Happy heavy hearted Monday. Before I get into too much detail, I’d like to share some sweet news:
FINAL DRAFTS OF OUR POLICY REPORTS ARE DUE THIS COMING SATURDAY!
Here is a sneak peek of my almost completed executive summary:
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"Youth in care who identify within the LGBTQ+ community are over-represented in the child welfare system and face unique challenges. LGBTQ+ youth are at greater risk of experiencing violence or being victimized, and they are at higher risk to experience negative health and life outcomes such as experiencing violence or having negative effects on education and mental health. With such knowledge and information, it is imperative that the foster care placement process be revised. To improve the experience of these youth in foster care, Congress must require states to provide training for all professionals and foster parents working within the child welfare system on the special needs of LGBTQ+ youth, improve the foster care placement processes by screening youth entering care for sexual orientation and gender identity, and incentivize state-wide non-discrimination laws protect this historically marginalized community."
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I cannot wait to share the finished product with everyone! The amount of hours I have put into this policy report has been pretty extensive! It has been so rigorous and invigorating. Not to mention juggling many struggles I have been battling with internally re: things going on back home but I’m still managing to stay afloat—it’s amazing what practicing self-care does!
Speaking of self-care, for me it means running and staying physically active in my lifestyle. What do you do to practice self-care when you’re going through difficult or stressful times? I’m interested to hear some additional techniques I could utilize sometime 😊.
For now, let me get off of my soap box. Just over 30 days left here in good ole D.C. Time is flying by at a rate which I can’t even realize anymore! It seems like it yesterday was my first day here, yet here we are almost a month in. Here is a recap from my last week:
-I observed medics treating an individual on the street who appeared to be hit by a car
-I watched my first ever real-life fight break out in Union Station (I truly though those things only took place in the movies!)
-I gave the money in my wallet to a homeless woman stating she was trying to feed her children
-My feelings of sadness and empathy grow more and more when I see a homeless person struggling on the streets
Other than those things, everything else that happened this past week seems minuscule to me.
Being here in Washington D.C. has really opened my eyes in a lot of ways. Prior my arrival, I thought I had become relatively cultured. I’ve served in the Navy, I lived in ID, WA state and California. I spent 6 years in foster care. I’ve seen both terrible and amazing things. I’ve experienced interactions with homeless. I have seen people injured in automobile accidents. Nothing could have prepared me for what I’ve experienced here. D.C. is a beautiful and extremely culturally diverse area, but seeing so many injustices has lit a fire in me.
I now realize I have a long ways to go.
I want to make a change. Every experience I have shared in this District will travel with me for years to come—possibly indefinitely. I will make certain decisions and lifestyle changes based on my experiences here. D.C. has evoked a feeling in me that I cannot yet quite put a handle on what these feeling are, but it makes me want to be part of the change even more so now. Social Justice. The Golden Rule. Something of sorts.
I hope the fire continues to burn even when I return home to Idaho.
Sorry if this post wasn’t as upbeat as most of them have been, but we must stay true to ourselves. We have to be open and talk about all spectrums of life, not only focusing on positives. We cannot lose sight of the bigger picture.
With that, I hope y’all have a wonderful week! Eat something delicious (as I am told all the time and still haven’t done yet!)
Stay tuned for my next post and thanks for stopping in!
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