Foster care is put in place to give youth whose parents have neglected to care for them a home where they can learn, be loved, and grow. It takes a special kind of person to be a foster parent, and most people who become foster parents do it because they have a heart for children but unfortunately there are some foster parents who just do it for money, and they don't care about the child which traumatizes the child even more. Sometimes there are no homes for youth in foster care, simply because there’s no room available because homes are filling up or some people don't want to take in certain youth like teens. Where do they put these youth? In residentials which are group homes for teens that there are no homes for. “Residential programs work with children whose specific needs are best addressed in a structured environment.” says Child Welfare. Kids are better off in foster homes than in residentials because a residential in comparison to an actual home with a family is so much different i think of a residential as jail i’d rather be in a home with a family than jail.

My experience with residentials; I have been to one residential and that was when I was first removed from my home. They took my brother to a foster home outside of Centreville because they had a home for a four year old but not for a 17 year old girl. They placed my brother in a really good home with lots of other kids his age, animals and super nice foster parents, but they couldn't keep us together because of the fact that the home didnt take in teens. After the cps worker took my brother to this great and wonderful foster home they took me to a residential in Detroit. It was a long car ride of silence when we got there. It was around 10:00 pm the whole place looked like a jail for girls. It was completely horrifying i just kept praying that wasn't where I was going to stay. All the girls in there were asleep when I got there so I met with the director of the place and they made me sign a bunch of forms and they admitted me in, the first thing I did there was take a shower they gave me a white tee shirt and orange sweatpants and orange sandals it almost looked like jail or prison uniform. I was only allowed to talk to people for ten minutes and I couldn't get ahold of my cps worker or anybody.

I cried myself to sleep every night that I was there. I was only there for a week it was pretty scary. I was away from my mom and brother for the first time ever for a long time. I missed them and i just wanted to go home. After a week staying in the residential a nice family in Centreville decided to take me in. Kids are removed from their homes and placed in foster care because their parents abuse and neglect them, and-or abuse substances, such as drugs and alcohol. Most kids coming in to foster care are automatically diagnosed with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) mainly because the things that they have been through before they were removed. Some kids go through mental, physical, and sexual abuse from their parents or people they were around. Even if youth never had any type of physical, sexual, or mental abuse, just getting removed from your parents is enough trauma to last a while. Each child is unique, kids come into foster care with different issues, different scars, and different stories. Just living with my foster siblings for a year i've realized that, some of them have been to multiple homes, some of them have been in foster care for multiple years, some of them have gone back home to their bio parents and been removed again. I understand kinda what that's like, this is my first time being in foster care, but i have moved around alot.

I've been around alot of toxic people in my life which has caused my mom to move us around alot. I've been to more schools than i can count on my fingers and toes. I've been forced to start over a lot, make new friends, get used to a new routine, and its harder with most kids in foster care because not only do you have to deal with all the news, you have to get used to a new family and their routines and ways of doing things, because even if your parents messed up, being away from them is never easy because at the end of the day they are still your parents. As previously stated most kids come into foster care with post traumatic stress disorder when you're brain relives a traumatic event, usually you hear about this happening to soldiers but it can happen to anyone that has experienced a traumatic event in there lifetime. For most kids foster care is a saving grace coming out of really bad situations my situation wasn't as bad as some of the stories I have heard from other people but foster care definitely was a saving grace for me, even though it didn't seem like it in the beginning, it really has turned out to be a really good thing for me, because unfortunately some people's parents dont get their crap together even though they get their kids taken away.

My mom stopped using meth and my stepdad stopped using heroin and painkillers and through all this I have met my dad who has never touched drugs in his life. Unfortunately, most kids aren't as fortunate, and it really sucks. Some kids have parents whose rights get terminated because they never get their crap together and get off of drugs. Drugs really mess up people and they tear apart families, I've seen it not only happen to my family but people my mom and step dad are friends with whose family has been torn apart by drugs. Kids that come from homes with parents who are addicted to drugs most likely have an addictive personality and are at a high risk of becoming addicted to drugs. “An addictive personality refers to a particular set of personality traits that make an individual predisposed to developing addictions.”

“This hypothesis states that there may be common personality traits observable in people suffering from addiction.” I have an addictive personality because my mom has been an addict to something my whole life, she was on  drugs when i was little, then got clean for a little bit, she started smoking again when I was 12, and then drinking when i was 14 it escalated from there and she ended up getting on meth when I was 17 and that’s why me and my brother were removed. My step dad has been addicted to heroin and painkillers from the time i was 8 till about a year ago. Due to my genetics I have an addictive personality and am at a very high risk of becoming addicted to any substances. I’ve seen my family torn apart by addiction for years.

I’ve also seen other families torn apart by addiction because my parents worked for rehabs when i was younger and i saw a lot of people who just couldn't break the bond of addiction they wanted to but it was really hard, so they went back to the drug and lost their house, their job, and their families, and some of them lost their life. Unfortunately nowadays hollywood romanticizes drug use making it look “cool” to snort cocaine or smoke weed or shoot up heroin, or drink alcohol. We wonder why so many young people are becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol so young, either their family or friends introduce it or they see it on tv and think that it's ok and cool to do it.”Over 7 million Americans in 2014 battled a drug use disorder” “Abusing drugs or alcohol before the brain is fully developed, anytime before a person’s mid-20s, may increase the risk for addiction later in life due to the changes these substances make to growing brains” 

If I could talk to anyone my age thinking about trying drugs I would tell them just don’t do it. It just destroys families it destroys your brain development and blocks your happy receptors stopping the natural flow of dopamine and serotonin to your brain making you less able to enjoy things that make you happy addiction rewires your brain till all you think about is the thing you are addicted to. So just don't try it in the first place, it may seem cool at the time but it really isn't, I've seen my mom in rehab and jail and my step dad in rehab multiple times growing up, and I've seen my moms best friend close to death on a bridge in muskegon and she was in the hospital for 3 months, she hasn't touched drugs since. My uncle overdosed in my grandparents basement. “more than 64,000 drug overdose deaths estimated in 2016”

More people should become foster parents, because there are so many kids placed in foster care each year. Over 428,000 a day from different situations, i speak from personal experience when I say that when a child is removed all they need is love and support and someone to hug them and let them know that it's going to be ok. Kids need a home where they can love and grow.