Foster Care System Reform
Both social and justice systems are in need of reform to protect the social, economic and environmental system for children forced in foster care. Mandated reporters - response from children when researched by non-medical (unqualified) persons. Research on children is known to be unreliable in any form. A child in the home of a domestic violence situation has an extreme risk when reported as the system criminalizes the parent seeking help.
Families first ensures every child has parentage, kinship and a crisis response plan in the event the child is considered in harms way. Our current foster care system far too often does not re-unify the child with its birth family. The Lakota Law project tells us horrible stories about children being stripped of their heritage and their culture and the hearts of the parents left broken and communities void of a vital part of their wholeness.