After 20 Years, California Man Leaves Foster Care on His Own Terms [KQED.org]

Samantha Sangenito 1/13/174:00 AM

When Noel Anaya was just 1 year old, he and his five brothers and sisters were placed in the California foster care system. He has spent nearly all of his life in that system and has just turned 21. In California, that’s the age when people in foster care “age out” of the system and lose the benefits the system provides. That process becomes official at a final court hearing. Anaya, along with Youth Radio, got rare permission to record the proceeding, where he read a letter he wrote about his experience in the foster care system.

[For more of this story, written by Noel Anaya, go to http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/...re-on-his-own-terms/]

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Jane StevensPublisher, ACEsTooHigh; founder, PACEs Connection

This is well worth reading. He describes the foster system having "gray hands":

To whom it may concern. This is the year that I divorce you, your gray hands can no longer hurt me, your gray hands can never overpower me, your gray hands can never tell me that you love me because it’s too late. …

I use “gray hands” to describe the foster care system, because it never felt warm or human. It’s institutional. Opposite the sort of unconditional love I imagine that parents try to show their kids.

I hope he becomes involved and helps change the system. Noel Anaya is an amazing young man.

1/13/179:33 AM

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