Podcasts about facing foster care

Send us a textDeko Harbi, Shannon Smith, and Tali Stone are former Alaska foster youth. All three recently visited the Capitol in Juneau as part of a trip organized by Facing Foster Care in Alaska. Facing Foster Care in Alaska is a nonprofit organization that provides foster youth and alumni opportunities to share their lived experience about life in foster care to raise community awareness and promote improvements in the system. This is this podcast's third episode featuring former foster youth; the first from 2023 was with FFCA co-founder Amanda Metivier and former state house representative Les Gara. The second was from 2024 with six former Alaska foster youth. The Alaska foster system depends on listeners like you becoming foster parents. To learn more about becoming a foster parent, click here or call 1-800-478-7307. Working for Alaska's office of children's services is an extremely challenging job, and that organization is filled with good people doing good work. The purpose of this podcast is not to demonize OCS, but rather to give these former foster youth the opportunity to share their stories from their own perspectives.Warning: today's episode contains frank discussions about child abuse, drug abuse, and suicide. If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call Alaska's suicide hotline: 988.

Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA) is a non-profit group made up of folks with lived experience in the foster care system. As former foster youth themselves, these individuals can offer expertise to make Alaska's system better from the inside out. Today on the show we hear from the most recent FFCA board president, Angel Gonzalez,  Mateo Jaime, Kxlo Stone, and then three sisters, Anna Redmon, Sarah Lewis, and Abby Redmon. If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, click here to learn more.If you are interested in working for the Office of Children's Services, click here to learn more.NOTE: this episode contains discussions of child abuse, neglect, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, drug overdose, and death. If you are thinking of harming yourself, call 988. Someone is waiting for your call.Representative Gray's office is sponsoring two bills related to foster care:House Bill 320 would protect foster youth sibling relationships when they get adopted. What this bill does is when a foster youth is adopted, they become a legal stranger to their biological family. But this bill would exclude their sibling relationships, which means that after they're adopted, they are still legally brother and sister with their biological siblings.House Bill 363 would require that foster youth placed in a psychiatric institution would get a timely hearing in front of a judge to ensure that they actually require that level of care. This bill has been referred to Health and Social Services Committee.To learn more or donate to Facing Foster in Alaska, click here.

Amanda Metivier is the director of the Alaska Child Welfare Academy at UAA and is a board member and co-founder of Facing Foster Care in Alaska. She and her husband are foster parents who have provided homes for many youth over the past 15 years – many of them teenagers since both Amanda and her husband were foster youth themselves and know the difficulty that older children face in finding a willing home. Les Gara was the 2022 democratic candidate for governor of Alaska. He is a former legislator who served in the Alaska state house from 2003 to 2019. Throughout his time in the legislature he advocated for foster care reform and in 2018 achieved it with House Bill 151. In spite of that landmark legislation, little has changed about our foster system. Alaska faces a severe shortage of  licensed foster care parents. To learn more about how to be a foster parent, click here.LINKS:Mother Jones article "Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a 'Gold Mine'"New Yorker article "When Foster Parents Don't Want to Give Back the Baby"

S3:E8 - The Hydra of Homelessness: Foster Care w/ Kim Guay & Naomi Davidson A story about homelessness that is often told is that young adults exiting the Foster Care system make up a large amount of the homeless population. On this episode we are talking to Kim Guay (Director) & Naomi Davidson (Independent Living Program Coordinator) from the Alaska Office Of Children's Services about that narrative and all the ways youth in the foster care system are being supported as they transition into adulthood.   Facing Foster Care in Alaska http://www.ffcalaska.org/ facebook.com/FacingFosterCareinAK @FacingFosterCareAK   Big Brothers Big Sisters – mentorship program https://www.bbbsak.org/ facebook.com/BBBSAK @BBBSAK   Alaska Department of Family and Community Services - https://dfcs.alaska.gov/ facebook.com/Alaska-Department-of-Family-and-Community-Services-105160088894844   Office of Children's Services Foster Care Information Page https://dfcs.alaska.gov/ocs/Pages/fostercare/default.aspx   Foster Care Application https://dfcs.alaska.gov/ocs/Documents/FosterCare/FosterCareApplication.pdf   #anchoredcity   ANCHORAGE PRESS PICKS VOTING: Vote for The AnchorED City for Best Podcast (in Entertainment) Vote Now! VOTE Daily! (through Nov. 10) http://anchoragepress.secondstreetapp.com/Press-Picks-2022/   Mitzvah Mall Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/807138267263379/?ref=newsfeed   Resources Used to Make This Episode: https://nfyi.org/issues/homelessness/

For this season's final episode, we discuss several overlapping cases all strung together by the thread of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in the context of child welfare and other federally funded programs. In Easter v. HHS, Marouf v. Becerra, Rogers v. HHS and Facing Foster Care in Alaska v. HHS, Lambda Legal is fighting to protect LGBTQ+ people, to ensure children who can't safely return home have a loving family available to care for them and to expand the meaning of safe and loving homes.   Link to read the full episode transcript, here. For more information on Making the Case and to access our resource hub on each episode and case, please visit: https://www.lambdalegal.org/makingthecase Making the Case with Lambda Legal is a short form interview series featuring Lambda Legal attorneys discussing impactful cases and policy work. Lambda Legal has a rich history of successfully litigating some of the most consequential lawsuits impacting LGBTQ+ and HIV civil rights over its nearly 50-year existence. Through the interviews, listeners will learn about the creative strategies, unique challenges, and passion necessary to win. Listeners will walk away with a clear understanding of each cases legacy and impact as well as how those cases left a mark on the law and on hearts and minds. Check out more resources for episode ten, here. This podcast is intended to serve as general information; it is not legal advice nor intended as legal advice. For individual legal advice, please contact an attorney. If you need information and resources relating to discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and HIV status please visit our help desk at: https://www.lambdalegal.org/helpdesk    Producer: Erika Kramer (@goforkramer)Host: Alex Berg (@itsalexberg)Sound Recording and Mixing: Erik Monical of Mouth Media NetworkLogo Design: Michelle HolmeMusic: Meghan Rose (@meghanrose)  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Amanda Metivier & Sarah Redmon

Amanda Metivier - Facing Foster Care by Arctic Entries

Angel was born in Anchorage in 1988. Her 11-year journey in and out of foster care led her to becoming adopted at 16, and an active member of River in the Desert Community Church(RDCC) and Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA). She is now married, with 6 step-children, and works for the Fostering Futures Initiative, training volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA’s) to be mentors for foster youth aging out of the system.

This time on KTD we're focusing on new state legislation concerning foster care that went into effect on January 1, 2011, asking how it will affect the nearly 2,000 children currently in care. The new legislation increases the age-out age from 18 to 21 and mandates that children be allowed to remain at the same school if their home placement should change. The bill (HB 126) also establishes a mentoring program, provides funds for additional Independent Living Program staff and funds to assist the 40% of aged-out youth who become homeless upon leaving foster care. The legislation increases funds for scholarships and job training and allocates funds for increased public awareness about the need for foster parents, especially those that are Alaska Native. IN-STUDIO GUESTS: Joining host Shana Sheehy to talk about the foster care system in Alaska are three guests: Representative Les Gara, once a foster child himself, has been an advocate for foster kids currently in Alaska's system by sponsoring legislation. He joined us by phone from Juneau. Travis Erickson is the Anchorage regional manager for the Office of Children's Services. Amanda Metivier is the Director of Facing Foster Care in Alaska, a foster parent and a former foster child.

Former foster youth Angel Adams tells her story of her racial and ethnic journey while in foster care.  Angel is a member of Facing Foster Care in Alaska, and her artwork has appeared on the cover of National CASA's Connection magazine.

Former foster youth Amanda Metivier and Alaska State Director Marion Hallum discuss Facing Foster Care in Alaska, a foster youth advocacy program.