As a foster care youth, 19-year-old Rachel Bedsworth has been placed in 47 different homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of it was my fault just because I didn\u2019t listen to parents. Sometimes when a family would try to be too close too quick, I would push them away,\u201d Bedsworth said. \u201cI still had my own family, so I was like, I don\u2019t need a family, I don\u2019t want a family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes it wasn\u2019t her fault. She said some families treated her badly. Some didn\u2019t feed her right. Bedsworth has been under the care of the Alaska Office of Children\u2019s Services<\/a> since she was 7.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived at places for a weekend. I had a family that got pregnant and needed me to leave. There have been so many different families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bedsworth is one of 2,929 Alaska youth or children in foster care as of the end of February, according to the Office of Children\u2019s Services. That number has risen drastically over the past few years. Four years ago, that number was 1,860<\/a>.<\/p>\n OCS Director Christy Lawton said right now is the highest it\u2019s ever been. She accounts the rise to several factors \u2014 systematic changes within OCS and the state\u2019s heroin epidemic.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite that it\u2019s never good to have more kids in foster care \u2014 our goal is to have less kids in foster care \u2014 these kids are kids needing service. These are kids that were in unsafe situations,\u201d Lawton said.<\/p>\n For the nearly 3,000 foster youth in the system, there\u2019s only about 1,600 licensed foster homes<\/a> statewide. A nonprofit is trying to draw attention to this disparity and other foster care issues.<\/p>\n Bedsworth is a part of Facing Foster Care in Alaska<\/a>, an organization of young people ages 15 to 24 who are currently in the foster care system or have previously been in the system. The nonprofit creates a network of peer support, develops leadership skills and works to improve the foster care system within the state and country. Members of FFCA meet up four times a year, including an annual visit in Juneau, which is ongoing right now.<\/p>\n The group of about 20 youth from all over the state arrived in the capital city on Wednesday. They went through training on the legislative process, on bills FFCA is advocating for and how to articulate and share their stories. They spent Thursday afternoon in legislators\u2019 offices. They\u2019re scheduled to meet with the Lt. Governor Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of legislators don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening with children and families and the system, so youth come and put a face to what\u2019s going on,\u201d said Amanda Metivier, executive director of FFCA, a former foster youth and Bedsworth\u2019s foster mom.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to hear numbers and budgets, but it\u2019s another to hear a young person and hear the impact,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n FFCA supports House Bill 27<\/a>, which would help get foster youth into permanent homes more quickly and ensure foster youth aren\u2019t released from the system before they\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day a kid is away from a loving family, they\u2019re being caused damage. At some point, that damage becomes abuse,\u201d said Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage. Gara is the bill\u2019s sponsor and he worked with FFCA on writing it.<\/p>\n HB 27 would also allow the court system to double-check on OCS social workers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to let court have the power to say if you\u2019re not doing the work to get the child into a permanent home, you need to. And we\u2019re going to let the caseworker prove it\u2019s in the child\u2019s best interest to send them out of foster care at age 19 or 20. Sometimes a child is ready, sometimes not,\u201d Gara said.<\/p>\n HB 27 passed all its required committees last year, has bipartisan support and, when the Rules chair allows, is awaiting a vote on the House floor. The bill then goes to the Senate.<\/p>\n FFCA is also in support of matching legislation, Senate Bill 112<\/a> and House Bill 200<\/a>, both introduced at the request of the governor.<\/p>\n Among many things, the bills would create a proxy system for cases involving Native Alaskan children, making the process of adoption or legal guardianships less cumbersome for a relative, tribal member or tribe than it currently is.<\/p>\n Another aspect of the bills would create a \u201cone judge-one family\u201d process within the court system instead of a case going through multiple judges, Lawton said. Other parts of the bill create efficiencies to get kids out of the system and into permanent homes.<\/p>\n SB 112 and HB 200 are still in the committee process.<\/p>\n Besides the bills, Metivier said the group is advocating for the general support of OCS and the web of other involved agencies, like the court system and social services. Budget cuts, even outside of OCS, have a ripple effect.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s cuts to substance abuse or behavioral health, parents can\u2019t get help, they can\u2019t get treatment and they can\u2019t get their kids back,\u201d Metivier said.<\/p>\n Another important thing the foster youth get to do during their Juneau visit? Just hang out. For many, this is their only opportunity to spend time with other foster youth.<\/p>\n Rachel Bedsworth isn\u2019t the only one among the group who\u2019s been placed in 47 homes. Some of them have changed schools up to 20 times; some more than that. Several have been homeless. Most have been separated from their siblings. They have similar experiences that non-foster youth can\u2019t relate to.<\/p>\n When the group isn\u2019t in training or at the Capitol this week, they\u2019re listening to music and eating meals together. They\u2019re sharing stories, building lasting friendships and talking about how the foster system can be better.<\/p>\n Bedsworth, now a freshman at University of Alaska Anchorage, also wants to send a message.<\/p>\n \u201cI want foster youth to know you\u2019re not alone, that you have people,\u201d Bedsworth said. \u201cAnd I want communities to come together for the youth. I just want to grab people\u2019s attention and say, \u2018Hey, you need to see these kids.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a foster care youth, 19-year-old Rachel Bedsworth has been placed in 47 different homes. \u201cPart of it was my fault just because I didn\u2019t listen to parents. Sometimes when a family would try to be too close too quick, I would push them away,\u201d Bedsworth said. \u201cI still had my own family, so I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18169"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}