Collected Item: “Aging out of the Foster Care System During a Pandemic”
Give your story a title.
Aging out of the Foster Care System During a Pandemic
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
Article
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
Deshala’s story is one that not only teaches us the struggles of being a foster child turning 21 and aging out of the system during a pandemic but is also a collection item that attempts to fill an archival silence and amplify the voice of a marginalized group. Her story exemplifies how this already anxiety inducing time in foster children’s lives was significantly intensified by the COVID19 pandemic. There are certain groups of people that many of us think of when we hear “marginalized group” but one most people don’t think of is foster children, especially those who are close to aging out. Kids in the foster system normally struggle to have their voices heard and are a group that experiences arguably the most emotional distress and inconsistency in their lives out of anyone in our country. This pandemic not only made them, kids who were about to age out of the system, more stressed and fearful for their future than ever but there was also hardly anything they could do about it either. The inclusion of this collection item is meant to spread and educate people on the strain that this pandemic has put on kids aging out of the foster care system. No one should ever have to worry about losing a safe and stable home, especially not during a global health crisis and Deshala’s story amplifies this issue and calls for action for others in similar situations due to the pandemic.
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#HST241 #CovidMiniCollection #Suffolk #Turning21DuringPandemic #FosterCare #Marginalized
Enter a URL associated with this object, if relevant.
https://www.childrenslawcenter.org/story/turning-21-pandemic-life-changing-result-deshala
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
Children's Law Center
Give this story a date.
2020-12-03