
Advocates say there are a lot of complicated and intertwining factors that make foster care ultimately unsuccessful for many who enter the system.Ĭonsider this a critical starting point to reframe how we think of child welfare. It could change their lives.īut getting to the root of frustration with child welfare systems isn't easy.
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These LGBTQ homeless youth are getting free glasses. And they're constantly frustrated with a system that feels unmanageable. These young people live in temporary housing provided by the state, are cared for by relatives or unrelated foster parents, or are placed in other residential facilities like group homes. Foster care has long been criticized for failing to meet the needs of children, from allowing kids to age out of the system without safety nets in place, to struggling to adequately support youth and families.Īdvocates like Jordan say there's a lot wrong with a system that desperately needs to get it right.Īccording to the latest statistics available, as of September 2014, more than 415,000 children and teens were in the foster care system at any given time. Jordan, now an adult who has worked in the foster care system herself, isn't unique in her struggle to navigate child welfare.

" ACS put me exactly where I didn't want to be."Īdvocates say there's a lot wrong with a system that desperately needs to get it right. "Her first words to me were, 'Did any of those lesbians at the children's center hit on you?'" Jordan tells Mashable about her guardian. Jordan made her needs clear to child welfare workers: She didn't want to live on Staten Island or with a homophobic guardian. As a teenager, she was still considered a child in the eyes of the state, and was immediately placed into New York City's child welfare system.įollowing the trauma of the situation, one question remained on Jordan's mind: Where was she going to live?


When Tenaja Jordan came out to her parents at 17 years old, they kicked her out of their home.
