We are always inspired and intrigued when our young people take the lead in helping us change the system and make it better for the people involved, especially when the services being provided are intended to make life easier and more meaningful for children.   

Our May 10 guests on Not Alone were awesome young people who have spent the majority of their life in foster care and were part of Project Everlast Youth Council, sponsored through the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. Janteice spent her school years protecting and raising siblings and is now adding her advocacy to changing the system so that families are kept together. Jessica is working and going to school, hoping for college someday. She told us about the frustration of not seeing her siblings, and the loneliness of being separated. Oscar, too, had protected others as long as possible, but then wasn’t able to make good decisions for himself after graduation. He says that even though foster youth have graduated from school (he was 16 at the time!) they still need the security and friendship of adults in their lives.

These three eloquent spokespersons for changing the foster care system talked about their need for life-long friends, for guidance from trusted adults, for help in completing higher education, and for contact with their siblings. They are becoming articulate voices we’ll hear more from as the focus of foster care moves forward.

To hear more from Janteice, Jessica, and Oscar, click on the buttons below to listen to the May 10 Not Alone broadcast about foster care or download the file and listen later. To listen to past broadcasts, visit The Kim Foundation Web site Not Alone podcast page. 

Listen Now

May 10 – Foster Care – Track 1

May 10 – Foster Care – Track 1

May 10 – Foster Care – Track 2

May 10 – Foster Care – Track 2

May 10 – Foster Care – Track 3

May 10 – Foster Care – Track 3

Airing every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (CST on station KCRO, channel 660 AM based out of Omaha, Neb.), Not Alone is a live talk radio program focused on behavioral health and recovery. Developed by The Kim Foundation through the support of C&A Industries, Inc., Not Alone works to reduce the stigma often associated with mental illness. The show seeks to assure individuals, families, and communities that they are not alone, mental illness affects us all, hosting a variety of guest from across the country.