Long Term Solutions for Children in the Child Welfare System Families for Teens

• Author: Alexandra Lowe
• Position: Special Counsel for the Division of Permanency Services at the NYC Administration for Children's Services
• Pages: 413-458

Page 413

It is really a pleasure to be here. I want to thank Cardozo School of Law for inviting me. One of the reasons I love the work that I do with the Administration for Children's Services' (ACS) Families for Teens Initiative is that it is a very collaborative process. We have in the audience today many people who have been traditional litigation adversaries of ACS who have been working very closely with us on this.

I would like to recognize Marcia Lowry, in particular, who has written an insightful report which I encourage you all to read on the plight of teenagers in foster care,¹ and Karen Walker Bryce from Lawyers for Children, who has worked closely with me on the development of the policy we are going to talk about today. There are also representatives here from The Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Division, and Michelle Cortese from the Center for Family Representation. Also, I must mention people like Cathy Chiou, Michelle Buono, and other ACS and Legal Services staff who are so devoted and have been working closely with us on this. It has been a very collaborative process.

Earlier, we were lucky enough to hear teenagers talk about their views on the Families for Teens Initiative. Even though all of them did not necessarily want to be reunited with their families, or move on to adoption, what they all said and what I took away as a core message is, as Antoine Garcia said, "Finally somebody is consulting us, finally somebody is asking us what we want."

At the heart of our Families for Teens Initiative is the idea that we need to be working directly with our teenagers to find out whether there is an alternative to the congregate settings that they are growing up in right now -the group homes, the residential treatment centers. DoPage 414 these young people have connections with their families of origin, parents, extended families, informal kinship relationships? Or are there people to whom they have grown close over the course of their years in foster care with whom they would consider formalizing a relationship, either through adoption or guardianship?

I would like to start out by telling a story because we have heard a lot about policy and laws, and I would like to talk about some of the kids in our system, and particularly about some of the people who have taken the concept of Families for Teens to heart. The truth is you do not change hearts and minds just with words on paper. You have in your materials, the ACS, June 12...