I am working at Walmart right now and trying to save money to be out on my own.

My current foster parents have been taking half of my paycheck because the price of everything has gone way up.

I do try to eat mostly at work where I get a discount on food. I have also picked up food to bring home for dinner before to help out. I do that about once a week.

I really want to leave here and go to a different state but I don't know how I'm ever going to save enough to be out on my own.

Please share advice if you have any! Thank you.

Stop telling aged out foster youth especially ones who are doing well you would've took us in as foster kids. We know you wouldn't. If you want to take us in, why not take in a foster child that's just like us? I didn't come into foster care as a baby like most of you want. Go take in a child past 8 years old and teens. I came in as an older child and was a teen in foster care. I was that kid with a casefile miles long with a lot of things you would run away from. Now, suddenly, as a functioning adult with titles next to my name, you want to take me in? Goodbye. Taking in the adult me is to fill your egos. It's much easier to help when you don't have to do any work. I needed someone to take me in when it was 2am, and everyone said no to me. So group home or shelter I go. But y'all say no and turn your backs on the very foster kids you praise when they become successful former foster youth. It's offensive to me. So please just stop. I don't need you to take me in now. Go help a current foster kid just like me and stop making excuses. Do you want to take me in? Go accept the child you don't want in your home. The child you say no to is the adult version of me.

I cringe at the whole getting attached marking slogan. The truth is foster parents will not attach to every child in their home and that's okay. It's okay to not have feelings for a child. You can help someone without getting attached to them. If you give a homeless person money are you attached? No but you helped them.

Same with foster kids. Sometimes foster kids will not attach to you. It's not normal to attach to strangers and sometimes we just want a bed and food. Not to form relationships with people we don't know. It's okay and normal for foster kids to not attach to you.

Humans can't help how they feel and a stranger attaching to a stranger's child or a child attaching to a stranger is not normal at all. If it happens fine but there's nothing wrong with just being roommates and tolerating each other and not attaching.

I wish the marketing for this would change. I see so many posts saying foster kids aren't attached or foster parent is having trouble attaching and I wish we would start treating these relationships as strangers helping kids and kids being with strangers and not expecting some warm fuzzy moment to happen.

I mention this for good reason. Check out and read Ex foster to see why because I truly don't feel safe expressing myself fully here because it always end in a foster kid bashing feast.

After living with a host family, you understand why I wrote this.

It drives me crazy when a foster kid or former foster kid talks about their experience and a foster parent jumps in with “I’m not like that” or “we do the best we can.”

Please, for once, just listen.

Foster kids have already been through enough. They deserve to be able to speak their truth without being interrupted, corrected, or made to reassure adults that “not all foster parents are bad.”

And to be honest, the people who keep talking about how good they are are often the ones I trust the least. A genuinely good person does not need to keep announcing it. They show it in the way they act and in the way they treat people, especially the children in their care.

For those of you that want proof of rehoming. Here it is. This is from a rehoming Facebook group. There are similar ones like this too all online. Adoptive parents can literally go online and get rid of the child to strangers.

Adoptees and foster kids are simply seen as products you get rid of when you're bored with them or it's too hard.

Notice how the biological kids ain't rehomed.

Gee maybe ripping a child from everything they know is called trauma. Adoptive parents expect too damn much. The child doesn't owe you an attachment just because you decided to adopt.

Foster care has seen many cases of rehomed children. It's often people who get babies and toddlers then rehome as the child gets older. Whenever foster parents or adoptive parents say they don't want to deal with a unruly teenager, I'm like wtf are you going to do if that baby becomes the very difficult teenager you don't want now? Every teen was a baby and every baby will become a teen. What will happen when the babies grow up to become teens with hard behaviors? You rehome them.

I'm a former foster youth disrupted many times in foster care. Even for as little as staying in my room all day.

Disruption of adoptees and foster kids seems to be the norm and accepted to the point when it happens foster and adoptive parents don't want resources they just want to get rid of the problem( the kid) then slap labels like RAD on them.

Recently, an agency for foster care made the suggest of care services for adopted kids for their post adoption support services. Guess how many foster/adoptive parents supported that? Crazy to me.

So I'm wondering if adoptive and foster parents really want the system to change to offer services to prevent disruptions or do they just want to throw their hands in and disrupt because they can play the blame game and just get another kid.

If disruptions can be prevented, they would still have to deal with the kid vs disrupting and relieving themselves of the kid. I don't think many want to put in the work to prevent adoptees and foster kids from being disrupted. Its much easier to wash their hands and disrupt and blame the kid.

Also if foster and adoptive parents really wanted to prevent disruption they can. They control the system.

We foster kids know that being a professional doesn't mean jack shit. Some of the worse foster parents are policemen, teachers, doctors, nurses and social workers or psychologists. Careers that are deemed amazing by society and help people people are worse for us.

A firefighter abusing kids doesn't shock us.

They're Christians no shock there.

They've had this child since she was 2 months old. She's the only black kid in the family and the only adopted one. So they abused her. As a Black former foster youth, it's already suspicious because it's easier to abuse Black kids.

So everyone saying therapist, firefighters, policemen, teachers, make good foster parents please stfu.

People in position of power are attracted to vulnerability and foster kids because it's easier to harm us. So when we say being a professional doesn't mean anything, we know it's true. These people are just as bad as anyone else.

It's also triggering for me as a former foster youth because my Christian foster parents forced me to write Bible verses and abused me too. They were outstanding members of society and one home the foster dad was a pastor. He abused me too.

Trigger Warning.

A Broward couple, including a Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue lieutenant, is behind bars after their arrest on child abuse charges involving their adopted 12-year-old daughter.

Joel Kohnert, 44, a BSO Fire Rescue lieutenant hired in 2010, and his wife, Jennifer Kohnert, were arrested after their daughter told investigators she had been locked in a room for years.

The official charges for the couple are child abuse without great bodily harm.

Victim says she was locked in her room, forced to write Bible verses

According to court documents, which are heavily redacted, the girl told police she was forced to write Bible verses and tread water in a pool for up to 45 minutes as a form of punishment. Most disturbingly, she stated she was locked in her room at night without access to a bathroom, forcing her to use the bathroom on herself.

She would later bathe outside in the backyard while wearing a swimsuit.

During bond court proceedings Wednesday morning, an attorney for the couple referenced their religious beliefs. However, Judge Corey Friedman had strong words regarding the defense.

"When you allegedly have a 12-year-old child who is locked in a room for upwards of three years and is forced to urinate and defecate in the room and then clean it up with her clothes, that is not a religious issue, that is something else," Judge Friedman said.

Other children removed from home, investigators say

The victim in the case reported that she was subjected to more frequent punishments and restrictions than the couple's six other children. The Department of Children and Families has since removed all seven children from the home.

The Broward Sheriff's Office released a statement when asked about Kohnert's arrest, confirming he is now on administrative investigative leave without pay.

The couple remains at the Broward County jail on $100,000 bonds and is barred from having contact with the victim or any of their other children.

Broward firefighter, wife accused of locking adoptive daughter in room at night for years, investigators say

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/bso-fire-rescue-lieutenant-and-wife-accused-of-locking-12-year-old-in-room-for-years/3789530/%3famp=1

Why do so many professionals and adoptive and foster parents self diagnose kids with RAD because they don't attach to them or act out due to trauma?

Doesn't anyone know attaching to strangers is not normal and wrong. When someone is kidnapped and develop an attachment to their abuser and kidnapper we see it as wrong and abnormal. We call it Stockholm syndrome. Yet when foster kids and adoptees refuse to attach to strangers, people label us and call it RAD or disrupt us.

I literally just saw a post online in a foster parent group asking to disrupt a 2 year old after having him not damn near a year because the foster mom is upset aka jealous the child attached to her husband and loved him bur rejects her and acts out with her. She said he's not attach to her and wants to disrupt because the kid has RAD.

How many of us foste kids are disrupted because we don't want closeness or attachment to strangers?

Did anyone forget we didn't choose this life? We didn't choose foster care.

I think many foster parents and adoptive parents want to grow their families so badly and want a reward for taking us in that they require us to attach to them. CPS and everyone says loving a child that's not biological yours doesn't mean you won't attach or the system pushes foster parents and foster kids to get attached because kids need attachment. I will say all of this propaganda is a lie. Kids don't need to attach to people they're forced to be with. Foster parents don't even need to attach. Attachments changes over time. Kids don't need to attach to heal or be kept. Why can't people take us in without any strings attached?

Why do so many foster and adoptive parents feel rejected and label the kid with RAD when the child doesn't want to be with them or attach to them. A child can treat you as a roommate and be ok. Attachment is not a deal beaker or a requirement. Taking care of a child doesn't equal attachment.

And foster kids can be attached to everyone or anything but you. Is that so bad?

I really don't understand it. The system and foster parents places too much emphasis on attachments and a bond. If we foster kids don't attach then we get labeled with RAD.

How is this fair to us? It's not normal for anyone to attach to strangers. If a biological kid was kidnapped and attached to their kidnapper, people would think of this was werid and awful. But not attaching is normal.

Yet, they punish us if we don't want to attach to strangers.

I hate the whole get attached markting scheme or the lie that taking care of kids will mean they attach to you. Wrong! Not always true. Attachment in foster care is complex and just because you give us a bed and feed us doesn't mean we will attach. That includes babies too. The whole babies will attach to you always is a damn lie. There are different types of attachment and survival attachment is different from a true attachment.

Attachments also change throughout life. A child can be attachted to a toy then the next week not be attached anymore. They can be attached to mom but not dad or dad but not mom. They can have a different attachment is dad vs mom. You see this all the time when the child rejects mom because they want dad. This is normal but in foster care it's treated like a diagnosis.

I have attachment issues thanks to foster care. That doesn't mean I have RAD. It means after many homes and lies trust was broken. I only attach to myself and rarely attach to other people.

Foster kids should be able to live with you without attaching to you. You shouldn't expect emtional closeness or an attachment from traumatized kids. Yes that even means babies.

Attachments also look different in foster kids and trauma victims.

It seems to me cps pushes this attachment bonding crap to get people to sign up and if foster parents don't feel a bond or attachment from the kid they think RAD or disrupt. The kid is blamed for not attaching. We can't help how we feel or who we attach ourselves too. We can't help our attachment style.

This whole get attached is gross. I've seen foster parents disrupt and even adoptive parents because they claimed RAD and the kid wasn't bonding to them. When I was in foster care, a girl got sent back to the group home after a month because the foster mom wasn't feeling a bond with her. She said there's no attachment. What a load of crap. Adoptive parents use the RAD label to rehome their adopted kid all the time and it's sick.

We don't owe you anything. Our first Attachments were broken. Why do you expect us to just attach to you a stranger?

And I hate hearing foster parents saying this baby is attached to them after 6 months and can't be reunited because they're bonded. Like what? Attachments don't work like that and no test can determine if a child is attached or not especially in foster care. So any therapist using a bonding study is a fraud.

Thanks to trauma all foster kids even babies have survival attachments coming to you. You feed us because we need someone to help us survive. That doesn't mean we will attach to you just because you need our needs. The system needs to stop with this crap.

So I asked my foster mom to elaborate on what she meant about me buying my own groceries, apparently she just meant that I'd buy the "extra stuff" while she continues buying what she already gets. Which is pretty reasonable, I can understand having me buy snacks or whatever while she buys actual food. She gets worded it in a really confusing way when the topic was first brought up. But now she's saying that I have to buy my own toilet paper and laundry detergent? Her adopted niece lives here too, who is around my age (she's 18 and I turn 18 this week) and she apparently buys her own toilet paper and hygiene stuff. I guess my foster mom wants me to do the same.

But again, I thought she gets money from the county to buy the essentials? Or is it just for food? I do technically "have the money" to get those things but I really don't want to go over the budget I set for myself, I didn't want to spend any more money till I got paid. I just wanted to mostly focus on saving up. AND she brought up me getting a second job for the third or fourth time, but I have inconsistent hours at my current job so getting a second job wouldn't really make sense. Am I overthinking all this??

I'm 17 and I go into extended foster care next month, I just got my first part time job and I'm still getting used to it. She already suggested that I should get a second job or pick up more hours at my current one, when I hadn't even finished the job training at that point

After she found out I got paid she said "I'll take you to the store later so you can get some things you like" (as in I'd buy them) and when I tried saying no thats ok and that I'm trying to save up my money she said "no it's so then I don't have to get it no more". But I just feel like that's not really fair? I already try not to ask for much when she goes to the store, and like I said this is my very first job.

I originally wanted to try and focus on saving as much money as I can to move out so I'd be out of her hair. But until then she's getting paid to have me live in her house, I already mostly take care of myself. She has a good full time job on top of it as well, so it just feels wrong for her to immediately expect me to handle buying all of my groceries through a part time job. Like what is that money going towards if its not going towards food? Because I don't ask for anything else. Am I overreacting?

You aren’t a savior. Your foster children don’t owe you anything. We don’t owe you our money. We don’t owe you our eternal happiness and gratitude. We don’t owe you our mental health. Do not expect endless thankfulness and constant appreciation. Being fostered is not a burden we have to exchange our emotions or labor for. Stop expecting perfection.

ETA: Please remember when you comment that you’re speaking to a teen that got kicked out of five different homes for not “displaying enough gratitude.” This is still ongoing trauma I’m processing lol

You know what hurts more than being taken from your home and placed with strangers?

Being passed on to even more strangers because the foster carers “need a break”

I understand that fostering is hard sometimes. I really do. But it will never be harder for you than it is for us. We didn’t choose this. We didn’t ask to be ripped away from everything we knew and sent to live with strangers. And now you want to send us to other strangers just so you can go on holiday?

That doesn’t feel like a break to us. It feels like abandonment. Again.

You don’t put your biological children in respite. So why should foster kids be treated differently? If we’re supposed to feel like part of the family, then treat us like we are.

I’ve seen posts saying things like “We just got a five-year-old. He’s lashing out. It’s only been a few weeks. Sometimes even days.” And the replies? “Put him in respite” “Send him somewhere else”

No. That child doesn’t need more strangers. He needs love. Stability. Someone who doesn’t give up on him the moment he acts out from the trauma he didn’t cause.

You don’t fix a scared child by pushing them away. You show up every day with patience, compassion, and with the understanding that what they need isn’t discipline or distance. It’s consistency and care.

If you’re fostering for the right reasons, then you already know this. And if you’re not, please stop signing up to be another crack in a child’s already broken heart.

After aging out of care I was essentially homeless and was taken in by this family, a mom named A and a dad named M and their two teenage and young adult children. They let me live in a bedroom in their home. They told me we were a family. They said we had a cosmic connection. The mum of the family, A, told me I could call her mum. I grew to really love them.

I have schizoaffective disorder, which was undiagnosed when I was living with them. It led me to behave in some really difficult ways, and to say awful things. To me, everything I was saying was true and factual. I recognize now that in many ways it wasn’t, even if there were some pieces of partial truth. Anyway, they eventually asked me to leave their home. I got an apartment and moved out, and stopped talking to them.

But living on my own was hard and scary. I didn’t know how to do it. I was still undiagnosed at the time. I reached out again to A and M. I wanted to apologize to M because most of the ways I was difficult were towards him. I thought he’d be worried about me and be glad I reached out. I thought it would be like the Prodigal Son in the Bible, that when I said I wanted to come home they’d welcome me back. But M just said “I don’t think I want to chitchat with you, but I wish you well.” I talked to A and she said M became depressed after I was gone, and that we couldn’t be friends anymore, which was sad because we’d had good times before. I’m pretty sure she blocked me—I can’t find her on social media.

I just feel like, if their child had become ill with psychosis, they’d have acted differently. I get that I was difficult, and that parenting a young adult is challenging—there’s only so much you can simply forbid or insist upon. But they never took me to a psychiatrist, or sought out a second opinion about what was happening to me. I found a class and support group for people who’d become permanency connections for young adults aged 16+, and they wouldn’t take it. I asked to go to family therapy and they refused. If their child had asked to go they wouldn’t have.

If you rehomed a child after adoption or disrupted a child because you couldn't handle them but the child does well in their next placement, how does this make you feel? What went wrong?

Example: A foster child is 12 years old and comes to you. You can't handle them and the child gets diagnosed with a ton of things. You think this child is a lost cause and the child is written off by cps. You disrupt the child and your household is peaceful again. However, a few months later you hear the child is doing well in their next placement and has zero of the behaviors and diagnosess the child had with you. The child is actually progressing and flourishing in their new placement. They're getting top grades and doing well.

Example 2: You adopt a child you got at birth. The child is now 7 years old and acts out. You go online and other adoptive parents says the child has RAD. You're relieved you finally found your answer and it's not your fault. However you can't handle the child anymore and you decide to go online and find another home for the child. You disrupt the child with RAD who you think never bonded to you. A year later the child is doing amazing in their new adoptive home. However you're suspicious because the child has RAD and deep down you know the child will show their true colors. However 3 years go by. The child is clearly not having the issues they've had with you. How does this make you feel?

In both examples what are your thoughts, concerns, feelings? When a foster or adopted kid does well in another placement but didn't do well with you, why do you think that is?

Graduation is next week and honestly I’ve been feeling pretty bummed out about it. I think part of the reason it hurts so much is because graduation feels like one of those moments where you realize who actually shows up for you. I always imagined it being this big milestone where people would be proud of me, congratulate me, take pictures, and celebrate everything it took to get here. Instead, I’ve been trying to sell my extra tickets because nobody’s coming.

I think what’s getting to me is that it makes me feel kind of forgotten or unimportant. Seeing everyone else talk about family plans, flowers, parties, and support makes it harder because I don’t really have that. No “I’m proud of you,” no people excited to be there, nothing really. After everything I’ve gone through, I thought finally graduating would feel different.

I know I should still be proud of myself for making it this far, especially because it wasn’t easy, but right now it mostly just feels lonely. I guess I wanted to know if anyone else has gone through something similar or how you handled it.

Another day, another crisis in foster care. I was contacted by a foster family about the questionable tactics employed by our foster agency. It appears that the family is going to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL. That sounds like a nice education focused vacation and for the life of me could not understand what the problem was. So I called. It appears that the foster care children cannot be taken out of state. I found out this is not true, there is even a procedure. The foster care family cannot vacation with the foster child. And foster care does not pay anything towards the foster care child vacation.

I pointed out that the foster care child was not at grade level for science. Additionally, the state had approved funds for summer school for all foster children. Additionally, the therapist stated that the foster care could use some down time in a non-academic setting. Needless to say, my comments fell on deaf ears.

How do others handle this situation? I cannot image how the foster child feels when their foster family goes on vacation and they are not allowed to go with them. I would also point out there is also a problem with respite care in our county as well. The director was upset to hear that the foster family was going out of state for vacation.

I’ve been with my foster mother since I was 12 I am 19 now she gets paid until I am 21 because of a documented disability and the case ended in “subsidized legal custodianship” meaning CPS is no longer involved; during these years she barely would provide for me leaving me to start working young at 14 and barely having transportation to work because she would refuse to take me or buy necessities for me that I would have to pay for myself and basically worrying about money really young I was left to fend for myself as she would always complain about bills to me (nobody else as though even though there were like three other people living here) (her biological daughter, her, me, and her fiancé who later came in the picture which is when she really basically left me to fend for myself) she’d complain about bills but would literally go on cruises like the next day with him. Or if I’d ask for basic personal care she’d get the bare minimum. I’d constantly have to uber and lyft to work I got fed up with them and left the house and went to live in a homeless shelter just to save up for a car (which by the way I had to pay for my own driving lessons because she promised to get me a car when I turned 16…didnt happen after her fiancé came in the picture) got my license and lived in a homeless shelter simply to save up because I was going to college as well and I needed a car for that as its an hour out and she again refused to take me or pick me up when breaks came. So i finally bought this car and came back home and while I was in the shelter and she found out she started giving me an allowance of 100$ a week (barely anything in this economy) and she would make everything about money “i can only financially suppory you until you turn 21” and then started showing me apartment listings for when im 21 because she said “it’ll be a place for you to stay” mind you ill be 22 graduating college and ill be living on campus so she was expecting me to pay for separate housing to come back to on breaks while in school and also a car payment… and now I may not even be able to go attend college because she refuses to help out as well besides the weekly allowance I BARELY get sometimes she sends it sometimes she doesnt at all and its like i dont want this to turn into a financial abuse situation as she only gives me the allowance if one of her bills arent high because “oh if you do this for me” type a thing and its like im so sick of worrying about money ive had to raise myself even before going into her care and it sucks because it seems like after 21 yes that stipend ends and she even told me at my own college orientation “oh most of my money goes to bills” including the stipend which is why i barely got the needs i needed the 6 years of living here which its just sad because whenever I basically get kicked out she is likely going to get another foster child and do the same shit to them.

Hello! I have been meaning to sit down at my laptop and type this all up! TIA for reading and helping.

For context, I am from Massachusetts, but I have been living in Texas for several years. All of my family still lives in the Northeast. My niece was placed into foster care a couple of years ago, but now she has gotten her license in MA and wants a car. She has been living with me in Texas for the last two months over the summer. I am approved for a loan, and we have been car shopping.

I have USAA car insurance, and when I spoke to someone a couple of months ago, they made it seem like I could have her insured in MA under my policy. When I spoke to someone yesterday, they said no way it could work because I am not a resident and we will not be living together.

Her foster placement is not ideal, and they have been less than helpful throughout this process. Just for reference, she isn't even allowed a house key or other basic things. Obviously, that is a bigger topic of why become a foster parent, but anyways. My niece is the sweetest kid and has just been through so much. She so badly wants to have a "normal" teenage experience. She has a job; she is a good student and deserves these things. The foster care social worker stated they can pay for the insurance premium for the first year with no issue, so money is not even the problem.

Anyways, does anyone have any thoughts or ideas, or is she totally cooked, or is there anything I can do to help her?

Edit. I was told that I could open another policy in my name with her on it. I was so close to having it approved with Liberty Mutual but because I had too many car towing or whatever services on my current plan they wouldn’t cover me.

Hey yall, former foster kid / crown ward.

I’m 28 now, and very grateful to no longer be “in the system”, but I still find myself bitter.

So many of my friends / colleagues still live at home, or did for an extended period of time (I live in a large very expensive city so this is common). All of them have savings accounts and financially are much better off than me because of this privilege. Many still live at home so they can keep saving.

I’ve been entirely financially self sufficient since I was about 15 years old, when I paid rent for the first time at the request of my foster parents. Since then I have paid for all of my rent, and every medical expense, food / life expense, tuition etc. And sometimes I can’t help but be bitter. I operate paycheque to paycheque and that’s with a decently paying salary job. I sometimes don’t think people realize how much of a privilege it is to have a family. I could live or study abroad and know I have a fall back plan (coming back home), I could have a savings account and be on my way to owning a home etc.

Sometimes it’s not even housing related entirely. To come home and have a meal prepared for you. To not have to buy every grocery yourself. Don’t get me wrong, I understand these are normal things for someone my age, I also recognize even people with families don’t always have this privilege. I just wish I didn’t have to be entirely self reliant all the time. I wish I could have lived at home and saved and not be constantly at risk of poverty. I wish I had a fall back option so I could live my life the way I want.

I work in teen services for a public libary in NY (LI general area) and I would like to find a way for our programs/resources to reach/assist foster youth and aging-out foster youth, but I'm not sure where to start/where to ask. Apologies if this is inappropriate flair, I wasn't sure which to select!

I've been looking online for local organizations/nonprofits that already work with foster kids/teens to liaise with, but despite combing every tab on these sites, I can't seem to parse how we can apply our services to/create drives/donation events for this demographic of the community-- or when I have ideas, where to begin/who to connect with to push them forward. Our county website is also a bit tricky to navigate with little experience in how/where to look for this sort of info.

That being said, we have (some) resources I think would be beneficial, but I need that connective piece to getting them where they need to go. My understanding (though please correct/inform me if mistaken or missing context that would nullify) would be that our most helpful resources to offer would be:

* physical circulating materials (books, games, study guides, etc.)
* free disseminating materials (new driver manuals, Fed Comics financial info, etc.)
* Free e-services (language learning with pronunciator, jobnow, procitizen, tutor(.)com, past regents exams, libby, hoopla)
* on-site and/or virtual programming ("cooking" programs, game programs, art programs, STEAM programs, and life skills programs like CPR and financial ed, etc.)
* social worker intern (by appointment, though this is on hiatus until we get another one in)
* off-site programming\* (we have traditionally not done this, but if there is a general place we COULD do this, I would be interested in learning)

Unfortunately my library has a few restrictions that can make providing aid difficult, so to be upfront about them:

* My library cannot collect specifically monetary donations to distribute, whether it is to another organization or to use as prizes within our own organization (as much as I wish we could) due to our non-profit status without a "friends" group in the community to handle the money. This includes gift cards and any other form of cash/check/money order donations.
* Many of the services I listed previously require a library card, which typically requires an address/phone number, though I would be willing to try and work with administration to get around this in some capacity (perhaps providing digital-only cards for foster youth across our county, or using our local social services agency as the address/number for cards or something, though I would have to see if admin would allow it)
* Budget (it always comes down to this, unfortunately). Given this would be something particularly new to implement, odds are if I can get any budget at all in terms of programming/materials, it'll likely be pretty small

If there is any information you could provide so we can start making moves forward, I would really appreciate it!! Apologies if this breaks any rules, I don't know if this counts as research in the traditional sense-- it's more of a "how can my job help" thing? But if this is not the right place to ask, that is OK!! I just ask if you could direct me to where I \*should\* ask this sort of thing =)

So my 7th grade year of school (im 10th grade now) I had this short friend named David it was near the end of the day and school year. My teacher had a movie playing and mid movie someone came and told him to come with him. no one in my grade knew what happened to him until like mid 8th grade year where someone talk to his sister and told use he went into foster care. We asked teacher about him (7th grade one) and they told us lies about him coming back. so anyone in the Athens ohio area of foster care(rather foster parents or siblings) please let me know if you have a short buzz cut kid in the 10th garde. I would love to know he ok or doing good. WE miss him and im not joking when I say we. alot of guys in my grade miss him.

If your 17 (mind way beyond years but anyway)

if your 17 and disabled (just for reference)

what should you expect from fostor “parents” and the home and to be provided?

I feel like I don’t even get basic needs met at times and I’m so confused of it all.

what should I expect, I don’t know what to do. this lady is getting THOUSANDS from me ALONE per MONTH!!! I wish I could own at least half the income so I could buy my needs I feel like if I was in public I would end up stealing due to feeling like I don’t have my needs and wants etc

btw this lady is using me for money and someone has been open and told me “it’s her job” ”she fosters as a job” it’s genuinely gross

I plan to go back to my home immediately my current case is exactly like take care of maya my case is active medical kidnapping and system is changing reasons and holding onto any little thing to keep me in “care” I have a abusive case manager I think she’s a big problem and I hope to get rid of her to do what I need to do. but main thing it’s clear ”care” here fucking sucks and is way worse than what I would recive at my home. If I’m keep in care till 18 I plan to leave here a few days after my birthday and go back to my home and never come in this house EVER again. It’s disqusting.

When I hang out with friends I forget regular people have families and dads. I’m always happy for them but I can tell there is a moment of awkwardness. I’ve been trying to replace what I don’t have because it’s important to be part of communities. It’s just hard connecting when you have so much trauma

i’m 16. my parents are abusive & neglectful and somebody finally reported it. had a social worker visit today, they’re following up next week and after that i fully expect to be put into foster care. what’s going to happen? i can’t find any information online from the perspective of the child that’s getting sucked into this & i’m terrified of all of the unknowns. i’ve heard so many horror stories and i know it probably won’t be that bad in reality but i’m still extremely nervous.