A LETTER TO THE PRESS
While I am very glad to see the news that Barnabas Ministries got approval from the Holland Township for its homeless shelter for teens, I was more than horrified to see the comment of Paula Gritter regarding the experience she had with her former foster child, pulled out and highlighted in bold in bold type, as relating to her opposition to the project. While I would never minimize her terrible experience, as a social worker in the child welfare field, I can testify that hers was an isolated experience, and does not represent the general population of youth in foster care.
What having her comment highlighted, does, however, is incite and inflame the negative press and stereotypes of youth in foster care. First of all, there are currently more than 19,000 youth in foster care in the state of Michigan, 6,000 of them in need of adoptive families. Many of these youth are above age 8 and want more than anything to have a family to love them. They are in foster care, not because of their own doing, but because they were removed from their birth home because at that point in time, they could not safely be parented there. They usually have been a victim of abuse or neglect, and do not deserve to be victimized one more time in the court of public opinion by the actions of one very troubled youth.
We are in desperate need of foster and adoptive homes for teens and sibling groups. As an adoptive parent and former foster parent, I can also testify that parenting teens is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Having Ms. Gritter’s comments prominently displayed gives a certain sense of justification to the negative and very incorrect assumptions about youth in foster care.
Kudos to Barnabas Ministries for giving the vulnerable youth of Ottawa County a place to be safely housed and to heal. I invite our community to support this important ministry which fills in the service gap we currently have in helping homeless teens. As for The Sentinel’s choice to further stigmatize foster kids, in essence to kick kids who are already down, for shame.
Sara Blomeling de Roo, letter to Holland Sentinel
11 Ocober 2010
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/opinions/x123456178/LETTER-Don-t-stigmatize-foster-children
