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when youth come into foster care = family separation
When youth come into fostercare their families and support networks are replaced by a committee (social workers, therapists, resource parents, etc). As a result, many times youth are receiving contradictory messages; adults around them are not communicating; no one taking responsibility for parenting -
Lack of communication/bonding
Social workers, therapists, resource parents all having their own ideas about what's best and what's most important leads to some things not being taken care of and others things getting too much attention; not everyone has the same knowledge or resources available or how to access those resources and without someone being responsible or accountable it doesn't happen. All of this can leave the foster youth feeling disconnected and like they have to do it on their own. -
Youth not viewed as individuals (dehumanized?)
Because youth are surrounded by "professionals", by people doing their jobs, there can be many motivations (or lack of motivation) or biases for how they provide services and resources to youth, seeing youth as paychecks or checklists. There's also a one size fits all approach instead of listening to youth or hearing what their need is. -
Not able to access resources
With the adults not listening to youth they are not getting connected to the resources they could use; youth are getting the wrong resources; social workers, foster parents, etc know generally about resources but not how to actually connect people to the service; not enough training/support on resources for anyone -
Wrap it up!