Issue #28
Generations in Foster Care

When you grow up in foster care and become a mother, your greatest hope is that you’ll get to be your child’s Mommy. Yet mothers who grew up in foster care are at high risk of having their own children removed.

This is the first issue in a series on what it takes for young mothers who grew up in foster care to build stable families. This issue looks at the painful relationship between child welfare systems and the mothers they helped raise.

Fight and Flight
Will my family ever be safe from child welfare’s reach?

A Responsibility to Support
Improving how child welfare systems respond to mothers who grew up in their care.

Everything Felt Like Nothing
I ran from my feelings and I didn’t know how to stop.

‘When Someone Takes Care of Us,
It’s Easier For Us to Take Care of Our Children’
Recommendations from young mothers who grew up in foster care.

Support Without Judgment
I didn’t want to get services from a system set up to judge me.

Reducing the Risk
Mothers in foster care need to know what’s in their case file and address risks.

From Enemy to Ally
Because my caseworker accepted me, I was able to believe in myself.

‘I Made a Mistake’ Not ‘I Am a Mistake’
How parents—and the child welfare system—can stand up to shame.

‘I Can See His Happiness Just By Watching Him’
My foster parents showed my son and me how to feel safe.

Mothering the Mother
How foster parents and staff can strengthen mother-child bonds.

Acknowledged
It helped me heal when child welfare officials said, ‘I’m sorry.’

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