Katie - 2018
Youth Perspective
Blog

By gordonk0207 — Jul 18, 2018

Thirty-three days is all it took to revoke the opportunities I was promised for so many years. I was in foster care from the age of 11 until 33 days before my 18th birthday when my caseworker reunified me with my family. I had always worried I would... Read more

Tagged:
Health care
Transition (aging out)
Youth Perspective
Blog

By APetite1 — Jun 4, 2018

As long as I can remember, I have been in DCF care. I remember every year my parents would switch off custody of me on a regular basis. My mother was amazing. I remember always wanting to tell her that I was gay but just couldn’t muster the courage... Read more

Tagged:
LGBTQ+ & Two-Spirit youth
Youth Perspective
Blog

By APetite1 — May 16, 2018

We're excited to welcome our Level II All-Star Interns to Seaside to kick off our All-Star Internship! Hear directly from the team below in their message to the 2018 All-Stars: Your Level II interns here! The three of us were All-Stars in 2014 and... Read more

Youth Perspective
Blog

By shannonsymonds — Apr 25, 2018

Foster care inherently involves confusion, being overwhelmed, and difficulties learning life skills if a youth transitions a lot during their time in care. I definitely am one of those youth. One life skill that I wish I was taught is keeping my... Read more

Tagged:
Health care
Youth Perspective
Blog

By Cody Rivera — Feb 19, 2018

After a knee blow-out, Cody was faced with a difficult choice: face surgery alone, or move to family and lose health care coverage? Life’s challenges test the strongest people and as a former foster youth, I am no exception. I almost missed one of... Read more

Tagged:
Health care
Youth Perspective
Blog

By APetite1 — Feb 12, 2018

In court, permanency is often talked about from a legal standpoint, but we know that permanency can mean something different for young people who experience foster care. One of FosterClub’s Young Leaders, David Hall , recently had the opportunity to... Read more

Tagged:
Permanence
Tricia Dorr Headshot
Youth Perspective
Blog

By [email protected] — Dec 1, 2017

Who needs family during the holidays? Well, the answer is thousands of children in the American foster care system! Often, everyone takes something as simple as family for granted, that is, until that family gets taken away. Every day children get... Read more

Tagged:
Family relationships
Diandre Robinson Blog
Youth Perspective
Blog

By kingdre88 — Nov 17, 2017

Where is the love for the holidays? Being in foster care, I never felt love, or the reason for the love, around the holidays. Having grown up in care, I didn't have a typical "happy" holiday. Being in 6 different foster homes, 1 youth shelter, and a... Read more

Tagged:
Family relationships
Youth Perspective
Blog

By EvelinRamirez — Oct 19, 2017

Permanency: lasting or intended to last or remain unchanged indefinitely. That is the dictionary definition of the word. However, in the perspective of a foster youth, permanency has no set definition. In the foster care system, youth may experience... Read more

Tagged:
Adoption
Permanence
Taylor Carter-Ballard headshot
Youth Perspective
Blog

By TaylorMiche — Sep 21, 2017

Growing up in my grandmothers 1 bedroom trailer, living on the back balcony which we converted into my brother and Is room wasn’t all that bad. My biological mother is a drug addict and she chose drugs over her kids, so she wasn’t around very often... Read more

Tagged:
Adoption