By Henry Morales
To be in a safe and secure environment, a place to call home, is something that everyone needs. It begins at childhood, but for many children and youth, that home gets taken away from them from situations out of their control. They are left lonely, confused, anxious. They meet people that they do not know. People who care about them and leave the next day never to be heard from again. People who abuse them and stay in their lives because they provide the only place where they can go to at night where they have a bed to sleep. People who promise them that things will get better, but they don’t…
This is the story of many children and youth who find themselves with unstable foster parents in environments they don’t call home. But you can change that. You can provide the love, the care, the comfort, the support, and everything that children and youth need to help them succeed. By doing this, you prevent instability and provide permanency to them. You are their emergency contact because they want it to be you. You are they one they go to to ask for advice. And you will be the one to provide them with the stable home that they need, just as everyone needs.
So thank you for the work that you do. I was fortunate enough to be in an environment where I could stay with family in the form of my grandmother and my brother, making the transition from instability to permanency a smooth, one. But it was one that helped me be the man I am today. And you can be the light that a child or youth needs. Never give up hope on the youth, especially those who have gone through traumatic situations. We are capable of changing the world, we just need people who believe in us. Be the people who believe in us.