resilience

I was locked up for a year, just after I turned 17. I was at three juvenile halls for about six months and then at a juvenile camp for about five months.

Imagine that on your 18th birthday, someone who you trust dearly calls to inform you that you are no longer welcome in your own home after years of living there. This person isn’t your brother, cousin, aunt or uncle.

Those who have experienced foster care have experienced traumatic events which may affect us short-term, long-term or permanently. Sometimes we believe that somehow we ourselves are responsible for such events. Sometimes we just do not know what to think, and the process of grief overcomes us, resulting in anxiety, depression and the development of new habits which may cause more harm than good.

According to researchers from the Child and Family Research Institute at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, foster youth are more likely to have poor educational outcomes than their peers outside of the system.

The people who are doing most of the pioneering work to integrate trauma-informed, resilience-building practices based on ACEs research (writ large) are doing so in cities and counties across the U.S.

In examining successful programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Children’s Defense Fund suggests in a new report that community-based programs are effective ways to heal trauma experienced by children and youth.

By Lin Weaver As I began this radio interview — which you can listen to — with  Sandi Redenbach, I immediately found myself thinking: Intelligence, resilience, passion for life, love of people, generosity, good humor.  

Bryan Samuels is the commissioner of the Administration of Children, Youth, and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services. He wrote the column below for the National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s month-long feature on the work of the Defending Childhood Task Force.