So can you tell me a little bit about your experience just kind of dealing with the government
care system?
Every kid that I know that was in a foster care that are victims and things like that,
they never really went to their foster home.
They went to live with a boyfriend or they went to do this.
You knew how to survive.
Children that's in the foster care system, we don't know where we supposed to be.
It's like literally you don't know what home.
You don't know where you're supposed to be.
You know OK I was here last.
But then when I went back there she told me she don't have me no more.
So it's like OK do I go to the social work and turn myself in?
Because you are if you run away from your foster home or you run away from anything
you are considered a runaway youth.
Which you can get arrested for.
Right.
And my social worker switched so many times.
So no one knew who it belonged to.
Do you know how many times it switched?
Probably like five to six time.
I don't know because I thought that a certain lady was my social worker and they was like
no this person your social worker, no this person your social worker, no this person.
Because it's just too many cases.
I would tell that, you know, no one's in the house, or we're about to have sex.
I was the one who told it all.
So you would tell?
Yeah, I would tell, oh this person tried to rape me.
I was the teller, but everybody thought that I was crazy.
That's what they do to foster children.
They label them to say that OK, you're this bad kid, or you're this, or you're suffering
from this.
That's why you're making this up.
Because your mind is hallucinatory.
Do you feel like the people who you were working with in the system had something to do with
how you were being exploited as well?
Yeah, I felt like them labeling me made me unbelievable.
Like, even when they would find me in hotels and stuff, it's like, umm what did you think
was happening?
How do you feel like government care and the system makes kids more vulnerable to being
trafficked?
I think the only way they're more vulnerable is because you're not giving them the essential
skills they need in order to survive.
They never had a home.
You never had love, you never had family, so you're going out and you're meeting these
people who are saying, I promise you I'm going to give you this, I promise you I'm going
to give you that.
And you have nothing else to believe this, because you really didn't ever have someone
to grow your self-esteem.
Do you feel like kids in the system are easier targets for people who are trying to exploit
them?
Yeah.
I think any kid is a easy target who don't know how to love theyselves or wasn't provided
with love and care.
When Ashley came here and we interviewed each other, so to speak, it was amazing because
she says, I want a curfew.
I want somebody to stay on top of me and make sure I do my homework.
I mean, our own kids never asked for that.
I was literally partying all my life.
I used to drink so much.
There would be times where I didn't even remember what I was doing.
If you grew up around foster care and you grew up around certain things, this is not
a nightmare.
This is your life.
Joan and Chris, you guys had such a positive experience becoming foster parents and have
had such an incredible life-changing impact on I'm sure many people's lives now.
So what advice would you guys have for foster parents or people who are interested in doing
something like what you guys did?
It sounds crazy, but it was easier for us to have someone come and live with us as part
of our family than even to go and volunteer to be a big brother or a big sister.
People have said, wow you've been such a blessing to her.
And it's like, you don't understand.
She's changed our lives, and it's been a blessing to be part of this.
Probably I would only do this if we had an extremely stable situation.
We had this and we had the house, and we said, hey let's try it.
Transitioning over here or whatever, and you reading to me, right?
And I thought it was the craziest thing in the world, by the way.
And me at 18 years old.
And that literally changed everything for me.
And I became important to myself, even for that moment.
Even at times that I think, oh you're not going to make it, or you're not going to do
this, or you're not going to -- since I have them, they believe in me.
I believe in myself, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to do this.
And that gets me by.