Changing the Life Course for Youth in Foster Care
“It was loud but silent all in one moment. The man that hit our car also helped to get us children out of the car. He cradled me in his arms. He looked me in the eyes, blood streaming down my face.
‘Sweetie, are you okay?’
My thoughts were "Who is this man? Did we survive? Where’s my mom?” I soon learned that my mom ran away to avoid a DUI. Shortly after, I cried and clawed at the window as I watched my mom being handcuffed and arrested.”
Paula entered the foster care system for the first time at age six, after surviving a car accident for which her mother was found at fault. After two years in various foster homes, often without her siblings, Paula was able to return home to her mother. Unfortunately, home still wasn't safe for Paula. With an alcoholic parent, she had to take the place of caregiver for her young siblings. Many unsafe men abused her and exposed her to drugs.
Over the next eight years, Paula moved repeatedly between her mother’s house and foster homes, where she didn’t feel safe or loved. The child welfare system had failed her.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls traumatic events that occur during childhood, like those Paula experienced, “Adverse Childhood Experiences,” or ACEs. ACEs include all forms of abuse or neglect, including violence, familial mental health or substance use problems, and parental divorce.
Traumatic experiences early in life can affect development of the brain and body, including the pleasure and reward center of the brain, which can lead to substance dependence. It can also hinder the development of the prefrontal cortex, affecting impulse control and executive function, and the amygdala, which is critical to fear response (Ssebastian, 2021).
Individuals who suffer from these changes in brain chemistry are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, like smoking and consuming alcohol. However, even those who don’t participate in high-risk behaviors may still suffer from health issues caused by toxic stress, which weakens the heart and circulatory system, raises glucose levels, and wears out the adrenal glands, leading to problems with the immune system (Ssebastian, 2021).
Youth who have a high ACE score are more likely to suffer from depression, asthma, strokes, heart disease, cancer, and other health conditions as adults. They are less likely to be employed, graduate high school, or have health insurance (Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) 2021).
At Boys & Girls Aid, we recognize that every child in the foster care system has experienced at least one ACE. We aim to provide a safe home where they can work through their trauma without being exposed to additional ACEs.
This starts with our programming, designed to care for youth and help them reach goals specific to their needs. We operate through a lens of trauma-informed care and utilize collaborative problem solving, concepts in which all staff and foster parents are trained. Boys & Girls Aid takes pride in its strong training department, which is committed to keeping our staff and foster parents well informed about the most current youth care practices.
Foster parents at Boys & Girls Aid undergo a comprehensive certification and training process to ensure that not only are they committed to the children they care for but that they have the tools to support a youth’s needs successfully. Our foster parents undergo training during their initial certification, annual recertification, and monthly sessions dedicated to foster parent education.
Foster parents work closely with Boys & Girls Aid staff, who provide youth with counseling, skills training, and programming specific to their background and circumstances. We also have staff on-call, available to foster parents 24/7 to answer questions, provide guidance, and assist with emergencies.
At age 16, Paula re-entered the foster care system and urged her social worker to find her a family that cared. The social worker found Boys & Girls Aid and a foster parent named Rita.
“While I was in her care, I went to a dark place, I cut myself constantly. I locked myself away, but she always came knocking,” Paula said. “She took time with me, stroked my hair, listened, rubbed my back, let me cry. It was the motherly love I so longed for that she gave me.”
Paula was also connected with a counselor at Boys & Girls Aid who was devoted to her success, someone she still talks to frequently.
“She’s my superwoman and all the support I needed to find my confidence, my inner peace, to feel the real love that I needed,” Paula said.
Now, as an adult, Paula is thriving. She’s happily married and has a fitness career that she loves. She describes herself as healthy, strong-minded, and loving.
“I am strong and resilient and all it took was having caring, committed adults in my life. Adults who chose to care and make a difference to ensure children in foster care could find their lifelong connections,” Paula said.
Sources:
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, August 23). https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/aces/index.html
Ssebastian. (2021, March 23). The link between adverse childhood experiences and later-life health. Baylor University. https://onlinegrad.baylor.edu/resources/adverse-childhood-experiences-health/
U.S. Department of Health & Human Servies. (n.d.). Adverse childhood experiences (aces). Child Welfare Information Gateway. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/overview/framework/aces/#:~:text=A%20landmark%20study%20in%20the,substance%20use%2C%20and%20risky%20behaviors.&text=The%20more%20ACEs%20experienced%2C%20the%20greater%20the%20risk%20for%20these%20outcomes.