Georgette Todd

A new foster care documentary, Breaking the Cycle, explores exactly how intertwined the foster care system is with homelessness and human trafficking. Filmmaker Arzo Yusuf captured multiple perspectives from people with close connections to the pipeline of living in foster care to becoming homeless or being sexually exploited, including a former foster youth and professionals who work with young people in foster care.

Recently, I was interviewed by a high school student. She interviewed me for an assignment that required her to get the perspective of a former foster child. I obliged, and here’s the second part of that conversation (read the first part here): HS Student: Are you still affected by your time in foster care, even to this day?

Recently, I was interviewed by a bright-eyed, earnest high school student. She interviewed me for an assignment that required her to get the perspective of a foster child. I obliged, and here’s a snippet of that conversation: HS Student: What age where you when you entered foster care?

As it stands, foster and emancipated youth agencies and non-profits that seek a youth perspective hire alumni between the ages of 18 and 24. This standard practice makes sense, given that more states are extending foster care services, they rely on federal money to serve this particular population and people find raw stories from fresh-faced youth emotionally compelling and conductive to their life’s work.

Dear President Trump, I am a poor, white, educated woman who grew up in our nation’s foster care system. You may not know much about foster care since you were born into a great family.

I’ll never forget the first Christmas I spent in a residential facility. I woke up on Christmas morning, halfway hoping someone from my family would rescue me, even for the day, but knowing deep down that would never happen.

In just the latest example of a male judge granting a lenient sentence for a sexual assault crime on a female, Valley County District Judge John McKeon sentenced a 40-year-old Montana man to 60 days in jail for raping his 12-year-old daughter.

Everyone knows that the student loan debt crisis has gotten out of control in this country but not many people are aware of the impact this problem has on the most vulnerable population in our society.

I was eight years old when I spent one humid summer in Alabama, where I visited my great aunt Nell, her grown children and their squirrelly grandchildren. It was there I discovered salty boiled peanuts, pesky fire ants, roaring racetracks, and a lush foliage cemetery devoted to my family.