living in foster care have
babies and must cope with the child welfare bureaucracy that often
seems to work against their efforts to build a strong family. These
teens and their babies face obstacles that other parents and children
do not. Many of these problems were widely recognized by youth and
child welfare professionals for years, but had never been documented.
In 1994, Youth Advocacy Center began research to identify and document
the issues surrounding the placement of pregnant and parenting teenagers
in the New York City foster care system. The focus of Caring for
Our Children is the perspective of the teens who go through the
system. Youth Advocacy Center surveyed over 60 pregnant and parenting
teens in foster care, held group meetings and interviews with these
teens and conducted interviews with social workers and city officials
working in the system. In the summer of 1995, Youth Advocacy Center
convened a task force of teen mothers in foster care to prioritize
the problems we identified and develop recommendations for change.
Rights
and Advocacy Guidelines
Youth Advocacy Center developed Rights and Advocacy Guidelines (©
1996) to address common questions about New York City teens’
rights in foster care and as they age out of the system-everything
from adoption to clothing allowances to college assistance to immigration
questions. Written by Betsy Krebs and Evette Soto-Maldonado, Esq.,
Youth Advocacy Center originally published the Guidelines in 1996,
and the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Division updated
them in 2002. The Guidelines are based on New York State and City
laws and regulations of New York City's Administration for Children's
Services. It also has useful information about social services and
legal services organizations that help teens.
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