foster care

July 25, 2007

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
City of DetroitExecutive OfficeColeman A. Young Municipal Center2 Woodward Ave., Ste. 1126Detroit, MI 48226

Dear Mayor Kilpatrick,

I am a citizen of Detroit. I have been living in Detroit for 7 years and I have seen many problems that can be solved. I have a lot of concerns for the future. I am writing you to tell you just one of my major concerns. It is a law that parents must take good care of their children. When children are no longer safe or healthy in their family home, people in our state who are in charge of the welfare of children can take over. These people remove the child from the unhealthy, or dangerous, home and place them in a temporary home that is safe and healthy. As you may know, this placement is called foster care.

Over 500,000 children in the U.S are in foster care. Placements in foster care have dramatically increased over the past 10 years. In most states, you remain in foster care until you are 18. You can usually stay in foster care as long as you are still in high school, and in some cases, even longer. Children in foster care often lack many needed resources and support. Children may be removed from their birth parents for many reasons: neglect and abuse, abandonment, illness, incarceration, AIDS, substance abuse, and death. Being removed from their homes and placed in foster care is a difficult and stressful experience. Many show resiliency and determination to go on with their lives after have suffered abuse and neglect. However, about 30% have severe emotional/behavioral/ and developmental problems. They may show a lot of symptoms like blaming themselves and feeling guilty, wishing to be with their parents no matter the circumstance, feeling unwanted, feeling helpless, having mixed emotions about adopted parents, and feeling insecure and uncertain about their future.

There have been many programs available to help support children in foster care and children who are “aged out” of foster care. They are all good and supportive programs. However, I believe that there aren’t enough programs available. There should be many more programs to help children out who are in the system. The world would be better if you, the Mayor of Detroit, could help out. There are many ways to help out like teaching parents to be better parents by having parenting classes or teaching the children and parents to be a better family by having mother/ daughter class, father/ son class, or mother/ daughter/son classes. I hope you put my suggestion in consideration.