My foster home was not the best. It felt like they didn’t really care about me either. I had no clothes and had to wear their four-year-old daughters clothes.
Reforms like AB 12 work toward a better safety net and more stable situations for these youth, notes Brian Blalock, founder and director of Bay Area Legal Aid’s Youth Justice Project, “so they can make decision and make mistakes.” Youth make mistakes as a natural part of growing up, but for many youth in the system, Blalock says, a mistake is a luxury they can’t afford.
Shortly after, my father relapsed and I lost contact with both him and my brother. Through another family member, I was informed that my brother was taken into the custody of his older sister. Child Protective Services (CPS) eventually decided the home he went to was unsafe and placed him in foster care.
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