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My passion is anchored in a strong advocacy for the reunification and rehabilitation of children and families. Years of research and investigations makes it clear to me that instead of focusing on the whole picture, we need to focus more on the hole in the picture. The crisis in the child welfare system is that hole: This crisis is the primary contributor to the decay of the quality of life whole communities. It is largely overlooked or underestimated by most New Yorkers.

Correcting this crisis would play a key role and take a giant step in the direction of freeing (wasted) taxpayer monies. It will also create a huge improvement in the area of mental health, reduction in the dropout rate in our public schools, a decline in drug and alcohol consumption, and a decrease in the trafficking of young Black men and women into the prison industrial system.

However, society must first be educated on how this crisis negatively impacts their lives. Those more fortunate and in positions to make change must understand that until our children are safe ultimately their children are not safe; until our families are safe their families are not safe.

Top psychologists across the country say the damage done to children when removed from their families and placed in foster care is usually more damaging than that from which they are being removed. 75% of foster children end up in penal institutions; they make up 60% of the children in homeless shelters; 67% of them remain unemployed for the first 18 months to four years after aging out of the system. One out of six girls in foster care becomes pregnant between the age of 13 and 21 while in the system. Over 65% of the children in foster care never complete high school. Therefore, it is obvious that the system is doing a very poor job.

We must redirect our attention and resources in the child welfare system from protective services to preventive services. Since in today's society White children have to go to school with, work among and socialize with Black children, it is in the White communities’ interest to make sure all children have access to a quality education and equal access to equal opportunity.

Children who have been taken into custody by the city create a tremendous drain on the financial resources and budget of both the city and the state because of their dependency on the welfare system and ratio of return into the criminal justice system. Hundreds of millions of dollars could be saved and a better quality of life could be achieved for these children and society simply by correcting this crisis in the child welfare system.

We are setting up this web site to be a tool to be a resource for the community. To that end, we've included helpful information about opportunities throughout the city and helpful links to other resources.

If you have any questions or would like to get in touch with us please email us at ajuststruggle@yahoo.com or give us a call at (212) 222-7490.

Thanks again for visiting the site. I hope you get involved in turning our neighborhood's challenges into opportunities - but the most important thing is to just get involved!

TUNE IN TO WOODY'S CABLE SHOW "A STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE"
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