The Black Foster Youth Handbook by Ángela Quijada-Banks

In the instance of Ma’Khia, society has yet again criminalized another Black girl for her own death. Why has society accepted the fate of this young Black girl? It is time we hold these systems accountable for their destruction, harm, and failure to protect Black girls. I recall their stories of adultification, the dangers they were placed in, and the lack of protection for them in a system not designed to value and care for them.

What if I, like Ma’Khia, had been placed in multiple homes instead of with a loving Black family? What if I stayed in care longer and never reunited with my mother and father? My life would mirror that of many of the youth I work with, Black girls coming in and out of the foster care system. Success is possible regardless of where you come from, you just have to know where to look, who to trust and believe in the one person that can get you to the other side of pain and trauma, you.As I sit and think about my own foster care experience, I think about what things would have been like for me. Supportive adults such as foster/resource parents, case managers, GALs, therapists and social workers will also find this to be helpful in their roles in young people's lives.

This handbook is written to be supplemental to young people in foster care's navigation through foster care and healing beyond it. Through her travels across the nation, speaking to congressional members, federal stakeholders and constituents of the foster care system she decided some sort of manual was needed to combat the shocking low success rates of young people with the background of foster care. ngela Quijada-Banks, a woman of African and Indigeneous descent has taken the liberty of giving back to these communities for a half a decade through advocacy, advisory and organizational training. Now, couple the child welfare system with the element of racial injustices and the history of white supremacy and the topic may even become taboo. There are many youth who become prey to sex-trafficking or suseptable to suicide due to homelessness, mental health challenges and no support system. Less than 5% of young people with the experience of foster care graduate post-secondary education. Many people do not know the very low statistics young people endure in order to successfully age-out of foster care.

Foster Care is a whole other world that most of the world's population knows little to nothing about.

The Black Foster Youth Handbook by Ángela Quijada-Banks