Today in the US there are over 500,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is an issue that is prevalent in all fifty states, and considered a big problem in almost every state. Wisconsin is no different, with foster care problems ranging from serious abuse cases, to lack of financial backing, to kinship care, to aging out, and hundreds of other issues in between. In general, the foster care system is failing the kids that it should be supporting by not preparing them for life after foster care. In most cases the foster care system, “suddenly sets kids loose to fend for themselves. About half drop out of school and end up unemployed, on welfare, or homeless” (Marks).
Kids Matter is a non profit organization at the forefront for foster care reform. Kids Matter’s provides three main services to foster kids: fostering hope, CASA, and fostering healing (About Us). The Fostering Hope program provides kids, who have nothing but the cloths on their backs, a hope package that includes: a book, a toy, personal hygiene supplies, and a backpack. Fostering healing provides assistance to grandparents, relative kinship families, and foster parents that care for children who have experienced trauma. CASA is an organization of volunteers that advocates for abused and neglected children (About Us).
Often when siblings enter the foster care system they are forced to split up depending on the availability of foster parents. Kids Matter and the Junior League of Milwaukee offer free events for foster kids to give kids the opportunity see siblings and other family members. Sibylle Tasker, member of the Kids Matter board of directors, and liaison to the Junior League has been a part of planning and organizing of these events. Here is Sibylle talking about these events, and there importance.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Getting Involved with Kids Matter
Kids Matter has many outlets for people to volunteer their time, money, or expertise. CASA allows people to volunteer there time to be a mentor and advocate for abused and neglected children. Donations can come in the form of money or donating supplies for the fostering hope program. The members of Kids Matter’s board of directors volunteer their time and skills. There are also dozens of attorneys that work pro bono with Kids Matter (Volunteer).
Kids Matter’s volunteers have a wide variety of reasons why for they volunteer for Kids Matter. Sibylle spoke with me about why she chooses to volunteer with Kids Matter.
Being a non profit organization, Kids Matter relies completely on donations, grants, and volunteers. The US and the world as a whole is in the middle of a recession. Among other things, this means that people and businesses have less money give to charities. Sibylle explains hardest part for Kids Matter in today’s economy.
Kids Matter has to keep doing the work they’ve been doing even if the donations are harder to find. This may seem like a bleak outlook, but there is one positive that comes from people having less monetary give to charities:
People switching from donating money to donating there time are usually people with full time jobs, which gives them experience that is extremely valuable to children in foster care. These volunteers can be great role models. They have an opportunity to teach and show kids what is out there for them if they work hard.
Kids Matter’s volunteers have a wide variety of reasons why for they volunteer for Kids Matter. Sibylle spoke with me about why she chooses to volunteer with Kids Matter.
Being a non profit organization, Kids Matter relies completely on donations, grants, and volunteers. The US and the world as a whole is in the middle of a recession. Among other things, this means that people and businesses have less money give to charities. Sibylle explains hardest part for Kids Matter in today’s economy.
Kids Matter has to keep doing the work they’ve been doing even if the donations are harder to find. This may seem like a bleak outlook, but there is one positive that comes from people having less monetary give to charities:
People switching from donating money to donating there time are usually people with full time jobs, which gives them experience that is extremely valuable to children in foster care. These volunteers can be great role models. They have an opportunity to teach and show kids what is out there for them if they work hard.
Training for Foster Kid about to Age-Out
Job experience and training are very important to all kids and young adults. Getting young people this needed experience can only be done with cooperation between employers and the community. Creating flexible community based learning environments combined with incentives to business and industry to create employment opportunities is key in the development of young adult (Reconnecting). While these types of relationships are very important there have been too few real world examples. One of the few examples can be found in Philadelphia’s, “In creating a viable business that incorporates a successful youth training program, Tastykake, PNC and Allegheny West have demonstrated how the private sector and non-profit world can work together to insure better outcomes for our city’s youth” (Tasty). Programs like Philadelphia’s WorkReady should be used as templates and examples in cities all over the US.
Sibylle Tasker considers getting a job and being able to support yourself as the biggest success factor for kids in foster care. She spoke about the importance of real world interaction in work environments.
Sibylle Tasker considers getting a job and being able to support yourself as the biggest success factor for kids in foster care. She spoke about the importance of real world interaction in work environments.
The Junior League of Milwaukee and Kids Matter work together to connect kids with volunteer mentors that can offer real world experience. This program is still in the development stage, but there is a huge amount of potential. Private sector partnerships, like the WorkReady program, need to be expanded upon (Tasty). In addition to the private sector, the government can offer useful job experience and training programs. In Milwaukee the city and county governments hire hundreds of teenage seasonal workers every spring. This type of employment is ideal for foster kids nearing eighteen for several reasons. Seasonal jobs offer experience communicating with other employees and the public in business situations, gives employees the opportunity to return to work summer after summer, and the possibility promotion. Another equally important way the government can help foster kids ageing out is to increase the financial aid opportunities and availability. As the level of cooperation increases between non-profits like Kids Matter, private sector businesses, and the government the more prepared foster kids will be when they turn 18 and they’ll be more likely to live a long prosperous life.
Artist Statement - Kids Matter Final Project (Blog Site)
The process I went through to make my Kids Matter archive/prototype breaks down into three main categories. Interviewing Sibylle Tasker from Kids Matter’s board of directors was the first main step in my process. The second step in my process came in the form of research, and the last main step was organizing and compiling the needed information and media for my final blog site. I did run into some problems, but none that I could not overcome. This project was an eye opening experience that I feel has made me more aware of the problems and issue that effect foster kids.
The interview with Sibylle was conducted for the third assignment, and really set up my final project. This interview gave me many possible topics to expand on for my final, and the three topics I used from the interview are: getting involved with Kids Matter, events for foster kids, and the importance of training and work experience for foster kids nearing age-out. I recorded the audio and video from this interview and then edited five relevant video clips for my blog site. The editing of my video was difficult, because the audio and video did not originally match up, but with some expert help from Dale I was able to make pretty good video clips. I also took several pictures from the interview, and used one of them on the blog site. To set up and explain the video clips I used several paragraphs of text to go along with the video clips.
The research segment of my process was tedious, but very important to my final blog. I used a combination of Kids Matter web pages and articles found through the UWM library databases. The three pages I used on the Kids Matter web site helped me with my sections on volunteering for Kids Matter and events for foster Kids. Two of the scholarly articles I used focused on the importance of technical training for kids in general and foster kids specifically. The other article was about a job training and placement program that has been successfully implemented in Philadelphia. This program is a great example of where Kids Matter would like to advance their training programs to.
The organizing and compiling of my research and media on my blog site was the last main step in the process. Using the Blogger site was hard because I missed the class when we went through the capabilities of the site. I was able to overcome this with help from Vicki and trial and error while making posts to my blog.
I learned a lot from this class, and specifically from working with Kids Matter on this project. The problems in the foster care system do not get enough media coverage to influence the general population. I know this because I was uneducated on the subject before starting this project. The one overlying theme that I will take away from this class and this project is that one person can make a difference. Be it through donations, volunteering your time, or volunteering your expertise everyone has the power and capability to change someone’s life.
The interview with Sibylle was conducted for the third assignment, and really set up my final project. This interview gave me many possible topics to expand on for my final, and the three topics I used from the interview are: getting involved with Kids Matter, events for foster kids, and the importance of training and work experience for foster kids nearing age-out. I recorded the audio and video from this interview and then edited five relevant video clips for my blog site. The editing of my video was difficult, because the audio and video did not originally match up, but with some expert help from Dale I was able to make pretty good video clips. I also took several pictures from the interview, and used one of them on the blog site. To set up and explain the video clips I used several paragraphs of text to go along with the video clips.
The research segment of my process was tedious, but very important to my final blog. I used a combination of Kids Matter web pages and articles found through the UWM library databases. The three pages I used on the Kids Matter web site helped me with my sections on volunteering for Kids Matter and events for foster Kids. Two of the scholarly articles I used focused on the importance of technical training for kids in general and foster kids specifically. The other article was about a job training and placement program that has been successfully implemented in Philadelphia. This program is a great example of where Kids Matter would like to advance their training programs to.
The organizing and compiling of my research and media on my blog site was the last main step in the process. Using the Blogger site was hard because I missed the class when we went through the capabilities of the site. I was able to overcome this with help from Vicki and trial and error while making posts to my blog.
I learned a lot from this class, and specifically from working with Kids Matter on this project. The problems in the foster care system do not get enough media coverage to influence the general population. I know this because I was uneducated on the subject before starting this project. The one overlying theme that I will take away from this class and this project is that one person can make a difference. Be it through donations, volunteering your time, or volunteering your expertise everyone has the power and capability to change someone’s life.
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