TEXAS — On any given day, there are around 400,000 kids in foster care in the United States.
During this National Foster Care Awareness Month, Spectrum News is taking a closer look at the journey of two men who were placed in foster care; one who is celebrating his experience, and another who is pushing for change.
“I was raised in the foster care system. My mother and my father were, unfortunately, addicted to drugs and lost me and my siblings to the system,” said Terrance Williams. Williams is a comedian and founder of Cousin T’s, a pancake mix and syrup company. He said the foster care system “saved his life.”
“If it wasn’t for foster care, I don’t think I would be where I’m at today. If my mother still had her rights and we were still going through that and in and out with her. We were living in pretty bad neighborhoods. She was addicted to drugs. I could have turned out a drug dealer, a gangbanger or anything,” Williams added.
Sixto Cancel has a very different perception of his experience in foster care.
“I was an 11-month-old baby when I was placed in foster care. By the time I was in third grade and I was about 9, I was adopted. I was given a new forever family, but it was far from a loving home. I was consistently referred to as the N-word. The refrigerator couldn’t be touched. She cared more about the check than she did me,” Cancel recounted.
Cancel, who founded the nonprofit Think of Us after aging out of foster care and vowing to transform the system, spoke those words during a recent Ted Talk. He travels the country promoting the benefits of kinship care, which allows a child to live with a family member or another trusted adult they know when their parents are unable to care for them.
“Research shows that when children are placed with kin, they fare better from mental health, to stability, to graduating on time,” Cancel said.
Unsupported foster youth are two times more likely to have negative outcomes related to homelessness, incarceration and being sexually trafficked, according to the Administration for Children and Families. Foster youth are two times more likely than war veterans to suffer from PTSD, according to a study conducted by Harvard Medical School, the University of Missouri and Casey Family Programs.
Sixto is working towards the expansion of kinship care in the U.S.
Compared to children in the general foster care population, kids in kinship care tend to be:
- Better able to adjust to their new environment
- Less likely to experience school disruptions
- Less likely to experience behavioral and mental health problems
- More stable
- More likely to stay with their siblings and maintain lifelong connections to family