Lennie James Quotes

I was 16 when I entered the foster system, and know firsthand the statistics for 'aging out.'

As an adoptive parent myself of foster children, I have seen firsthand the glaring problems of the system currently facing this Nation.

I am extremely active in the foster care crisis in this country. Everything that I do is pretty much with the end goal of trying to make a difference in the lives of the children in foster care.

My dad worked for child protection.

Child Protective Services, all over the country, need to be revamped top to bottom.

The most important element of the foster care system is getting kids out of foster care and into a permanent placement so they don't have to spend their entire childhoods in courtrooms, wondering if they will ever have a place to call home.

My dad works in child protection and he's spent many, many years in that line of work.

I wanted to write with emotional honesty and tell a story people could connect with. And I wanted people to know how the foster system in America fails children; and how, at 18, they fall through the cracks. Then we can all work together and give support.

I'm not proud of this, but I had a lot of misconceptions about American foster care. To me, foster care meant that a child would be placed with you, then taken away. I didn't want to go through all of that.

I think there's a need for more oversight by social workers, because there are a lot of foster parents who are just collecting checks. They need to look closely into the backgrounds of the people whose hands you're putting the kids into and then continue to monitor them.

Foster children are disproportionately victims of identity theft.

Children are my pet cause. I have a foster child in El Salvador, and whenever I'm home, I work for the Adam Walsh Foundation, which finds missing children. I also do some hospital visits and other things for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

If you've got kids who aren't being looked after by their parents, there's only so many times you can try and intervene to get that right.

I don't think I'll do foster care or adopt, to be quite honest.

Despite the best of efforts, many foster children are neither reunited with their families, nor adopted.

My sister-in-law works for a group that supports orphanages in Cairo. She and her colleagues take care of children left behind by circumstances beyond their control. They feed these children, clothe them, and teach them to read.

Child abuse and neglect offend the basic values of our state. We have a responsibility to provide safe settings for at-risk children and facilitate permanent placement for children who cannot return home.

Many children in the foster care system are often in the midst of a family challenge.

My impression, having been in the Norwegian government for several years, is that taking a child into care is an extremely serious decision which is really taken as a last resort, when the situation warrants it, for the well-being of the children.

Too many children in foster care are falling through cracks. Be a hero, take the time learn about adoption today.

The problem is foster youth don't really have this network that other kids have.

Though politics is by nature divisive, surely we all can agree that foster children need stability, safety, education, opportunity - and love.

Orphans Preferred

I was a ward of the state, initially, and then in the foster care system for quite some time, even though I did live part-time with my aunt in Brooklyn.

I was put in White City children's home when I was 15.