week 6 post 1

*storytelling class is done

Goldman school of public policy

Trey Bumdy video… 

• Challenges with confidentiality, when parents aren't allowed to know where they are
• The people who run these places often state that there are security threats which makes coverage a bit of struggle
• Record confidentiality can get in the way
• Start from the outside, the system is made to keep the media out, but originate from family members, social workers, ex. Employees, these people can provide a map for what is happening
• They did this al ot with rikers island
• Sometimes they stop returning calls
• Community centers
• Talk to the families sometimes
• Talking to the kids themselves
• Repercussions
• You don't have to interview them 
• What is necessary, does this kid really need to be involved, why should they tell me their stories
• Be in touch with people who work with that kid
• Make sure you know what this kid is like, context
• You don't NEED to put this kids name in there 
• Have a purpose and passion in what you are doing
• We need to cover the origin of the issues not the surface level issues 
• As a media focus on these problems on a more in depth issue
• It's not just about sensationalist survivor stories, people with power playing with people's lives 

Youth Advocacy

Ryann Blackshere,

Fostering Our Future: Foster Youth Advocate for Better Lives

• California Youth Connection (CYC)
• CYC, which has grown into a political powerhouse in Sacramento since it was founded in 1988, is calling for equal access and support for foster youth pursuing higher education.
• builds on CYC’s effective advocacy on behalf of youth as they transition to adulthood
• California Fostering Connections to Success Act, which extended foster care in California from age 18 to 21, and AB 1393, which requires colleges to give priority to current and former foster youth for on-campus housing, among a much longer list of clear political victories.
• “I see how empowered youth are when they know decision makers are listening to them,” says Chantel Johnson, 26, Legislative and Policy Coordinator at CYC.  When Johnson emancipated from foster care, she began working in Sacramento to provide a voice for the need of other youth.
• “People are inspired by the fact that legislative staff are inspired by them. They expect to be in the learner’s seat but they realize it’s reversed,” says Johnson.
• “Everyone is much more interested in hearing directly from young people,” says Janet Knipe, Executive Director of the National Foster Youth Action Network (NFYAN)
• The youth who work with Mockingbird have helped pass 17 pieces of legislation in the past 10 years. For Diamonique Walker, 19, the experience of working with Mockingbird over the last 4 years changed her from being known as “the girl who didn’t say a word.”

Post-Partisan: the Power of Foster Care Politics

By Daniel Heimpel 

• Instead of obstruction and partisanship, at least around one issue – foster care – I have seen members of Congress from both houses and sides of the aisle move at notable speed to introduce important, thoughtful legislation; respectfulness between ideologically disparate leaders; and an ability to transform the recommendations of experts in child welfare and foster youth themselves into cogent policy.- direct from article!
• Mary Cagle, Director of Children’s Legal Services for Florida’s Department of Children and Family Services, describes how the Family Educational Records and Privacy Act (FERPA) – intended to protect against disclosure of student records to parties other than school officials or biological parents – creates difficulties for foster children, who are no longer in the custody of their biological parents.
• Amending FERPA would allow social workers access to student records, she says, helping them make critical decisions in how to best mitigate foster children’s educational challenges
• give child welfare agencies access to foster student records; allow for the use of educational records in studies related to promoting the educational success and stability of foster youth; and eliminate the need for duplicative, time-consuming notice when transferring records.

Locked up and locked out

By Brian Rinker

• When Terrick Bakhit turned 18 while incarcerated in a juvenile correction facility, the foster care system that had watched over him for the previous five years abruptly cut him off
• “After being locked up for 11 months I felt free, but in the wrong way,” said Bakhit, who was left to fend for himself on the streets of downtown San Diego. “I slept in the rain. I slept on the street. No roof. No house. No nothing. I was stealing food.”
• “If you are incarcerated and don’t have a placement still intact on your 18th birthday, you can’t get benefits,” said Amy Lemley, policy director at the John Burton Foundation, referring to to the benefit foster youth can get after extended foster care benefits.
• problem seems to be rooted in the varying interpretations of state law among counties and the lack of inter-agency communication

Discussion:

The story of the three brothers is really sad and shocking, as well as the story of Ismael at Rikers Island, that of Monique Gaeta, and those of many children and parents known through the readings of the course. 

The general impression is that something in the social system of California has broken down: trust in the judges has broken down because they apply laws perfectly but putting common sense in the drawer as in the case of Terrick. Trust in some doctors was broken because of their superficial evaluation of child domestic incidents that made parents guilty of abuses never committed. Social responsibility has broken down towards women and families who have serious problems, such as drugs, alcohol or violence. Confidence has broken down in some social workers who take children from their families or, on the contrary, that keep the children in dangerous families.

My general idea about the different institutions dealing with minors is that there is lack of a network “in dialogue”. Every ‘actor’ in this process performs his specific job very well, but he doesn’t take into account how much their assessments can influence a judge’s decision for good or for bad, for example. I would hope for more coordination among all departments and in providing more resources in preventing and solving crises of disadvantaged families.

Punitive justice does not gain good citizens, but rather it extends the number of problems as in the case of Terrick and his unfortunate family. The journalists could do more in soliciting the legislators to find solutions oriented towards the well-being of children and families and not towards money, which sometimes is used badly, as for the minors’ legal representation in Santa Barbara County.