Police are frequently involved in the lives of foster youth, and consequently, police killings are particularly traumatizing for foster youth.
The recent incidences of police killing Black people have been traumatizing for all Black Americans, including Black foster youth. Considering that foster youth have frequent interactions with police in which they are made to feel like criminals simply for acting like normal adolescents, these recent police killings have brought up intense fear and grief among Black foster youth. As former foster youth Sade Daniels explains, “one thing not readily understood by others is the intimate nature in which we Black foster youth have been hyper-aware and subjected to the presence of police in our lives. Many of our experiences throughout our dependency in foster care were underscored by police involvement almost as much as that of a social worker.”
Click below to read Sade’s letter to Black foster youth in the Chronicle of Social Change:
https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/opinion/a-letter-to-black-foster-youth/44205