Celeste Graham

English 2010

Sue Briggs

4/9/17

The More the Merrier

Even though I have never been put into foster care myself, foster care has been a big part

of my life. I have had several foster kids come into my life and have seen many

effects of what comes from the foster care system. Every single one of them

seemed to have had something wrong with them that many kids their

age would not have. I have gone through this journey to

figure out why exactly they are more prone to such

problems and what we could do to change it so that they

can grow up a better way.

About a week ago I saw a news story about a little girl who was adopted

along with her younger brother who came as a surprise to the family. At the time the family had

prepared for the little girl but not for her brother so he ended up being adopted with nothing. It

was then that the four year old girl had a mission to make sure that every foster child in the world

had something. She started a charity called Alayahs Lemondaide for Love and created bags

for kids who were in foster care. The bags are filled with what Alayah feels are the essentials,

says a reporter on the NBC news. Items she often went without in foster care; toys, blankets,
bibles, toothpaste and a toothbrush. Six year old Alayah then explains to the reporter, the

toothbrush because they had to brush my teeth with a dirty rag.

This story really reminded me of one particular foster kid that came to my house.

Although she did walk through the door with a toothbrush she had only received it because the

woman that had brought her to our house had one in her car. She didnt come with any socks or

underwear on at all. Her eyes didnt have a soul behind them and only reflected your own back at

you. She looked like a zombie because she didnt know who was going to be there in the future.

She didnt want to be attached to anyone. This girl was not as lucky as Alayah was even though

they experienced many of the same things. Im not sure what happened to that girl that came to

my house after she left a few months later.

 As I continued my research on foster care children and other health problems they might

receive because of it I stumbled upon an academic journal that showed proof that foster care

affects children. Although this academic journal is

from Wales and not from the U.S. much less Utah, I still found it

helpful and the facts to be relatively the same. One

of the first things it talks about before it starts getting

into the study is that sometimes foster care isnt all

that bad and can in fact help children more to be taken

from the homes. By getting them out of a bad

situation or place, kids are protected and can start feeling

safer and focus more on themselves and their well-being. In this journal

it says, examination pass rates among LAYP (looked

after young people) in care for over five years were twice as high as for LAYP who had been in

care for only 1-1.5 years (2) However, the number of children removed from their homes is on

the rise, (1) says officials in a Twin Falls, Idaho state report bringing up a point that I had never

thought of before. That between more foster kids and the lack of foster parents it causes states to

become desperate when looking for places to put the children. Because of this, more problems

are able to arise.

A recent study in Wales took a survey to find out just what these problems do to these

kids. They asked nearly a hundred schools to participate and encouraged their students to take

the online, closed-response, self-completion survey. They asked questions about their living

arrangements, drugs and alcohol use, and relationships between teachers and students at school.

32,479 young people were able to participate in this survey and what they found only proved to
them of what they had original expected. Young people in FC were several times more likely

than any other group to report simultaneously being regular smokers, cannabis users and binge

drinkers, and substantially less likely to report no usage. Young people in FC were also more

likely than those in other living arrangements to report poorer relationships with teachers and

friends, to have been bullied at least once and to have experienced dating violence. Young people

in FC were also more likely to report low life satisfaction. (5) (Table also from page 5)
 None of this was really any new information, it was expected and this survey only

confirmed it. That is why KVC Health Systems plans to take over parts of the West Virginia

University Institute of Technology in Montgomery so they could start a two-year college for

those who have been in and out of foster care. By opening a college specifically for those

students they are surrounding them with kids who know exactly what they have been through

and will have all the resources that they will need to succeed in life. Although many other

colleges provide financial help for foster kids having their own college is nothing . . . that we

can find in the country. (1)

Overall, I was able to find some new information about why kids in foster care may have

all of these health problems, and how some places in the world are using that information to fix

that and get the kids the help that they need. It feels good that the world is changing so that

Alayah and hopefully the little girl that had once come to my house can live a happy life and

that someday they will be able to reconnect with people and help continue to make the change

that is needed.
 Works Sited

The Associated, Press. Child Abuse, Drug Culture Overwhelm Idahos Foster System. AP

Regional State Report Idaho, Associated Press DBA Press Association, 04/03/2017.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=n5h&AN=APd5f983148b7f494d87ec1a948dd5ee6a&site=ehost-live.

John Raby- Associated, Press. Nonprofit Starting West Virginia College for Ex-Foster Kids. AP

Regional State Report Kansas, Associated Press DBA Press Association, 02/15/2017.

EBSCOhost,

direst=true&db=n5h&AN=AP4ff1637c16dd440e948f4157b949b69f&site=ehost-live.

Long, Sara Jayne, Rhiannon E. Evans, Adam Fletcher, Gillian Hewitt, Simon Murphy, Honor

Young, and Graham F. Moore. "Comparison of substance use, subjective well-being and

interpersonal relationships among young people in foster care and private households: a

cross sectional analysis of the School Health Research Network survey in Wales." BMJ

Open. British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 01 Feb. 2017. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.