Leaving them there with no one to advocate for them, and do you want to know how it almost always ends? It almost always ends in solitary confinement until they kill themselves or a jailer loses it and kills them. They have no family to support them. Most of the time family times are severed and children are moved away from anyone and everything they know. We have to do better! Continue reading Fostered or Forgotten?
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/L2GCFT3Q25HWVJT2XJ5A7YGVPM.jpg?resize=720%2C426&ssl=1&crop=1 "Pastor, board member of a foster parent association, a father of adopted children himself, Sentenced to 30 for producing and transporting child pornography")
Indicted were David Pettigrew and Chad Rider. Pettigrew Pettigrew was the head pastor of Denison Church of the Nazarene, a board member of a foster parent association, a father of adopted children, a crossing guard, and a substitute teacher at Neblett Elementary. Pettigrew is also married to an unnamed school teacher who is a mandated reporter! Continue reading Pastor, board member of a foster parent association, a father of adopted children himself, Sentenced to 30 for producing and transporting child pornography
Homeless children, foster care system, refugees, and LGBTQ youth are the most likely victims of childhood sexual assault. It is estimated that 100,000 children are sexually exploited in the United States each year. Continue reading Child Sex Trafficking and the Child Welfare System
Predators prey on children from broken homes, group homes, foster care, and runaways. The U.S. Department of State reports that foster care is a consistent problem. Live-in parents and step parents are 20 times more likely to abuse a child than a biological parent. City reports show that between 60% to as many as 90% of the children rescued in sex trafficking stings were in foster care before they were trafficked. Often, when they are rescued, they are returned to state custody where they will likely run away again. Continue reading How Foster Care Youth Become Trafficking Victims
Let’s talk about adoption. How does adoption affect a child? Do they really feel like their new family “saved them”? Do they want to go home? Do they want to run away? I watched as the Department of Human Services Division of Children and Families made an attempt to celebrate “Reunification Month” last month and honestly the feedback they received from the families they have “helped” was not so good. Parents and grandparents spoke out on the Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services Facebook post saying, “Yes, Let’s talk about reunification” and sharing their experiences with the department with each other. Whoever moderates that page deleted the post most likely because the feedback from family members told the stories of separation rather than reunification. Throughout the whole month of June only one post remains on their page and it celebrates foster parents at the time of reunification and describes how a foster parent feels when a child goes home. Continue reading Let’s talk about adoption
MindingHearts 