Journalism for Social Change

Overcast skies did nothing to dampen the festive mood as scholars, donors, family mentors and school partners alike gathered at The College of New Jersey’s campus last Saturday afternoon in a celebration of student achievement.

In 1995, when Frankie Guzman was 15, living in the impoverished community of La Colonia in the city of Oxnard, California, his older friend came to his house to ask for a favor.

One Simple Wish, a non-profit that “grants” foster youth wishes, is launching a new online platform that will improve connections between foster youth and potential foster and adoptive parents. The platform, launching in mid-October, will help “match” children in foster care with donors.

Saturday mornings on college campuses are typically quiet, but as I walk into Science Hall at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J., I am bombarded with shouting and commotion. The controlled chaos throughout the room is a product of the First Star Rowan Academy, a college-prep program for foster youth, designed to help students reach academic and personal success.

The floors are freshly polished, classroom doors opened and schedules printed. The beginning of each school year brings promises of what lies ahead. For many high school students this means moving onto college after graduation.

The Al Hirschfeld Theatre stage lit up last Monday night with celebrities and guests gathering to support New York City’s foster children at the 2nd-annual Voices for the Voiceless: Stars for Foster Kids benefit concert.

A new advocacy campaign in Virginia has refocused the role of school nurses as crucial healthcare providers in schools. The campaign, led by school nurse Dana Holladay-Hollifield, aims to require a school nurse in all Virginia public schools, especially in schools with higher numbers of students with chronic illnesses and those unable to access primary healthcare.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that a parent whose child is subject to private adoption has the right to counsel. Birth parents must be told by a judge that they have the right to court-appointed counsel if they cannot afford to hire a lawyer.

Recent legislative action addressing the severely adverse outcomes that First Nations children face in Canada’s child welfare system has led to a national discussion. Earlier this year, the Canadian Human Rights Commission issued a decision against the government in a 2007 lawsuit filed by the First Nations and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations.