fix foster care

[mopinko]

so, a friend of mine from my days on the board of my ward dem committee, is jay paul deretany.
he is one of chicago's most successful personal injury attorneys, and he ran for judge and asked for our endorsement. we formed a mutual admiration society right then and there and have stayed in touch.
one day a judge assigned him to defend a young man in who had barely survived his time in foster care from the kind of charges kids like that him end up catching- drugs, assaults...

and off he went on a crusade to change the foster care system.
he wrote and produced a movie, 'foster boy', w shaquille o'neil. if you havent seen it, find it and watch it.
so, he shared this petition of fb today-
https://fixfostercare.org/?fbclid=IwAR2t7-UAqgsq-7n1Av12TxGX3Ue0q22WrYboycZUkvEPBOFhoiU-dmPpzTc

as well as this radio interview-
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-s_xVA8BfW6RoOTMAulo9v4pCAXPRsNp/view?fbclid=IwAR0XjnU1EHxLAPwAgBV5unuZ18GvWCEQLzv-w6hzz5JxEtSxMNDns4z0I1M

20 minutes, full of good advice to fix this broken god damned system where 40% of the kids who age out end up dead, incarcerated, or homeless w/in 4 yrs. including how to get involved and make a difference.

please take a minute to sign this petition, and listen if you can find 20.


ftrt, jay is gay, married, has no kids of his own. imho evolution gave us gay people because it figured out that 2 people are not enough to raise kids. dont know a gay person who isnt some kid's wingman.

[mopinko]

1. c'mon y'all

i dont usually do online petitions, myself. they're usually done by people who do nothing but collect names for their mailing lists.
this is not that.
but give us a bump, eh?

[hunter]

2. "Currently, twenty-eight states allow for-profit contracting of foster care services...

Equally concerning, almost every state allows for-profit companies to provide care and services to youth in the justice system."

Here's the complete petition:

We, the undersigned, hereby petition our federal, state and local governments to stop the placement of vulnerable children for commercial profit. Our government regularly places our most vulnerable youth in for- profit facilities designed to make money by warehousing them. With 430,000 children in foster care and 43,000 children placed through the youth justice system, too many children live under ‘care’ systems run for profit.

These children have no lobby. Currently, twenty-eight states allow for-profit contracting of foster care services. Equally concerning, almost every state allows for-profit companies to provide care and services to youth in the justice system. These children cannot march, don’t vote, and have no money. Once our government removes them from their families, these vulnerable and often traumatized youth are our legal and moral responsibility.

The record clearly shows frequent systemic abuses by the for-profit foster care industry. Children deserve to be placed with personal foster parents, through supervised 501(c)(3) or public entities. Foster care and youth justice services should not be run by for-profit companies under dubious contracts with government that benefit stockholders at the expense of children’s best interests. President Biden has determined that adult Federal prisons run for profit are unacceptable. Why do 28 states permit profit-making on the heads of innocent children, and why does the Federal taxpayer fund the majority? Please stop it now.

www.fixfostercare.org

Profitable pipelines from for-profit foster care to for-profit prisons is a dystopian nightmare.

[ratchiweenie]

3. Done.

[haele]

6. Kick

A society that doesn't take care of it's foster kids has no right to call itself pro-life

Haele

[mopinko]

7. there's no such thing as other people's children.

i mostly raised my kids w my hubs and that's it. didnt have family around to help. had a grandma that bought presents, and such, but pretty much it.

my kids had a good life, but they still could have really used a spare adult.
i tried to be that for some of my kid's friends. ours was that house where you could just be.
and there were a couple people like that for mine, but not to the point where if the shit had hit the fan, someone would have stepped up.
i was really lucky.

he does mention becoming a caa, an court advocate for foster kids. if i was a little younger, i would like to do that. go to court hearings, be a bit of a big brother/sister, and get to talk to the judge. be a wingman for a kid.
maybe that's easier now that there's so much on zoom.
but what a great way to make a difference.

[haele]

8. Dad was a coach. We often had other kids living with us growing up.

Mostly short term, but one kid ended up living with us for two years when his dad went to prison for bullshit and his mom struggled to keep a roof over her and a baby's head. Same age and size as my brother, so we kept him most nights with my brother and sent him home with a food package every week to spend family time with her until his dad got out and could get some work again.

And I can't count how many of the stepdaughter's friends ended up crashing at our place when there were family problems as she was growing up.

Haele

[mopinko]

9. here's the trailer for the movie