Foster Kids: Saved from Prison and Homelessness

There are so many stories about terrible things that are happening to foster kids that you may wonder why even bother. Sometimes you may think, "Nothing will change. There will always be foster children who are abused and after they age out, need lots of support, mentally, emotionally and economically."


I agree with you, but a man much wiser than I could ever be said that there will always be the poor, needy and sick, but that those of us who are stronger have a moral obligation to help these people. So today is about giving hope and letting you see that good things do happen for foster youth while giving a few reasons why you should care.

When it comes to foster kids, counties are generally in charge of the foster care. Sometimes a county will contract with a non-profit that will take over part of the process, often including the work to find family members of a foster child. One such organization, Casa Pacifica in Ventura County, CA, came to us recently because they had a foster teen who had been a ward of the state.

Now I don't know the specifics (and because I'm talking about a child, there are some facts that I can't share), but I'm pretty sure that in this particular case, the foster teen had been in the system for a long time.


The challenge was that the only known family members who could be part of this teen's life were known to be living in Mexico. U.S. agencies are pretty adept at finding people living up here with up to an 85% success rate. However, sometimes there are no other family members or if there are, no one knows about them.


This means that a foster youth can spend much more than the average 2.7 years in foster care. Why should we as taxpayers care? There are many reasons (we'll overlook the negative impact on children such as prison or homelessness for now):

• One foster child can cost between $35,000 and $60,000 per year they are in foster care.
• The federal government paid out $4.2 billion in taxpayer dollars in 2012 to support the foster parents of these children.
• 23,000 foster children aged out in 2013, and research shows that each one of those children will need up to $300,000 in social services over their lifetime.

In this case, Casa Pacifica knew that there was at least one adult relative still living in Mexico so they came to us at Find Families In Mexico. Sometimes when you hear about foster children, you may think that it will take months or more than a year before anything positive happens.

That's not the way we roll. In about 15 days, we had contact information on several possible relatives. One of those contacts was the home of this foster teen's great-grandmother. In short order, the staff was able to speak with the teen’s maternal grandmother and a great-uncle.

Now you may be one of many who when you hear "Mexico" and "foster kids" in the same sentence, immediately start thinking "undocumented" or "it's really a Mexico issue." The truth is that more and more, because the foster kids we help are second and third generation Americans (i.e. they are not undocumented, and they didn't just cross the border last week), these kids have family living in the U.S. In this case, the Mexican relatives shared that there are two aunts living in the U.S.

This foster teen is now connected to family members in both the U.S. and Mexico, and we understand that at least one relative has offered to give this teen a permanent home.

This is important because studies show that children who end up with a family member have fewer behavioral problems, a greater graduation rate and better employment rate than foster youth who either age out or end up with a non-relative placement.


Casa Pacifica was very pleased with the results of our finding this foster teen's family members. This teen goes from being a ward of the state and having a government agency raising him to having cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. We should care because it's the best outcome for this teen and a great outcome for us taxpayers. It's truly a win-win for everyone, and one less foster youth left to age out.

There's nothing like a story with a happy ending to finish out the week.

Do it for the children,


  Richard

Richard Villasana
Find Families In Mexico
760-690-3995

PS. Want to help a foster child? Get information about our upcoming crowdfunding campaign to raise money for new foster children cases.

Get a PDF copy of this blog on reconnecting a foster teen with his family.