The interview process has been interesting and exciting.
Learning about something new (pregnant teens in foster care) and gaining
insight to how the foster care system works has stimulated my social conscious to
ask many questions? The people that I found to interview have been very up
front and friendly. It would have been easier to interview the social worker by
phone and on line if there had been a prompt with school letterhead letting
them know that I am enrolled in college and what class I am enrolled in. Doing
this is a major part of identifying yourself especially when have never met the
interviewee face to face.
Meeting Janelly(former pregnant teen living in foster care)
and starting the interview process was full of discovery for me. She had been
in foster care since the age of 12, and lived in more than 4 foster homes. She
said that she never felt welcome anywhere until she came to her last foster
home. It is hard to image not feeling welcome at anywhere. What effect does
that play on a person’s emotional state?
What I have learned from this is to make all children feel
welcome at school. You can learn a lot about a person by just showing a little
kindness.
Working on the course project and all its parts is
progressing slowly in to a finished product. There are so many facets to foster
care, they all are interesting. Even when narrowing it down to pregnant teens,
there are still many avenues a researcher can ponder.
What can our society do to ensure that all children have a
safe, warm, and welcoming place to live where they are treated with respect?
When I was in the foster care system I felt the same way until I went to my last placement. I believe that a lot of people become foster parents because of the money not because they care about what happens to the children. I think our society needs to do more background research on people before they give them a license to become foster parents. Maybe spend more time in the home and actually talking and listening to foster children about their experiences.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Social workers only come to school when enrolling a child along with the foster family. I never see them again unless the child is being removed from the school. We need more caring social workers and foster families who are focused in improving the lives of children.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the social service agencies can do about foster care placements that are unwelcoming. Is it that they are not good fits, but the families have the right focus in mind? Or are 75% of the homes only in the system for the money? I feel like society harps on those negative placements, as good foster families rarely make the news. I look forward to hearing your insights from this project.
ReplyDeleteVictoria