Trigger Warning: As Kamille bravely and openly shares her experience, we want to make sure you know this episode mentions sexual assault between 11:30-13:00 and briefly again around 22:00.
“They are so resilient. I can see myself in them.” - Kamille Justus
Children in foster care are some of the most resilient people you’ll meet. They navigate continual change, traumatic experiences, and so much more, and their experiences often form a determination within them.
Kamille Justus is one of these resilient people. In her case, that determination was to be a cycle-breaker in her family despite the hardship she had experienced throughout her life.
Today, Kamille is a Lead Family Support Worker at The Center for Youth and Family Solutions, which has locations across Illinois. Kamille has endured her own experiences in what, now, could bring children into care and she is using her experiences to help connect with children and parents. She hopes that her experience can build those connections so that the families within the Knox, Henderson and Warren counties can be supported and reunited.
In this episode, Kamille shares her story, the triggers that have formed as a result of what she experienced growing up, why her trauma created a passion to support others who have gone through something similar, the importance of empathy and compassion, and so much more.
I am so grateful to Kamille for joining me for this conversation!
Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/kamille-justus-198/
The story I have for you today spans many roles in the foster care community. My guest, Raquel McCloud, entered kinship care when she was just a young child. Kinship care is when a relative or close family friend takes the role of foster parent instead of a caregiver previously unknown to the child. There are many instances of informal kinship care occurring as well as formal kinship care.
In many cases of kinship care, the relatives are left without many resources to help them establish boundaries with the biological parent who is also their own family member. In today’s episode, Raquel shares her personal story of growing up in kinship care, becoming pregnant as a teen, and how she was given no other option but to put her child up for adoption.
In spite of all she has been through, today Raquel is a birth mom in reunion with the very child she put up for adoption, a kinship adoptive mom to her half-sister, and an advocate for adoption, foster care, and other important topics. While Raquel wishes her life had been kinder, she is thankful that others can be inspired and learn from her experience going from a child in kinship care and biological teen mom to a birth mom in reunion and a kinship adoptive mom.
I am so grateful to Raquel for sharing her story!
Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/raquel-mccloud-197/
This is your fault. If you want to stay out of foster care, you’d better behave. If you don’t change your attitude, then they’ll separate you from your siblings.
Can you imagine hearing these messages growing up? This is often the message that is conveyed to children from hard places or who are at risk of entering foster care. They grow up carrying around this guilt and believing they are why their families fell apart. But what they don’t always come to realize is that it was never their fault.
I am grateful to have Dr. Danisha Keating with me on the podcast as she shares her journey of growing up in an abusive and neglectful household where she cared for her siblings. Danisha is a former foster youth and was a guardian to five of her siblings as an adult. She loves to encourage foster care advocates and foster youth to go after their dreams and goals. While Danisha’s journey has not been an easy one, it has helped her find her life’s work.
Thank you for joining me for this conversation with Danisha!
(Don't forget that through the month of August, a generous donor has offered a matching grant up to $20,000! Double your impact today.)
Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/danisha-keating-196/
What are the factors that cause a child to enter foster care? Addiction? Abuse? The reality is, it's rarely a single situation.
Today's episode contains many factors that are all too common in foster care. For Jackie Polk, it was a combination of domestic violence and addiction that led to her children being removed from her care.
Jackie gave birth to twin boys, and 16 months later, the Department of Child Services (DCS) stepped in to remove her children. Her story includes addiction recovery, domestic violence, and eventually foster care reunification.
Today, she is coming up on six years of being clean and sober, is married, and has a two-month-old son in addition to her twins. Jackie's hope is that you find hope through hearing her story and realize that regardless of your circumstances, your story can be rewritten.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jackie as much as I did!
(Don't forget that through the month of August, a generous donor has offered a matching grant up to $20,000! Double your impact today.)
Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/jackie-polk-195/