From foster kid to adult BY KRISTA RAMSEY

From foster kid to adult

BY KRISTA RAMSEY

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/EDIT01/709160343/1090

Compared with the brutal death that 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel suffered in

foster care, youths who age out of the child-welfare system seem like

lucky survivors.

They've been mistreated by their biological families, then shocked when

taken from them. They've adjusted to new homes, expectations and rigid

rules that make even accepting a friend's overnight invitation a

bureaucratic nightmare.

Finally, at age 18 - with support from their foster families and perhaps

even reconciliation with their biological families - they're ready for a

better life of their own.

It would be fitting if that's how the story ended for foster kids who

have suffered so much trauma. But the truth is that while most teens

survive the system, only a minority remain unscathed after their

wrenching departure from it.

The same system that snatches them from unstable settings when they're

children spits them out into even greater instability the day they turn

adult.

Youth advocates call it a national disaster.

Many of the 24,000 teens aging out each year celebrate their 18th

birthdays by being handed bus fare and their belongings in plastic

garbage bags, sometimes being chauffeured to the nearest Salvation Army

shelter.

That's where many will end up. Within a year of aging out, 70 percent

have dropped out of school, half are unemployed, 15 percent are homeless

and a fifth have spent time in jail, according to studies by the

University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children. Research

suggests that half the adults in homeless shelters spent time in the

child-welfare system.

Tamika Spence faced this uncertain future at age 17. Jostled among 14

foster homes, she had no contact with her biological family, had just

given birth to twins and had no high school diploma.

Tamika had one thing going for her: She lived in Hamilton County, home

to what youth advocates call one of the nation's best transitional

programs for foster youth, the Lighthouse Independent Living program.

Developed in 1981 by Hamilton County and juvenile court officials and

administered by Lighthouse Youth Services, the program allows teens an

extraordinary test-run at real life - for a full year before they have

to do it for good.

Rather than warehousing foster teens in group homes, the program fans

them out across the county in their own apartments, steeping them first

in independent living instruction, then nudging them - sometimes against

their own wishes - to live on their own, with financial support from the

county and weekly visits by their caseworkers.

They manage their own finances, shop for their own groceries and get

themselves up for school. They deal with landlords and do their laundry.

They're expected to hold part-time jobs, establish financial nest eggs

and keep their apartments - and noses - clean. Often, their neighbors

and high-school classmates know little about their situations.

"There is no independent living program out there that shows as much

promise as the Lighthouse program," says Pete Ranalli, whose Vision

Quest youth services program operates in seven states and who plans to

replicate the Lighthouse approach nationally.

"The differences are putting youth in apartments scattered across the

county and that Lighthouse surrounds them with help and support. The

program gives kids a year or so to practice being on their own, and they

need it. They've been failing all their lives."

What initially can seem like a harsh adjustment for youth who have been

so dependent - often forbidden to get a driver's license or a part-time

job or use household appliances - becomes an answer to the teens' need

for privacy, stability and some degree of autonomy.

"Space and belongings mean a lot to foster kids," says Tamika, who at 16

took 52 hours of instruction on how to become self-sufficient, then

moved into her own apartment at 17. "Most of them have never had their

own room, and they've never gotten to make decisions for themselves."

The option of underage foster youth living on their own is so rare, so

cost-prohibitive - the average cost is about $24,000 per teenager - and

so risky that only 1 percent of the nation's 104,710 foster teenagers

will ever have the experience.

"It's counter-intuitive," Lighthouse president and CEO Robert Mecum

readily admits. "Ohio child welfare mandates the safety and protection

of the child, and that flies in the face of placing him in his own

apartment. But the idea here isn't to limit risk, it's to entail it."

The point is to get unprepared teenagers ready for a future that's

coming at them faster than at the average teen, who has parents to help.

Once out of the child-welfare system, many foster youth will have no

buffer to shield them from their mistakes - no parent to pay off

impetuous credit-card debt, for example, or help them get a second

chance from an angry landlord. So the Lighthouse program not only

understands adolescent lapses in judgment, it welcomes them.

"We expect them to screw up - we hope they'll screw up, and learn from

it while they're with us," Mecum says. "That way they'll have the

resources of a Lighthouse social worker to help work it out. The point

is not to kick kids out."

Tamika was in the program for two years, while the average stay is 11

months. Now, five years after leaving the program, Tamika has completed

a college degree, taken a job as an educational assistant at Lighthouse

Youth Crisis Center and bought a car. She's managing her own apartment,

and she spends her evenings helping her children with schoolwork and

attending their football games and cheerleading practices.

"When I took my first independent living class, I said, 'I can't wait

until it's my turn for an apartment. I'm going to do this, I'm going to

do it right, and I'm going to get the full benefit from it,' " she said.

About a third of the more than 80 teens who are accepted into the

program each year achieve its full goals. They assume their own leases,

pay their bills, establish bank accounts, develop support networks and

keep out of trouble. The others sometimes simply aren't mature enough to

live on their own yet, or they break rules and get sent back to group

homes until they're ready for a second chance.

"But to have a third of these kids being successful as they go into

adulthood is wonderful," says Crystal Ward Allen, executive director of

Public Children Services Association of Ohio, a coalition of heads of

county child welfare agencies. "Not many counties have the wherewithal,

the funds or the experience to accomplish that."

Program director Mark Kroner knows that a quarter of the youth accepted

into the program have so much trouble adjusting or such poor social

skills that they've already beenkicked out of foster homes, group homes

and treatment programs. So for Kroner, the third who succeed in the

program are more than an accomplishment.

"People call them a success," he says. "I call them a miracle."

Krista Ramsey is a member of the Enquirer Editorial Board. E-mail her at

kramsey@enquirer.com.

CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A

DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA

WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...

It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even

killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from

connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US

These numbers come from The National Center on

Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)

Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

Perpetrators of Maltreatment

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59

Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13

Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241

Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12

Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that

are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per

100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse

and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the

citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold

parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY

government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and

death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more

human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which

they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that

they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when

children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a

bunch of social workers.

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT

FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF

REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES

TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY

ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...