A better chance for foster kids remains elusive

State recorded 7,400 in ’09

— Megan Anthony wanted the experience of a first job, but as a foster kid, she knew that wasn’t likely to happen.

“One thing I remember facing is that I couldn’t get a job because I didn’t have a car,” Anthony said. “And I couldn’t get a car, because I was in foster care. I couldn’t get a license because I needed insurance - well, what foster parent is going to put you on their insurance?”

Academics and officials know that young adults who grow up in foster care face higher unemployment, lower educational attainment and more homelessness. State funded and charitable programs exist to help bridge the move into adulthood, but their effectiveness is unknown.

And no one has a solution for the main culprit that keeps teens in foster care from learning many of life’s lessons in the first place: the lack of a long-term, trusting relationship with an adult.

“We got kicked out of our share of foster homes,” Anthony, now 20, said about the experience she and her brother had. “It’s not tragic - we haven’t been to as many as some kids. We weren’t little angels.

“Obviously, we were upset about the whole thing,” she said. “I think people didn’t really know how to handle that, or how to help. So it would just get too difficult, and we would just get moved.”

More than 7,400 Arkansas children were in foster care at some point in 2009. According to the Arkansas Department of Human Services annual statistical report, of the total number of people who left the foster-care system in2009, 248 men and women simply “aged out,” meaning they reached legal adulthood without receiving a permanent placement. While youths in foster care can be required to stay in the system until the age of 18, they may voluntarily remain in the system until 21.

Toma Whitlock, coordinator for the Arkansas Independent Living program, a statewide transitional program based in Little Rock, said the Department of Human Services tries to minimize multiple moves for foster children.

“The placement is a priority for us,” Whitlock said. “A child’s first home should be their last.”

Mary Goodearle, who provides training for potential foster and adoptive parents, said multiple placements for long-term foster children is often a self-feeding problem, especially during a foster youth’s teenage years.

“Foster-parenting teenagers is really hard,” said Goodearle, who has fostered between 50 and 60 children - mostly teenage boys - with her husband, Allen.

“People get into foster care because they want to help kids and help them improve their lives,” Goodearle said. “But they find the kids are already so set in their habits - they’re tough, they’ve built these walls, and they’re in this self-protective mode. Their good intentions fail.”

Anthony and her brother found a supportive family after about a year of multiple placements. She said she remembered living in Rogers, Decatur, West Fork and Huntsville before finally finding a foster family that truly felt like home.

“They were the only ones who didn’t give up on us,” Anthony said of her foster parents Don and Debbie, with whom Anthony and her brother lived throughout high school. She is now a student at the University of Arkansas, attending classes on an ROTC scholarship.

Becky Shaffer, executive director of Saving Grace, a transitional housing shelter for women ages 18-24 in Rogers, has carved out a career providing living assistance after she aged out of foster care at 18. She said that while there have been improvements in the system since she left her last foster residence - a group home - many of the problems remain.

“It’s staggering,” Shaffer said. “No one wants to talk about it, and they’re not going to share the information. You have to go and dig for it.”

Shaffer said she was disturbed by what she heard privately from Arkansas social workers.

Many individuals exiting the program suffered symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, and many found themselves in poverty for much of their lives, Shaffer said. She said many of the young women who come to Saving Grace lack basic life skills.

Shaffer cited the frequent relocation of children within the foster care system as a cause, but added that even over long stays within a single home, foster parents often don’t have the time to communicate important life lessons.

Julie Munsell, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said classroom activities are part of a successful recipe for making a transition to adulthood and independence.

“It has to be paired with some greater supports,” Munsell said. “One of the things we’ve tried to implement is mentoring of the youth through several mechanisms, one being the foster care alumni network. There’s a growing foster care network of youth that does show a lot of promise in being a support network for individuals who are aging out of care.”

Shaffer said the women living at Saving Grace are required to attend life skills classes each week, which are based on a curriculum covering everything from balancing a checkbook to interviewing skills.

The women receive heavily discounted rent as long as they are enrolled in high school, college or other vocational classes, and are each assigned three mentors, who stay in contact with the women indefinitely.

Shaden Jedlicka, 19, who lives with his foster parents in Fort Smith, said that while many of the transition programs did seem helpful to him, he felt that there were unnecessary pitfalls built into the system.

“A hard thing in the transition is that the state wants you to be better than your biological family,” Jedlicka said. “They want you to succeed. They put all these thoughts into your head about how to succeed, but they don’t really give you the tools to do it.”

Jedlicka noted the isolation felt by many adults exiting foster care at or after 18 and worried that some of them return to unhealthy relationships.

“It defeats what the system was designed to do,” he said. “They’re forced to reconnect with their biological families, because they don’t have anyone else.”

Arkansas, Pages 8 on 06/28/2010

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