Respectfully snipped !
I worked with this population for four years. It is way to easy to say pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Not how it works in my opinion.
This is not one family. This is four years with the system and the population.
I will try to give you an idea of what reality is for this population.
I think folks that do not not know the system, might feel it is a motivation issue) as oppossed to a system created primarily by white, educated, affluent folks - who have no clue what life is like, for the disenfrachised.
I will go bullet form - in an attempt at brevity, cause this is an issue , as a result of my experience with both the population and the system it could turn into a book!
Here we go:
21 year old AA female with 3 kids. Male 14,11,5. She had to drop out of high school cause she got pregnant. Kinda consensual but kinda forced- she had some fear of him.
No dad around - all different fathers. Two of them are in prison - the other unknown where.
AA is very maternal - typically male role models are absent.
Often a sister or mother g/mo (most frequently) takes the 4 of them in their two bedroom apt.
Gama is not in good health - she is 68 and cannot drive a car any longer.
Mom working at McDonald's 40 hours a week, but one day her car breaks down, and she misses. She has no money to get the car repaired, so she uses the bus - which is a 12 hour day.
Finally gets the car fixed, her middle child is running a fever, and has to miss work again and is fired. Community medical is a 6 hour ordeal.
Now she does not have money for gas to go try to get another job. Further behind.
Getting on Medicaid is exhausting and a joke. She is not a good reader, the forms are unreal, but she does get it. It comes to a whopping $627 a month for 4 human beings.
Mom cant get antihero job for 3 weeks. Mom is stressed, exhausted and overwhelmed.
The kids pick up on moms despair and start acting out in class.
The teacher requests a parent conference, which mom cant make cause of gas money issues - she misses.
Teacher call Social Services in.
Power cut cause of no money.
Social services makes a visit, notices minimal food - power outage - opens a case against mom.
Mom is ordered to attend a meeting with a social worker - but her boss asked her to pick up another shift that day - she needs the money and misses the apt. The caseworker dutifully documents that mom is not complying.
The system orders the middle child into therapy. Exactly how mom is supposed to get the middle child to therapy 1 x week none thinks about.
Mom misses - when the case worker asks the child about therapy he says he went once 5 weeks ago. The caseworker documents that mom is not complying.
The oldest child trays to help his mom out with the rent by selling weed, gets arrested and is on the other side of town in juvenile detention.
Mom cant afford to get him out. After 4 weeks he is out and has a court date in a month. Mom did not have gas money to make the court date.
Mom spend 6 hours to get the power back on on a program for one month only.
Social worker make a surprise visit - mom was able to get part time at Burger King - is at work and grandmother is not feeling well and in bed sleeping.
The caseworker notes that the children are unsupervised and the system begins to try and remove her three kids from her custody.
Traumatizes the youngest child intensely - maybe leaving mommy. He acts out in school and is sups pended for two weeks, which means he has nothing to do. He gets into trouble (playing with matches) which results in police contact .
Mom has another court date, but missed her oldest sons court date for his earlier problem. Her car died again, and she is trying to use the bus.
She pretty pooped now - is 21 years old.
Gama has a fall and is in the hospital . Now what is mom gonna do? She misses work to stay with her kids, is fired, and the power is turned off again.
She is now receiving packets of information in the mail describing all the things she needs to do keep her children - she cant really understand some of it.
It requires she take a parenting class. So now she is supposed to go to a parenting class,take her kids to therapy, check on her ill mother at the hospital, try and find another job, make another court date for the youngest child involvement with LE.
Her case manager can demand she be available whenever. The caseworker advises mom she needs to come in - she does not want to lose her children so she goes.
A neighbor observes the children unsupervised and calls the police. The police come and a report is filed. She needs to make another case hearing based on this latest event.
She missed two parenting classes and is reported to the case manager.
The eldest child gets into a fight at school and the system orders him into a anger management class.
So now mom is supposed to do her parenting class, one kid to anger management , family therapy, be available to social services, work, fill out tons of forms, her car remains unreliable and she misses work and is fired again.
The only thing that really changes is the kids start to act out their pain in more serious ways, resulting in more serious offenses.
The older brother is incarcerated - the middle child was close to him, now his brother is gone, and his negative behaviors increase. He is now in juvenile detention again. She cant get him out for two weeks.
It is noted that she never visited her son at juvenile detention.
The system intensives its case to remove her two remaining children.
Gama dies.
She is now alone in the apt, with two young kids and $627 dollars a month
Foster care becomes involved and the two remaining children are seperated. They lost their older brother, have no clue who their dad is, have criminal hysteries, lost their mom, and all their siblings.
One foster care parent returns one of the children because he misbehaves, so now that child is a totally new environment, different school, no friends, misses mom and gma, and is suppossed to be performing in school which he is not.
oooppssssss I forgot the other 21 events in this families lives................................
Rinse repeat rinse repeat - and then rinse repeat.
Rinse repeat rinse repeat - and then rinse repeat.
Rinse repeat rinse repeat - and then rinse repeat.
Rinse repeat rinse repeat - and then rinse repeat.
