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For 16-year-old Ollie, the past is a blur. Since becoming a wardof the state 12 years ago, he's moved from foster home to foster home, familyto family, group home to group home.



 
 
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Old July 27th 07, 07:06 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default For 16-year-old Ollie, the past is a blur. Since becoming a wardof the state 12 years ago, he's moved from foster home to foster home, familyto family, group home to group home.

THE FACES OF HOPE FOR A LOVING HOME
Friday, July 27, 2007
BY MARK MUELLER AND SUSAN K. LIVIO
Star-Ledger Staff

http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ss...390.xml&coll=1

For 16-year-old Ollie, the past is a blur. Since becoming a ward of the
state 12 years ago, he's moved from foster home to foster home, family
to family, group home to group home. He no longer remembers all the
faces, much less the names.

Because of his age, his chances for adoption are, statistically
speaking, grim. It's the babies that get snapped up first. Then the
little kids. Teenagers tend to linger in the system until they're cut
free at 18, left to make a life for themselves without a family to turn
to for help.

Ollie, soft-spoken and earnest, is under no illusions.

"I'll probably be in DYFS until I am grown," he says, referring to the
state Division of Youth and Family Services. "I basically feel like I
have grown up by myself, taking advice from people along the way."

The Heart Gallery of New Jersey and state welfare officials aim to forge
a brighter future -- and new hope -- for scores of children like Ollie.
Continuing a partnership that began in 2005, the nonprofit Heart Gallery
and the state have mounted an effort to find permanent, nurturing homes
for the 100 children who have been in foster care the longest.

Since June, well-known photographers enlisted by the Heart Gallery have
been taking photos of the children free of charge. By November, the
enlarged photos, along with biographies of the children, will be
featured in a traveling exhibit expected to make stops across New Jersey.

"The thing that kids need more than anything else in the world are
families who will commit to them and love them," said Kevin Ryan,
commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families, DYFS'
parent agency. "That in and of itself will change the kids' lives forever."

Officials hope to at least replicate the success of the last Heart
Gallery effort two years ago. That exhibit, which opened at the Liberty
Science Center, featured 346 foster children considered "hard to adopt"
because they were older, had special needs or wanted to be adopted with
siblings.

By last month, 141 of those kids had been adopted or were in the process
of being adopted.

Photojournalist Najlah Feanny Hicks, the Heart Gallery's founder and
president, said she was driven to focus on older, long-term foster
children this time because of the challenges they face when they "age
out" of the system.

"I don't think people realize what happens to foster kids when they turn
18," Feanny Hicks said. "The majority of them are left to fend for
themselves. It's pretty scary as an adult to fend for yourself, but when
you're a kid and you have no job skills and not enough education, it can
be terrifying, and the numbers are pretty tragic."

A nationwide study released this month by the Philadelphia-based Pew
Charitable Trusts found that one in four foster children who age out of
the system will be jailed within two years.

One in five will become homeless. Fewer than 60 percent will graduate
from high school, and just 3 percent will earn a college degree.

Of the kids featured in the Heart Gallery exhibit, dubbed "100 Waiting
Children," the majority have been in foster care for five years or more.
Some have been without permanent families for most of their lives.
They're among some 1,900 children available for adoption in the state.

"It's lonely and isolating to be a teenager without a family," Ryan
said. "These kids face enormous obstacles in achieving happiness and
health and success."

But like kids everywhere, they have dreams.

LaShanda, 15, gamely posed for a photographer during a shoot in Camden
earlier this week, calling the session good practice. She plans to be
famous.

"I want to be a singer," she said. "And a cosmetologist. And I want to
be a doctor, as in open-heart surgery."

The 10th-grader sings in the church choir, plays piano and reads Harry
Potter and mystery novels. She likes computers and SpongeBob Squarepants.

But she also bears the emotional scars of a difficult life.

Her father is dead. Her mother, she said, is "in South Carolina
somewhere." She has six brothers and seven sisters, "but I don't know
them all," she said. Some she talks to by telephone.

In her five years in state care, LaShanda has lived in 20 foster homes
or group homes. Last year, classmates made fun of her when they learned
she was a foster child.

"Looks like you're going to be homeless for awhile," one girl teased.

LaShanda said she didn't respond, remaining stone-faced.

"They tried to hurt me so bad," she said. "But it didn't work."

Ollie, now in his 19th placement, considers himself lucky. He loves his
latest foster family, with whom he has lived for more than a year. His
foster father, a church deacon, has taught him about faith. His foster
brothers, he said, are like real brothers.

"I may make mistakes, but they are still there for me," he said. "They
don't ridicule me."

Broad-shouldered and handsome, with the manners of a southern gentleman,
Ollie said he has overcome difficulties controlling his anger, and he
wants prospective parents to know they shouldn't be frightened of
adopting a child who occasionally acts out.

"Especially with a teen, someone 12 or 13 years old, there's a lot of
stuff going on," he said. "Don't think because they are acting out, they
are bad. Once you show them love, you'll see -- that will change."

He envisions a house full of his own children one day. For despite the
fact that he's never met his parents or siblings, he considers himself a
"family person."

"I've promised myself I won't leave my kids." he said. "Even when they
grow up, they'll always have a home to come home to."




CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

 




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