Courage & Resilience: A Foster Child's Story of Success
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
02/19/25
•52m
About
Comments
Transcript
Featured In
Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!
How do some kids survive a life of poverty, homelessness, abuse, and foster care and eventually thrive? We talk about courage & resilience with David Ambroz who is a national poverty and child welfare expert and advocate and the author of the memoir, A Place Called Home. He was recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. Currently serving as the Head of Community Engagement (West) for Amazon, Ambroz previously led Corporate Social Responsibility for Walt Disney Television, and has served as president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission as well as a California Child Welfare Council member. After growing up homeless and then in foster care, he graduated from Vassar College and later earned his J.D. from UCLA School of Law. He is a foster dad and lives in Los Angeles, CA.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Poverty and Homelessness:
- His story.
- School
- What made a difference?
- What should adults who encounter or work with homeless children/youth know?
- Foster Care:
- His story.
- Youth who identify as LGBTQ+ are overrepresented in foster care (Human Rights Campaign, 2015). While approximately 5 percent of the general population is estimated to be LGBTQ+, studies estimate that about 30 percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+. Why are these young people over represented in child welfare? LGBTQ+ youth are 1.5 -2 times more likely to have a foster placement failure.
- What would you want foster parents to know?
- What made the difference in your eventually succeeding? (Going to Vassar and UCLA Law School.)
- The lack of available treatments for mental illness.
- Why did you become a foster parent?
- Why did you title the book “A Place Called Home?”
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
Can a Non-Native Family Adopt an Indian Child? - Weekend Wisdom
February 15, 2025
•5m
Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!
Question: This was a question from someone in South Dakota. She says, "I haven't listened to all your back episodes, but can you address ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, as it pertains to adoption? I live in a state where the majority of children in foster care are Native Americans, and ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, is confusing and divisive. At the end of the day, I just want the children I care for to be safe. I understand the reason for the law, but I hate when the comments on an ICWA story about adoption accuse foster care providers of kidnapping.
Resources:
- Indian Child Welfare Law Center - ICWLC.org
- Child Welfare Information Gateway - Info on ICWA
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
How to Connect with Birth Mom with Mental Illness? - Weekend Wisdom
February 22, 2025
•11m
Drop us some Fan Mail. Thanks!
Question: I've been listening to your podcast for a few years! Our 10-year-old kinship adopted daughter has lived with us since she was 2 months old. For a variety of reasons, there hasn't been any in-person visits or phone calls with her birth mom (my sister). Communication has been limited to holiday/birthday cards and gifts. My sister has schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Because she has been stable on her medications and her behaviors are typically within a somewhat 'predictable' range, we're thinking it's time to begin an in-person relationship. We're planning on writing a letter to my sister to tell her our thoughts on all of this and establish some ground rules and boundaries. After she has some time to digest that letter, my wife and I plan to meet with her in person (without our daughter) to firm up plans, expectations, etc. My questions are:
- What are some generally good boundaries to set up?
- How can we help prepare my sister for potentially tough questions from our daughter? (My sister is in denial that anything is wrong with her.)
- How can we prepare our daughter for all of this?
- How can we do this in a way that doesn't feel like we're wagging our finger at my sister and being 'above her'?
Resources:
- Working with Birth Parents for the Child's Best Interest (Resource page)
- Evaluating Risk Factors in Adoption (Resource page)
- Finding an Adoption-Competent Therapist (Resource page)
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted