Published by The Boston Globe
We take foster kids from their parents. Then we wonder what’s wrong with them.
After Trump’s 2018 border policy, we recognized that family separation is a lifelong trauma. Why don’t we see its impacts on children in state care?
DECEMBER 22, 2022
JASMINE WALI
It’s that time of year, when nonprofits try to appeal to your heart and your wallet. And as my inbox fills with appeals from foster care agencies for money to “help the children,” my mind keeps skipping to green stick figures holding hands, drawn by a child in foster care I worked with nearly 10 years ago.
Fresh out of college, as a behavioral coach at a foster care agency, I was assigned to work with a 5-year-old I’ll call Violet to protect her privacy. When I first met Violet, she hid behind a wall, peering out occasionally to look at me and quickly ducking back out of sight in a fit of giggles whenever I caught her eye.
Read the full piece in The Boston Globe here.