Foster Care Support

Youngsters capture images of foster care which are on exhibit in Amherst

AMHERST - The photograph shows some cute and cuddly stuffed animals - a mama dog and her puppies - sitting on a bed.

It was taken by a 17-year-old teenager, a young man who calls himself BMP, who has lived in six foster homes and three residential programs since the age of 9.

A few months ago, BMP was given a camera as part of a project to encourage kids in the foster care system in western Massachusetts to capture images of their lives.

The project was spearheaded by Friends of Children Inc. , a Northampton-based child advocacy agency. Ani Rivera, a photojournalist who lives in Leverett, met with the fledgling photographers every week for six weeks, offering guidance and teaching them how to use the cameras. One week, he asked them to take pictures of something meaningful in their lives.

That was when BMP came back with the photo of his stuffed animals.

This is what life is like in foster care, the photo says: When your parents don't care about you, when people drift in and out of your life, and when you get bounced from school to school and from town to town, you learn to look elsewhere for constancy and comfort.

'Seeing Their Voices'

The photo is part of an exhibit on view through Thursday at the ETTA Gallery, at 534 Main St., Amherst. Titled "Seeing Their Voices," the exhibit showcases photographs taken by BMP and three other teenagers who have been in foster care.

The idea of presenting their experiences to the general public came from Jane Lyons, executive director of Friends of Children Inc.

"We can speak to people about foster care," she said last week at the gallery as she and several others were hanging the show.

And administrators like Lyons do just that - all the time. They decry the budget cuts and the pitiful $17 per day allotment - and less for younger children - that the state provides per child. Friends of Children now operates on about $160,000 a year, $100,000 less than it used to have, Lyons said.

They point to the rising number of children in foster care across Massachusetts - there are about 9,800 children in placements, Lyons said, up from about 8,500 in recent years. They hammer away at the corrosive effects of treating children, many of whom are victims of abuse and neglect, as if they're traveling salesmen, as Lyons puts it, who are often shunted from temporary home to temporary home.

But the numbers and the abstractions have only a fleeting effect, she said. Lyons said she wanted to let the kids themselves tell their stories, even though that's not easily done in a system that protectively shields foster children from public view.

Support for Success: UA's Foster Child Initiative - Dialog

By Sara Hartley

Helping people has always been a passion for Dr. Lowell Davis, assistant dean of students. “As a college student, I would see students leave school for financial reasons and knew one day I wanted to help a student who has the desire to seek higher education but may not have the resources.”

Davis has found multiple ways to do just that. In his first year at Alabama, Davis served certain populations of new students by creating programs such as the Transfer Student Association and Tau Sigma Transfer Student Honor Society, while reaching out to first-year students to assist in their transition. He also saw a need for first-generation college students and started a program to help them become engaged in their college community.

Now, in his third year at the Capstone, Davis helps students of the foster care system receive the support and resources they need to be successful college students.

“Our foster care students need extra support in navigating campus or sometimes just a person to call when they have a problem,” said Davis. The foster care initiative began when Davis was introduced to a foster care student who had come to UA without having any plans in place.

“(The student) didn’t have housing, classes or any contacts on campus,” explained Davis. “I wondered how many other students identified as foster care students and were in this same situation.”

In collaboration with Student Financial Aid, 200 students were identified as being foster care students. Davis reached out to this group of students with resources such as financial planning and set up faculty and staff mentors for each student in the program.

In addition, a partnership with the College of Human and Environmental Sciences and the School of Social Work allows for further assistance.

Sean Hudson, a sophomore from Bessemer who grew up in the foster care system, has benefited from the support: “It has helped me in knowing the right people I can go to when I have a problem. Instead of trying to explain my situation to someone who either does not understand or does not have the correct information, they are familiar with my situation.”

Davis also helps mentor students in Collegiate 100 and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. on campus. He reaches out to the community by mentoring at Westlawn Middle School in Tuscaloosa. His helping attitude reaches far beyond the boundaries of his job: “Someone helped me and I feel it is my calling to help someone else in return.”  Above anything, Davis loves seeing students meet their full potential. “I want to ensure every student who comes to UA receives the support they need to graduate in four years and either continue on to graduate school or become fully employed in a career they love as much as I do.

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