Making a difference
to children in foster care
by Gale Horton Gay
gale@dekalbchamp.com
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If one has a few minutes:
• Send a care package to foster care alum attending college.
• Donate suitcases, books, games, computers, sporting equipment, musical instruments, clothes to youth in foster care.
If one has a few hours:
• Volunteer to help start a foster care program locally.
• Recognize/honor a person or organization for helping foster youth in one’s community.
If one has a few weeks:
• Become a licensed respite care provider to support foster care families in one’s neighborhood.
• Tutor a child in foster care.
For more suggestions and detailed information on these recommendations, visit www.fostercaremonth.org. |
Anthony Reeves and Ruby Peeples know abandonment all too well, and because of it they are trying to help children whose family lives are crumbling.
Reeves was abandoned by a young mother when he was about 5 in 1988 and ended up in the state’s foster care system, he said. Today at 25, Reeves advocates changing public policy that affects children in foster care.
Peeples says her mother chose a new husband over her children in 1944. At 71, Peeples is in her 15th year opening her home to children in the state’s foster care system.
Peeples and Reeves are two sides of the foster care equation, both stressing that individuals with a caring heart and any amount of time can make a difference in the life of a foster child. In fact, May was Foster Care Month and the mantra from foster care officials is that there are a multitude of ways to help the 513,000 children in foster care in the U.S.—whether one has an abundance of time or not much at all.
Peeples of Decatur became a parent for the first time at age 50 when her niece died, leaving two children—one only 9 months old. She said she didn’t want to see them in separate homes. One is now in college and the other is on his own. Peeples also opened her Decatur home to some 19 foster children during the past two decades—sometimes taking in two to three at a time, she said.
“I enjoyed every minute of it,” said Peeples. “It made me feel like I was needed. If you can’t adopt, can’t foster a child, make a financial contribution, help with a personal enrichment program or help with their education or presenting to a congregation. Just get involved. It really makes a difference.”
She tries to do what she can to help others, in part, because of the memory of her mother dropping young Ruby and her two siblings off at different relatives’ homes without explaining anything to them. “Her husband decided he did not want us,” said Peeples, who wound up at her biological father’s home and living with him and a girlfriend, having to share a bed with the two of them.
Most communities are urgently seeking more “everyday people to come forward and support our nation’s most vulnerable children so they may realize their full potential,” according to the Foster Care/Change a Lifetime Web site (www.fostercaremonth.org).
And the call for more foster parents is reaching folks. However, sometimes those who are interested decide that they can’t or shouldn’t make the commitment.
Hazel Turner is one such individual.
Turner, the mother of two grown children, recently attended a foster care orientation class. As a widow who lives alone in south DeKalb, Turner said foster children could be company for her, and she could provide them with a secure and loving home.
“I do have a desire to help children and I want to see them do better,” said Turner.
However, Turner said at the orientation she learned that foster parents must be prepared to transport children to doctor’s visits as well as meetings with teachers and their biological parents. Because she runs a day care center in her home—and recently added 24-hour child care—she realized she wouldn’t be able to fulfill the level of obligations. So she decided not to go further.
In addition to bringing new foster parents into the fold, foster care officials say that one of the areas they are trying to shed light on is that a disproportionate number of children in the foster care system are African American. Although African Americans make up 15 percent of the U.S. population, they comprise 32 percent of those in foster care, according to National Foster Care Month data. And in Georgia where there are 13,000 children in foster care, African Americans represent 51 percent of those in the system although they make up 34 percent of the state’s general population.
Reeves, was one of those disproportionately represented in the system, but he’s now an alum and has been on his own for several years now.
A resident of Lithonia, Reeves, who graduated from Bannneker High School and attends DeVry University, is also involved in public speaking, writing plays and involving youth in creative endeavors. The latter, he explains, teaches young people resiliency and how to overcome challenges.
Reeves said he is also advocating for enhancements to foster care, such as stronger support for foster parents and group homes and more stability with case workers. And recalling that he rarely was told anything about why he was in foster car and when he would be moved from home to home, Reeves said he would also like to see better communication with children who are in the system.
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