Foster youth tell their stories to promote better care

NINA MOINI: A group of former foster youth are calling for children in foster care to have better support and more control over their lives. The Minnesota Promise Report, released earlier this month by the group Foster Advocates, draws from the experiences of about 120 teens and adults with experience in foster care. It includes common struggles, as well as proposed solutions. Here's a bit from Izzy Wagner, who's the leader of the project. And she says one of her priorities is protecting relationships to loved ones.

IZZY WAGNER: Tend to focus personally on sibling relationships, just due to my time in care. But relationships in general is the other main spot I'd focus on because of how many other relationships outside of siblings are affected by this, whether it's chosen family, whether it's the social workers and caseworkers, switching in the middle of your time in care, whether it's the movement from foster parent to foster parent to foster home to foster home. We lose a ton of our core relationships in the system. And it's not supported on how to keep up.

NINA MOINI: Good perspective there. And the state of Minnesota also has an office dedicated to investigating concerns from foster youth and proposing policy. The Office of Foster Youth Ombudsperson launched a little over a year ago. It's led by Misty Coonce, who joins me now. Thank you very much for your time, Misty.

MISTY COONCE: Yes, thank you, Nina, for having me.

NINA MOINI: So a non-governmental group, called, again, Foster Advocates, produced this report. But it really aligns, I think, with some of the work that you're doing within the government. Do these findings line up with what you hear firsthand? I know you've been operating for about a year. Does this align with that?

MISTY COONCE: Yes, absolutely. I would say that it aligns, honestly, really perfectly, as our role as a state agency. As you talked about, receiving complaints and concerns and being able to investigate those from foster youth overall is about upholding high standards of competency and justice for youth who are in our foster care system, so very much aligned with the goals of the Minnesota Promise Report.

NINA MOINI: What are some of the most common concerns or complaints or issues that stand out from this report and other work that you're doing that you receive?

MISTY COONCE: Yeah, I think that's a great question. And there are so many things in this report. I've read it a few times. And I'm excited to continue to just really dig deeper and reflect further in thinking about how our role as the Ombuds Office can help support. You heard from Izzy about sibling relationships.

And that's been a big theme that we've seen as well, in terms of our investigations and concerns that have been brought to our attention is a lack of support, unfortunately, for our Sibling Bill of Rights that was passed in Minnesota in 2018 by foster leaders. And so that one definitely stood out to us.

Another big theme we see we also saw reflected in the Minnesota Promise Report was gaps in access to information, whether that's information about key resources that foster youth should all know about, whether they're in Sibley County or they're in Lake County or they're in Hennepin County, and some of those differences in knowing about things like extended foster care or our fostering independence grants or things that are important for fosters to know about, no matter where they live.

NINA MOINI: Who would be responsible, typically, for making sure that those children and kids in foster care do know their rights? And is part of your work connecting with those people and making sure they have the resources to be able to adequately do that?

MISTY COONCE: Yep. I think there's a lot of shared responsibility in making sure that fosters about their rights. So some of that responsibility falls on caseworkers who are working directly with youth. For youth who are 10 and older in foster care, they should have an attorney. And so some of that education comes from that role. And some of it also comes from the guardian ad litem involved.

And then I think on a larger system level, our Department of Children, Youth, and Families plays a role in helping make sure that we have easy access to information about rights and resources to foster youth. So in our role, we're looking at how we can make recommendations and support the folks in all of those positions in really being as clear and comprehensive and accessible as possible in the ways that they're sharing information with foster youth.

NINA MOINI: So just to zoom in a little bit, I understand you worked to propose a wider foster bill of rights to the state legislature this year. Could you explain a little bit more about what that would look like and why that was important to you?

MISTY COONCE: Definitely. So it was really, really important to us because in Minnesota, we are one of only five states that doesn't currently have a foster youth bill of rights that's codified in either state law or policy or practice in some way, or an administrative code. And in a lot of other states that created an ombuds office specific to foster youth, like ours, they often did that in tandem with creation of a foster youth bill of rights, because our work really goes hand in hand with upholding the rights and care of foster youth.

So that was why that was a huge priority for us and making sure that we could help move that along and having a comprehensive bill of rights. So we're excited that we were successful in getting it introduced in our session that just wrapped up.

And it's going to be a huge focus for us to be able to try and get that passed next year because it helps with that educational piece of fosters knowing about their rights, having clearer guidance for folks in all those roles that I just mentioned-- attorneys, guardians ad litem, workers, all of the people that are helping take care of our fosters.

NINA MOINI: Very important to-- knowledge is power and for everybody to know what rights they have because situations can unfold in ways that are not good for the youth in foster care. The report that we're talking about says half of former foster youth who were contributors to the report have been homeless. They've submitted ideas on how to help with that. Would you talk a little bit about the intersection of homelessness and kids in the foster care system?

MISTY COONCE: Yeah, I think that there's a lot there. And some of the statistics that you just shared from the report align with larger research that we have that regularly tracks how the outcomes of our foster youth, both in Minnesota and nationally, are doing.

So it's an incredibly unfortunate statistic that really needs a lot of attention. And I think it requires efforts at many different layers, so looking at specific housing options, but also just stability in general and preparation for life and skill building and knowing how to make a budget and understanding how to maintain a home. I think that we need to approach that particular issue from a multifaceted kind of strategy.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Just one other theme that was in there that was striking was that the people who responded who had been in foster care said that they felt like they had missed out on normal childhood experiences and were more so treated like a problem than a child who is being fostered into growing into a really well-rounded adult. That must be really hard for people's self-esteem. Are there changes that you would like to see in terms of just how the wider communities view and treat children in foster care?

MISTY COONCE: Mm-hmm, definitely. And I think that's another place where the report did a beautiful job of helping show that we all have a way and have input in helping ensure a better future and a better experience for fosters and reducing that stigma, making sure that if a youth is in foster care, it's not something that they have to hold secret, you know? It's not due to anything that they've done.

And so even just in that aspect of normalcy and not having to hide something about yourself because of worry of judgment from others, I think is something that we can all, as a community, contribute to.

NINA MOINI: And just lastly, Misty, what can people do? More specifically, I'm sure there's a need for people who want to open up their homes and consider being in the foster care system in that way. What are you in need of? And how can people help who may not have a connection directly?

MISTY COONCE: Yeah. I think with our particular role in being the ombuds for foster youth and trying to help on those larger scale improvements, we appreciate any type of support for the Foster Youth Bill of Rights next year, so people showing up in different ways for that.

But otherwise, again, I think there are just so many things that are outlined in the report that people in any type of professional or non-professional role can do, whether it's stepping up to be a foster home and getting all of the training and support that you would need to be successful in doing that or volunteering in other ways, or again, just being part of that larger community effort around better supporting fosters. Whether you're a teacher or you're a neighbor or all the different roles that we fulfill in community, we all have something that we can do.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. Misty, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

MISTY COONCE: Yes, thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: Misty Coonce is the state of Minnesota's Ombudsperson for Foster Youth. You can find more information on the report we were talking about by the group Foster Advocates at mprnews.org.