Children and families in the Child Protection System need people like you.
Volunteer Support
Advocate Refresher
Maintaining Meaningful Connections for CASA Children
The COVID-19 Pandemic made us realize how important family and community connections are. Society realized how we took for granted attending church, going to the gym, having dinner with friends, having in-person visits with our families, etc. Here we are two years in and still dealing with the after effects of the pandemic. Sibling and parent visits continue to be disrupted due to the Covid Virus. CASA Volunteers have also had to reschedule visits due to quarantining. Family and community connections build resiliency. One of the roles of CASA Volunteers is to assure that their CASA children have meaningful connections.
Below are a few things that CASA Volunteers can do to make sure that this happens:
- Maintain a connection with your CASA child. Speak to them as often as possible by phone or video chat and visit regularly.
- Ask your CASA child what people and activities are important to them. The child may feel more comfortable discussing this with you privately.
- Don’t rely on the foster parent or caretaker to find out who the child is missing. Foster parents and caretakers sometimes misinterpret a child not asking to see siblings or parents as an indicator that the child does not miss their family. There are many reasons for a child not to ask a caretaker about visiting with biological family members.
- Understand that infants and young children may have some adjustments when seeing a parent that they have not seen regularly. Crying or appearing upset is not necessarily an indicator that the child does not have an attachment to a biological relative.
- Facilitate collaboration between biological parents and foster parents to help the children feel comfortable when visiting.
- Remember that maintaining those connections are based on the child’s needs. Foster parents or caretakers being inconvenienced or fearful that contact with the parents, siblings, or other relatives may cause disruption for the children should not prevent children from seeing their biological family members.
- Collaborate with your supervisor and DSS to review the visitation plan for children and their biological family.
- Communicate any safety concerns regarding family visits to your supervisor and DSS.
- Be available to talk to your CASA child about their feelings before or after family visits.
- Provide resources on safe practices to foster parents, children, and parents.
Thank you all for being consistent in creating meaningful connections for your CASA child!
Current Volunteer Support
If you're a current volunteer with CASA, this is where you'll find the paperwork you need.
Volunteer Continuing Education Resources:
DOCUMENTARIES, TV SHOWS, AND FILMS
13th (Netflix)
13th systematically goes through the decades following the passage of the 13th amendment to show how black people were targeted by the media, by the government, and by businesses to create a new form of slavery. It is a movie that will infuriate you, depress you, and hopefully spur you to action against a system that has done egregious harm to our fellow citizens. – Matt Goldberg
All in my Family (Netflix)
After starting a family of his very own in America, a gay filmmaker documents his loving, traditional Chinese family's process of acceptance.
All God's Children (Vimeo)
Presents a political, social, and religious analysis of sexual orientation within the context of the traditional African American values of freedom, inclusion, and the Christian ethic.
Audrie & Daisy (Netflix)
The documentary chronicles the stories of two high school students who were sexually assaulted. Audrie, 15, was subjected to such intense cyberbullying after the incident that she committed suicide. Daisy, 14 at the time of her assault, hears about Audrie’s story and tries to reach out, only to discover she’s already gone. The film tracks the events of both traumatic events while also chronicling how the institutions meant to protect citizens failed both of these victims.
Beautiful Boy (Amazon Prime)
Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.
The Beginning of Life: The Series (Netflix)
Using breakthroughs in technology and neuroscience, this series examines how the environment affects infants -- and how infants can affect our future. -Netflix
Broken Rainbow (YouTube)
1985 documentary film about the government-enforced relocation of thousands of Navajo Native Americans from their ancestral homes in Arizona. The Navajo were relocated to aid mining speculation in a process that began in the 1970s and continues to this day.
Bully (Netflix)
This eye-opening documentary tracks the stories of five different families whose children are struggling to defend themselves from school bullies.
Chasing Heroin (YouTube)
A searing, two-hour investigation places America’s heroin and opioid crisis in a fresh and provocative light — telling the stories of individual addicts, but also illuminating the epidemic’s years-in-the-making social context, deeply examining shifts in U.S. drug policy, and exploring what happens when addiction is treated like a public health issue, not a crime.
Childhood 2.0 (YouTube)
Featuring actual parents and kids as well as industry-leading experts in child safety and development, this documentary dives into the real-life issues facing kids today — including cyberbullying, online predators, suicidal ideation, and more.
Country Boys (PBS.ORG)
David Sutherland, acclaimed producer of The Farmer’s Wife, returns to rural America with Country Boys, an epic tale of two boys coming of age in eastern Kentucky’s Appalachian hills. Viewers meet Cody Perkins and Chris Johnson, classmates at an alternative high school who inhabit the same world yet are light years apart. Through intimate cinematography and extraordinary sound design that puts the viewer inside the skin of the story’s colorful and memorable characters, Country Boys traverses the emotional terrain of two boys who are about to become men, documenting their struggles to overcome hardship and poverty and find meaning in their lives.
Far From the Tree (Hulu)
Discover the courage of compassion through the eyes of parents journeying towards acceptance of their unique children. Based on The New York Times bestseller.
The Fight (Amazon Prime)
The Fight is a documentary about civil rights lawyers. It involves topics on abortion, families being separated, the LGBTQ community, and racial injustices.
Heal (Netflix)
The stressors of life are causing us to become physically ill. This film speaks on how we are treated for our symptoms but not necessarily for the true root of our problems. It sheds light on how the body has the ability to heal itself and the things we can do for a more positive, healthy life.
Heroin(E) (Netflix)
This Oscar-nominated film follows three women- a fire chief, a judge, and a street missionary- battling West Virginia's devastating opioid epidemic.
How Poor People Survive in the USA (YouTube)
Many people in the United States fall through the social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians, it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And those who lose their homes often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million, three times more than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. A documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today.
I am Not Your Negro (Amazon Prime)
James Baldwin died in 1987, but the civil rights leaders’ work stands today as some of the most poignant and topical writing on race. I Am Not Your Negro is based on Remember This House, the book Baldwin was writing at the time of his death. In My Mind: Anorexia Three-years ago teenager Arley Gower was diagnosed with anorexia. It’s been a long and challenging road to recovery, but through her personal diaries we learn of the strength it took, and the vital role her family played on the journey.
Life Animated (Hulu)
About 1 in 54 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. Life Animated is about a boy who has been diagnosed with autism. It shows his journey adapting to the world and how his family helps and supports him.
Maid: Limited Television Series (Netflix)
The series is inspired by Stephanie Land's memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive. Its story focuses on a young mother who escapes an abusive relationship, subsequently struggling to provide for her daughter by getting a job cleaning houses.
Minding the Gap (Hulu)
The incredible documentary Minding the Gap chronicles the lives of three young men growing up in Rockford, Illinois who have a passion for skateboarding. But as we quickly learn through the early portion of the film, skating is far more than a hobby—it’s an outlet for anger, frustration, and desperation. Bing Liu’s doc perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to be forced to grow up when you may lack the experience or maturity to do so, and how the cycle of abuse perpetuates itself due to factors both internal and external. Darnell Lamont Walker’s documentary Outside The House, focuses on the barriers to discussing mental health in Black communities.
A Place at the Table (Amazon Prime and YouTube)
A documentary that investigates incidents of hunger experienced by millions of Americans, and proposed solutions to the problem.
Pray Away (Netflix)
Ex-leaders and a survivor of the so called “conversion therapy” movement speak out about its harm to the LGBTQ+ community and its devastating persistence.
The Poorest Kids In America (YouTube)
In the United States, child poverty has reached record levels, with over 16 million children are now affected. Food banks are facing unprecedented demand, and homeless shelters now have long waiting lists, as families who have known a much better life have to leave their homes, sometimes with just a few day's notice. In this documentary, we meet three children whose families are struggling to get by and asks them to tell us what life in modern America really looks through their eyes.
Rain in a Dry Land (Amazon Prime, YouTube and Vudu)
Rain in a Dry Land is an eye-opening documentary that chronicles the lives of two Somali Bantu families who escape militants during the Somali Civil War. They are then transported by relief services from refugee life to Springfield, Massachusetts, and Atlanta, Georgia. As they settle into newfound American life, they find themselves confronting racism, poverty, and culture shock. The documentary captures their attempts to learn more about American life and their efforts to survive in the U.S. in order to create a safe haven for their war-torn families. Rain in a Dry Land is available on Amazon Video, YouTube and Vudu.
Recovery Boys (Netflix)
In a region ravaged by opioid abuse, four young men in a farming-based rehab forge a bond as they try to reinvent their lives after years of addiction.
Rewind (Amazon Prime)
The statistics are alarming: one out of four girls and one of out of six boys are sexually abused before they are 18 years old. In 2014, the CDC reported “four-fifths (80.3%) of perpetrators were parents, 6.1 percent were relatives other than parents, and 4.2 percent were unmarried partners of parents.” In Rewind, Sasha Neuilinger shares his poignant story about his experience as a childhood victim and survivor of child sexual abuse by his uncle. Sasha has been a long time supporter and partner with CASA organizations across the United States and travels nationally as a public speaker advocating for reforms in child advocacy and child abuse prevention. His TedX talk "Trauma is irreversible. How it shapes us is our choice" has been viewed over 284,000 times.
Take Your Pills (Netflix)
Take Your Pills is about the pill epidemic and the recent spike in ADHD medication addiction. It talks about the growing population of medicated youth and the symptoms and side effects from said drug use.
Trans (Amazon Prime)
This thoughtful documentary offers a crash course on the issues surrounding transgender Americans. - Daily Dot
Undocumented in the Pandemic (YouTube, PBS.ORG)
An immigrant mother’s struggle to keep her family afloat, with her husband detained by ICE in a facility where COVID is spreading. With The Marshall Project & the Pulitzer Center.
Waiting for Superman (Hulu)
The American education system is held up to a harsh light in this documentary which follows a handful of families trying to get their children into better-performing schools, and the bureaucracy that entails.
The Wolfpack (Hulu)
The Angulo family serves as the subject of this fascinating doc that follows a group of kids, who are trapped inside their four-bedroom home in Manhattan, learning about the world from watching old movies. The family’s seven children, six brothers and one sister, were homeschooled and confined to their apartment in the city by their parents for very strange reasons.
PODCASTS
All My Relations
(available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify)
All My Relations is a team of folks who care about representations, and how Native peoples are represented in mainstream media. Between them they have decades of experience working in and with Native communities, and writing and speaking about issues of representation.
Believed
(available on NPR One, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts)
How did Larry Nassar, an Olympic gymnastics doctor, get away with abusing hundreds of women and girls for two decades? Believed is an inside look at how a team of women won a conviction in one of the largest serial sexual abuse cases in U.S. history. It's a story of survivors finding their power in a cultural moment when people are coming to understand how important that is. It's also an unnerving exploration of how even well-meaning adults can fail to believe.
Busted: America's Poverty Myths
(available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and others)
On the Media’s series on poverty is grounded in the Talmudic notion that “We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.” Brooke Gladstone traveled to Ohio to learn from people living the varied reality of poverty today, and to unpack the myths that shape our private presumptions as well as our policy decisions. In each episode, these podcast feature the voices and complex stories of individuals, as well essential context from scholars, to lay open the tales we tell ourselves.
CaseyCast Podcast: Parental Incarceration
(available on SoundCloud)
It’s a simple question. What would you want if you were separated from your kids? In the Foundation’s new podcast, social worker Tanya Krupat challenges listeners to place this very personal framework around the issue of parental incarceration.
Child Welfare Information Gateway Podcast Series
(available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and others)
This podcast series, produced on behalf of the Children's Bureau, presents a series of interviews and group conversations intended to provide beneficial information for busy child welfare and social work professionals. The podcasts cover a wide range of topics and provide perspectives from communities served by child welfare agencies along with tips and stories from professionals about implementing new services and programs, working across agencies, and improving practice. Code Switch Episode: “Ask Code Switch: Parents Just Don't Understand” Or do they? This week, we're answering some of your toughest questions about race and your parents. How do you create boundaries with immigrant parents? What dynamics might interracial couples bring to families? And why do so many Black parents want to prevent their kids from looking "too grown"? But a reminder to many of y'all out there: The real toughest questions about your parents are ones we can't answer. For those, you might just have to do something terrifying — call up the 'rents and ask them yourself.
Disability Visibility
(available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and others)
This is life from a disabled lens. Disability Visibility is a podcast hosted by San Francisco night owl Alice Wong featuring conversations on politics, culture, and media with disabled people. If you’re interested in disability rights, social justice, and intersectionality, this show is for you. It’s time to hear more disabled people in podcasting and radio. Named one of the 15 best podcasts by women that you’re not listening to by Refinery 29 in 2021.
Embedded
(available on Spotify, NPR ONE, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or NPR.org)
Episode 1: "The House"
Meet the people inside a house at the center of an HIV outbreak and addiction.
Episode 6 "We Found Joy”
Host Kelly McEvers goes back to Austin, Indiana to see how Joy, the nurse from the first episode is dealing with her addiction to a painkiller called Opana.
A Fostered Life
Episode 24: "Black to the Beginning"
(available on Apple Podcasts)
In the non-adoptive world, where people only know of adoption but have not actually lived as part of an adoption story, there is often a romanticization of adoption. Adoption is often sentimentalized and treated as a “happily ever after” story. But anyone living inside of an adoption story knows that adoption is a really complex topic with multiple lifelong ramifications, and there is no single “Adoption Narrative.” And while there is a growing body of work that focuses on transracial adoption and amplifying adoptees’ voices, the unique perspective of Black adoptees and Black adoptive parents and Black birth parents are one that we don’t hear much about. Dr. Samantha Coleman and Sandria Washington aims to change that.
Good Inside
(available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify)
Clinical psychologist and mom of three Becky Kennedy, Ph.D.—aka Dr. Becky—is out with a new weekly podcast to help give expert tips to parents everywhere. Good Inside, available on Apple and Spotify, dives into the questions parents have today on parenting, forming stronger relationships with their kids, and helping their children grow—all in under 30 minutes.
Included: The Disability Equity Podcast
(available on Spotify)
A podcast from the Johns Hopkins University Disability Health Research Center that challenges stereotypes of disability by sharing stories, data, and news.
Real Talk About Children’s Mental Health
(available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Tune In)
In each episode, we get real about the unimaginable mental, social, and behavioral health challenges faced by Detroit’s most vulnerable children and families every day.
Scrambled: The Children‘s Mental Health Podcast
(available on Apple Podcasts)
Anxiety, Depression, PTSD, Trauma: Children are impacted by all of these and more. Scrambled: The Children’s Mental Health Podcast is here to normalize talking about mental health and provide listeners with psychoeducation about children’s mental health. Hosted by a former television broadcaster and father alongside a therapist and mom, you will hear relatable discussion, learn about mental health, receive recommendations and tips, and enjoy guest interviews with families who have or are living with childhood mental health issues
Special Needs Kids Are People Too!
(available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and others)
Welcome to the Special Needs Kids are People Too! Podcast with Amy Bodkin, EdS. Amy is an Autistic adult who also happens to be a School Psychologist turned Special Needs Consultant and Public Speaker! Amy is an Advocate for seeing every child as a person, not a diagnosis because a special needs kid is just like any other child, just more so!
Status
(available on ITunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Radio Public, etc)
Status tells the human stories that immigration impacts. Somebody might be in the US on an E-1, an H-1B, a J-2, or an F-1. They might be undocumented or they may have their green card. They might be moving to Canada for a job or to the UK to escape violence in their home country. In any case, every immigrant has a story. We tell those stories and how the complex reality of immigration weaves its way into the narrative.
Supporting children who have lost a parent
(available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts)
In this episode of the Emerging Minds podcast, Gill discusses the need for practitioners to develop preparedness in their work with children who have lost a parent, and to be able to have conversations with them that are supportive and reconnecting.
The Trauma Therapist Podcast
(available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify)
This podcast has been putting out potent episodes about trauma and mental health since 2014. It has 4.5 stars on Apple Podcast and over 300 ratings. Each episode is roughly 30 minutes long. Hosted by Guy Macpherson, Ph.D., most episodes focus on a dynamic and powerful conversation between Guy and an expert in the field of psychology and trauma. Guests range from renowned doctor Gabor Mate to well-known author and psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb. Over 500 episodes span the depths of trauma, which can be accessed across podcast platforms like iTunes and Spotify.
This is Normal
(available on iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Apple
Podcasts, and others)
'This is Normal' is a podcast where young people talk about their own mental health challenges -- and how they got through them. Because when we share our stories, we can all feel a little less alone. Part of the Kids in Crisis series by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.
You’re Wrong About - Episode: “Homelessness”
(available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, and others)
Mike tells Sarah what happened when Utah set out to solve one of America's most intractable problems: Homelessness.
BOOKS
The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals
by Erlene Grise-OwensSelf-care is an imperative for the ethical practice of social work and other helping professions. From A (awareness) to Z (ZZZZ--Sleep), the editors and contributors use a simple A-to-Z framework to outline strategies to help you build a self-care plan with specific goals and ways to reach them realistically.
ADHD and Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table
by Blake E. S. TaylorBlake Taylor's mother first suspected he had ADHD when he, at only three years of age, tried to push his infant sister in her carrier off the kitchen table. As time went by, Blake developed a reputation for being hyperactive and impulsive. He launched rockets (accidentally) into neighbor's swimming pools and set off alarms in museums. Blake was diagnosed formally with ADHD when he was five years old. In ADHD and Me, he tells about the next twelve years as he learns to live with both the good and bad sides of life with ADHD.
Adopting the Hurt Child: Hope for Families with Special-Needs Kids - A Guide for Parents and Professionals
by Gregory Keck & Regina KupeckyWithout avoiding the grim statistics, this book reveals the real hope that hurting children can be healed through adoptive and foster parents, social workers, and others who care. Includes information on foreign adoptions.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel WilkersonThe Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
Chasing the High: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person's Experience with Substance Abuse
by Kyle KeeganKyle Keegan was like many teenagers: eager to fit in at school, he experimented with alcohol and drugs. Soon, his abuse of these substances surpassed experimentation and became a ruthless addiction to heroin that nearly destroyed his life. Now in recovery, Keegan tells his remarkable story in Chasing the High.
Connecting With The Autism Spectrum: How To Talk, How To Listen, And Why You Shouldn’t Call It High-Functioning
by Casey “Remrov” VormerFor a friend, family member, or coworker with autism, communication can be challenging. But Connecting with the Autism Spectrum can help you find common ground with expert tips and helpful insights about talking (and listening) to neurodiverse adults so you can make your interactions more transparent, meaningful, and rewarding for all.
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
by William StyronA work of great personal courage and a literary tour de force, this bestseller is Styron's true account of his descent into a crippling and almost suicidal depression. Styron is perhaps the first writer to convey the full terror of depression's psychic landscape, as well as the illuminating path to recovery.
The Evolution of the Juvenile Court: Race, Politics, and the Criminalizing of Juvenile Justice
by Barry C. FeldThe juvenile court lies at the intersection of youth policy and crime policy. Its institutional practices reflect our changing ideas about children and crime control. The Evolution of the Juvenile Court provides a sweeping overview of the American juvenile justice system’s development and change over the past century. Noted law professor and criminologist Barry C. Feld places special emphasis on changes over the last 25 years―the ascendance of get tough crime policies and the more recent Supreme Court recognition that “children are different.”
The Explosive Child
by Ross GreeneNow in a revised and updated 6th edition, the groundbreaking, research-based approach to understanding and parenting children who frequently exhibit severe fits of temper and other challenging behaviors, from a distinguished clinician and pioneer in the field.
How It Feels to Float
by Helena FoxBiz knows how to float, right there on the surface--normal okay regular fine. She has her friends, her mom, the twins. She has Grace. And she has her dad, who shouldn't be here but is. So Biz doesn't tell anyone anything--not about her dark, runaway thoughts, not about kissing Grace or noticing Jasper, the new boy. And not about seeing her dad. Because her dad died when she was seven. But after what happens on the beach, the tethers that hold Biz steady come undone. Her dad disappears and, with him, all comfort. It might be easier, better, sweeter to float all the way away? Or maybe stay a little longer, find her father, bring him back to her. Or maybe--maybe maybe maybe--there's a third way Biz just can't see yet. Debut author Helena Fox tells a story about love, grief, and inter-generational mental illness, exploring the hard and beautiful places loss can take us, and honoring those who hold us tightly when the current wants to tug us out to sea.
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
by Andrea ElliottIn Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
by Bryan StevensonJust Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.
Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America
by Nefertiti AustinNefertiti Austin shares her story of starting a family through adoption as a single Black woman. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single Black moms, and confronts the reality of what it looks like to raise children of color and answer their questions about racism in modern-day America.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle AlexanderSeldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
No Sugar Coating: The Coffee Talk You Need About Foster Parenting
by Jillana GobleNo Sugar-Coating is a warm, straight-up guide that reads like a conversation with a knowledgeable friend. It is filled with practical suggestions interwoven with a compelling narrative rooted in foster parenting experience. No Sugar-Coating offers valuable insight for those eager to learn more about foster parenting as well as an anchoring for those who have already welcomed vulnerable children through their front door.
On Their Own: What Happens to Kids When They Age Out of the Foster Care System
by Martha Shirk & Gary StanglerEach year, as many as 25,000 teenagers "age out" of foster care, usually when they turn eighteen. For years, a government agency had made every important decision for them. Suddenly, they are on their own, with no one to count on. What does it mean to be eighteen and on your own, without the family support and personal connections that most young people rely on? For many youth raised in foster care, it means largely unhappy endings, including sudden homelessness, unemployment, dead-end jobs, loneliness, and despair. On Their Own tells the compelling stories of ten young people whose lives are full of promise, but who face economic and social barriers stemming from the disruptions of foster care. This book calls for action to provide youth in foster care the same opportunities on the road to adulthood that most of our youth take for granted-access to higher education, vocational training, medical care, housing, and relationships within their communities. On Their Own is meant to serve as a clarion call not only to policymakers, but to all Americans who care about the futures of our young people.
Parenting Children of Trauma: The Foster-Adoption Guide to Understanding Attachment Disorder
by Marcy PuseyMany foster and adoptive parents are raising children with complex emotional trauma, desperate for answers to heal their families. Caught off guard, these families find themselves with shattered dreams, shattered homes, and shattered hearts, with nowhere to turn for answers. Extended family members, friends, and the greater community don't understand the challenges and can sometimes add to the problems these families face, sometimes prolonging the healing process for all.
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
by Monique W. MorrisThe “powerful” (Michelle Alexander) exploration of the harsh and harmful experiences confronting Black girls in schools, and how we can instead orient schools toward their flourishing
To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care
by Cris BeamWho are the children of foster care? What, as a country, do we owe them? Cris Beam, a foster mother herself, spent five years immersed in the world of foster care looking into these questions and tracing firsthand stories. The result is To the End of June, an unforgettable portrait that takes us deep inside the lives of foster children in their search for a stable, loving family.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel WilkersonIn this beautifully written masterwork, the Pulitzer Prize–winner and bestselling author of Caste chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
The Weight of Air: A Story of the Lies about Addiction and the Truth about Recovery
by David PosesIn his groundbreaking memoir, The Weight of Air, David chronicles his struggle to overcome mental illness and addiction. By age nineteen, he'd been through medical detox, inpatient rehab, twelve-step programs, and a halfway house. He saw his drug use as a symptom of depression, but the experts insisted that addiction was the problem. Over the next thirteen years, he went from one relapse to the next, drowning in guilt, shame, and secrets, until he finally found an evidence-based treatment that not only saved his life, but helped him thrive.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
by Beverly Daniel TatumWalk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? How can we get past our reluctance to discuss racial issues?