The Impact of Summer on Vulnerable Kids
For many school districts, summers create a gap of time where children are not in consistent school classrooms for weeks at a time. For some kids, summer is a time that can be full of vacations, sleeping in, and outdoor adventures. For some kids, summer can feel like a time they need to survive. Teachers and school administrators lead most child welfare systems with the amount of hotline calls that are made (stats below). While the majority of children in the foster care system are there for poverty-related stressors (homelessness, food insecurity, being around unsafe individuals due to high cost of childcare and parents needing to work, domestic violence, mental health, physical health, and parental addiction), many children are in need of intervention due to physical abuse, sexual abuse, extreme neglect, and other forms of horrific treatment. Our Nation is undergoing massive system reform in the foster care system with many states working to put more funds into preventative care to keep kids in homes where the gaps is a need for resources, thus giving children who are in need of protection, safety, and advocacy that comes from removal the opportunity to access more support and the help they deserve.
One of the number one reasons teachers and school administrators lead the Nation in hotline calls is the relationships teachers/school administrators make with children/teens. Their day-to-day involvement has the potential to make profound impacts on students including in the visibility that often emerges in kids who are experiencing abuse or neglect in their homes. This is why the onset of summer can be a scary time for some kids who rely on schools to be a source of food, consistency, care, and attention.
Sedlak, A.J., Heaton, L., Evans, M. (2022). Trends in Child Abuse Reporting. In: Krugman, R.D., Korbin, J.E. (eds) Handbook of Child Maltreatment. Child Maltreatment, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82479-2_1
Question #1: What roll is the church supposed to play in the foster care system?
The foster care system’s roots have always been in intervention by religious and faith-based organizations. These interventions were taken over by the nation in 1935 with the Social Security Act. Faith organization continue to play rolls in the system, but the trend for involvement leans towards support around adoption, providing Christmas gifts and clothing for children in foster care, hosting trainings for foster parents, and providing childcare for foster parents. Fewer faith organizations get involved with child welfare efforts with the intention of supporting the work of reunification and striving to help fill gaps where systems have failed to ensure that families that have the potential to be together should be together.
Flipped Table Collective- Family Connection Program
Question 2: Why should the church get involved when paid professionals are placed into the rolls of advocacy (teachers/caseworkers/etc.)
Both teachers and caseworkers Nationwide experience being underpaid for the amount of work they do on a daily basis. Many of those in these career fields experience long days (on salary pay), weekend work (even overnight work in the case of social workers), and thus many experience burnout. Professionals are chronically leaving these career fields because of the low pay and high-stress load.
Many times the number of families in the foster care system far outweigh the capacity of child welfare agencies, so the expectation of caseworkers is to assume the extra workload meaning that the amount of authentic advocacy and time needed for each family is greatly diminished.
https://www.socialworkers.org/Careers/Career-Center/Kickstart-Your-Job-Hunt/Social-Work-Salaries
https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-pay-teachers-the-most-and-least/
Question 3: What does the Bible say about foster care?
This is a question that is theologically impossible to answer in an exact-system way because there was no system or method of structured intervention in Bible times. This was also an era without modern-day medical interventions when illness and injury had fewer options and many children were orphaned without support or options. Cycles of poverty were unbreakable, especially for children and for women who had lost their father/husband in a patriarchal society where women and children were seen as less-than. So when Jesus challenged care and advocacy for the widows and orphans, he was bringing attention back to people who society saw as less-than. He was elevating them in a time when they were powerless to rise above because of man-made constructs.
Jesus’ entire ministry was founded on meeting basic needs- he provided food and water, healed injuries and illness, calmed life-threatening weather forces that were sure to end in death, and he encouraged supportive relationships. When it comes to meeting basic needs, this should be at the forefront of all that the church does. And this work cannot be effective unless we are willing to acknowledge all the ways that harm and vulnerability affect different people groups (BIPOC, queer individuals, children and youth, those in poverty, etc.) disproportionately.
Question 4: What are some ways the church can be involved in supporting youth and children in the summer?
Create events and activities for children and youth with the intention or meeting basic needs (providing food), and building relationships.
Launch a Family Connection Program- this program uses church spaces and volunteers to provide safe space and relational support during parent-child visits for families in the foster care system. We provide extensive training and support for all Family Connection Sites!
Partner with local schools in your community and ask them directly what needs they see.
Partner with local before/after/summer school programs in your community and ask them what needs they see.
Create family events that provide activities, meals, and opportunities for relationships: family movie nights, water days, monthly family picnics, ,kids clothes/items summer garage sale, etc.
Parter with local organizations that work with families in providing food and ask about needs. Make plans to do a food drive or food distribution event.
Provide free summer camp events for children and focus on preventing learning regression by bringing in the the library, university education students, parents-as-teachers, etc. Focus on play, providing meals, and building relationships with children and families. Plan these camps around typical work hours to provide support for families.
Partner with child welfare agencies and local nonprofits that work with children who are aging out of foster care to ask them what gaps they see. Create some programming and events around supporting these kids as they leave support system and high school simultaneously.
Sources:
(1) https://www.aecf.org/blog/child-welfare-and-foster-care-statistics
(2)Lash, Don. “when the welfare people come”: Race and class in the US child protection system. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2017.
(3) Rymph, Catherine E. Raising Government Children: A history of foster care and the American Welfare State. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
(4) Desmond, Matthew. Poverty, by America. New York: Crown, 2023.
(5) Harvey, Amanda. “Summer Is No Vacation for Children in Poverty.” Catie’s Closet, May 22, 2024. https://www.catiescloset.org/blog/2024/05/21/summer-is-no-vacation-for-children-in-poverty/#:~:text=Without%20school%20resources%2C%20access%20to,%2C%20isolation%2C%20and%20lost%20hope.
(6) “Breadline Kids in America.” YouTube, June 28, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOOkfVxkusc&t=576s.
Resources to Explore:
Read: To the End of June, by Chris Beam
Read: Labeled: Ward of the State by Kenisha E. Anthony
Read: Invisible Child, by Andrea Elliott
Read: Educated by Tara Westover
Read: When the Welfare People Come, by Don Lash
Read: Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Listen to: Wards of the State Podcast by Karlos Dillard
Research: Nationwide Foster Care Data
Watch: Congratulations, your on your own! (free on PBS)
Watch: Foster (Amazon Prime)
Watch: Breadline Kids in America (on child poverty: Youtube)
Watch: Children in Persistent Poverty (on child poverty: Youtube)
Watch: Poverty in the US: (Youtube)