I highly recommend that you:
- Check out this post By Linda Jo Martin On February 23, 2014 ·
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When
research is done to assess what does and does not work in child
welfare, families whose children were placed in foster care often do not
get a voice.
…
This is a guest post by:
Nicole Greer, academic researcher, “The Fostered Voices”.
When was the last time someone asked you how the system was doing? - Has anyone ever asked you if you were dealt with fairly by the system?
- Did you feel heard?
- A new study is looking at all sides of the story and needs to include your voice.
The Fostered Voices study is collecting stories about
experiences in foster care, including families with children who were in
care, even for a short time.
I am a third party researcher with no prior ties to the foster care system or CPS.
The multi-sited project has two overarching research methods.
- The first one is the website collecting these stories.
- The other is an ethnographic study where I do one-on-one interviews
and learn from people who have had first-hand experience with child
welfare from many different perspectives.
I am especially interested in how people experience power exerted in
their lives from the government or child protective services, and how
parents, families, children, and workers respond to policies that did
not work for them or were unfair.
One example of these policies is the timelines that dictate how long families have to convince a judge they are fit parents.
You may have shared your frustrated story on a website before, but
that story probably was not included in a project designed to help your
story get heard.
Young people who were in foster care, foster parents, and
professionals like judges, lawyers and social workers, are already
telling their stories. We need to hear about your experiences with the
police, CPS workers, child advocates, lawyers, judges, foster parents,
other family members, and your kids.
You can share as little or as much as you like, but the more you share, the greater the impact can be.
Your story is completely confidential. The names are changed and
dates and places removed to keep you and your family protected. You can
also read other people’s stories on the website under the “Stories”
link.
The goal is to collect enough stories to reveal what day-to-day life means for someone interacting with the system.
If we can better understand how these policies impact everyone
involved, we can write better policies that improve the processes of
investigations, court proceedings, and foster care for our children.
To participate in the study, all you need to do is go to the study website: www.MyFosterCareStory.com and scroll down to the people icons.
- Click on the second icon for “Kin, Family & Friends.”
- Take a few minutes and reflect on your experiences.
We want to right the system through writing our stories, so let’s write the system!
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May you find Strength in Your Higher Power,
GranPa Chuck
Researcher, Editor, Publisher
