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Foster Care Alumni went home for Thanksgiving
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On Wednesday, November 21, alumni from 14 states plus Washington, DC gathered at the United States Capitol to share Thanksgiving dinner together. We had turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie at the home of our parents—the government.
We were there to not only connect with each other as brothers and sisters, but also to bring attention to all of those who couldn’t be there:
- We represented more than 100,000 children who waited to be adopted this Thanksgiving.
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We represented more the 513,000 children and youth spent Thanksgiving in foster care this year
We represented 12 million of our adult brothers and sisters who spent too many Thanksgivings in care as children, some of whom never found permanent homes
We represented our alumni brothers and sisters currently serving at home or abroad in the US military.
One chair was left vacant, in memory of our brothers and sisters whose voices were either silenced or deemed unimportant.
It was a glorious day; one that none of us will ever forget.
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Our Thanksgiving week included the kickoff of our new Alumni Leadership Institute—including training for our Speaker’s and Writer’s Bureaus and lobbying visits to members of congress. Learn more here |
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FIX FOSTER CARE NOW!
As alumni of the system, we have a unique perspective – one that can only be gained the hard way. That perspective makes it clear to us that foster care needs to be fixed and that this is URGENT for the younger brothers and sisters who come after us.
While reforms of all kinds are necessary to truly improve the child welfare system, among the biggest problems is the
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way the federal government funds the system. This is referred to as “child welfare finance.” Child welfare finance is overwhelmingly aimed at reimbursing states for placing children into foster care. This leaves little room for innovation, creativity, and sadly, common sense. Indeed, increasing the flexibility of child welfare finance will improve the lives of those children who come after us – and whose lives will be forever changed by this system.
Foster Care Alumni of America is working with the Kids Are Waiting Campaign to improve child welfare finance and ultimately the whole child welfare system. Please join us in our efforts. Below are some basic talking points to help you lend your voice to reform foster care now!
As alumni, it is most important to us to ensure that those who come after us have the same privileges that most people get from their families. We must improve the child welfare finance system in order to ensure that:
- All children have stable, loving, permanent homes and families.
- All children have the opportunity to grow up with our brothers and sisters throughout our childhoods – siblings should not be separated.
- All children are entitled to experience and gain the skills, opportunities, and supports that make it possible for us to grow into successful, healthy, secure adults – including access to higher education, health and mental health resources, and financial knowledge and other supports.
We must reform the child welfare finance system in the following ways:
- Establish a federal foster financing system that states can rely on to be sufficient and flexible.
- Help more children leave foster care by supporting federal guardianships for relatives and other caregivers.
- Reward states for reducing the number of children in foster care and achieving all forms of permanence.
- Make all children eligible for federal foster care support.
For more information call our office or visit the campaign website at http://kidsarewaiting.org/.
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