William Gladden Foundation

The foster care system is a mess. Many goverment agencies and private organizations throughout the United States are searching for ways to revamp the foster care system, a process that has gone on for decades with minimal positive results. Given the history of past failed attempts to correct the foster care system, what differentiates current 'blue ribbon panels' from their predecessors?

While the experts on previous blue ribbon panels performed their duties, thousands of foster children were abused, neglected, lost and some even died. Upon leaving the system, a high percentage of the survivors went on to lives of crime, homelessness, joblessness, drug abuse, unplanned pregnancy, imprisonment and other dubious outcomes.

Imagine what it is like to leave home on your eighteenth birthday with no guidance or support. Unprepared for independent living, foster children are further victimized by the system that is supposed to safeguard them. How many more disenfranchised youth will be sacrificed before the experts get it right?

William Gladden Foundation supports Dr. John Seita and other former foster children in developing a series of educational materials written from the perspective of clients about the foster care experience and foster care practices, policies and procedures. They are the true "experts" whose feedback and insights will make a difference in the outcomes of foster care youth. To learn more about Dr. John Seita and gain further insight into foster care, please visit his web site at www.johnseita.com.

Strength-Based Approaches Expand into Leadership, by John R. Seita, Ed.D., 8 pages, 2,636 words. A Michigan study of children's agencies found that very few had any former youth in care in leadership or board roles. The author, himself a product of the child welfare system, suggests that quality services will require perspectives of these former consumers of care.

Testimony to the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, by John R. Seita, Ed.D., 3,584 words, 9 pages. A transcript of Dr. Seita's testimony to the House Committee on Ways and Means impuning The Pew Commission Report on Children in Foster Care and explaining why former foster care clients should be utilized in formulating future foster care policies and procedures.