On behalf of the Commonwealth’s seven CASA programs, 700 volunteers, and close to 1,000 children we advocate on behalf of, I was proud to testify yesterday at the Statehouse on various foster care related bills. I specifically focused on Massachusetts moving forward on a Foster Child Bill of Rights. You can view my three minutes of testimony at about 1 hour and 27 minutes into the video. https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4705 My family’s history with the child welfare system goes back over 60 years. My main calls to action:

● It’s time to get bold AND much more sensible about solutions. If you want to create meaningful change in the foster care system, shrink it!! Support families, ensure that they have their basic needs met (including financially), and keep children OUT of this system.
● It’s time to listen to those who’ve experienced foster care firsthand and they should be driving our decisions.
● And lastly, if children do enter into foster care, ensure that every one of them has a member of the community zealously advocating for them in and outside of the courtroom. With all due respect to my child welfare partners, we do NOT have it covered!

An accomplishment that so many should be proud of. The first-ever CASA program in Southeastern Massachusetts. Get involved if you’re in the area or pass the word along. Every child in foster care should have a zealous advocate to ensure that they receive the care they deserve and get out of foster care ASAP.

This is heartbreaking and all too familiar to those who’ve experienced foster care, myself included. Some studies suggest that anywhere from 25-40% of children in foster care will experience abuse or neglect while in the very system that is tasked to “protect” them. The system, as we know it, must be abolished. Otherwise, more children and families will be harmed.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/08/11/metro/massachusetts-house-of-horrors-settlement/

I whole-heartedly agree with Judge Erskine and appreciate that she’s speaking out. “The system” is defective from entry to exit. It’s harmful, discriminatory, and lacks humanity and compassion. I realize that there are arguments in support of abolishing the system all together. I don’t entirely disagree even though I believe we’re far from not needing some version of a “child protection” system. I hear the arguments against “best interest” representation due to the subjectivity and biases that inform it. However, let me be clear–representation of “expressed wishes” only without some version of best interest advocacy and representation (in and outside the courtroom) jeopardizes the safety and well-being of children. Take it from someone who nobody was paying attention to and suffered the consequences because of it. I’m tired of the lack of humility and compromise in finding solutions that will strengthen families and improve child outcomes. Let’s keep the foot on the gas until we create the change we need!

Every child entrenched in the system deserves at least one zealous advocate to look after them. Harmony Montgomery didn’t have one.

I entered the child welfare system in 1975 shortly after my 14-year-old mother, Dee, gave birth to me. She was poor and struggled with substance abuse and mental illness, like all the adults in her family. As a child, I bounced from foster home to foster home. I don’t recall much of my early childhood but there’s one memory that’s fixed in my mind. It’s me at 4, waking up in the morning, wet, frightened, and waiting for my foster mother to enter the room and beat me for wetting the bed.

My entire childhood was tainted by abuse and neglect. But there were caring adults who stepped up for me during important points in my life. They gave me hope, and because of their belief in me, I became a college graduate, therapist, professor, child welfare leader, and adoptive parent to my nephew. None of these accomplishments, though, erase the memories of childhood abuse, which has had a lasting legacy.

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Phoenix Santiago and Charles Lerner discuss the responsibilities we have to care for those who have experienced trauma under our watch. They ask the question “How dare we abdicate our responsibilities after the age of 18?” and discuss what it looks like to offer radical compassion.

Welcome back to INNOVATE! for Season Two! This season, host Angela Tucker highlights REFCA Champions who are inspiring a Re-Envisioning of Foster Care in America. These visionary leaders are using their wisdom, expertise and lived experiences in foster care to transform the foster care narrative from Alaska to New York, California to Missouri, the Pacific Northwest to New England.

To learn more about INNOVATE!, the Re-Envisioning Foster Care in America (REFCA) Movement and the Treehouse Foundation, go to treehousefoundation.net. As always, be sure to like and subscribe to the podcast to be notified when new episodes are released.

ABOUT THE HOST:

INNOVATE! host, Angela Tucker, is a REFCA Champion and a nationally recognized mentor, entrepreneur, educator and consultant. Angela is a transracial adoptee who, having been adopted from foster care by a white family, grew up in a city that was demographically just 1% Black.

She is the Founder of The Adopted Life, a child-welfare consulting business where she strives to center adoptee stories and bring clarity and truth to narratives about race, class and identity.

Angela has produced The Adopted Life 3-part web series where she interviews transracially adopted youth. She is the host of The Adoptee Next Door podcast where she amplifies adult adoptee voices to showcase the wide spectrum of experiences. Her own adoption experience searching for and reuniting with her birth family is the subject of the documentary CLOSURE.

Angela’s first book is scheduled for publication in spring 2023 (Beacon Press).

Angela Tucker – Host & Producer
Nicholas Ramsey – Editor & Producer
Judy Cockerton – Executive Producer
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