Anahi's Testimony

My name is Anahi. I am an alumni of Juveniles for Justice. 

I have been in multiple placements in the foster care and juvenile justice system. Before I first came in contact with the juvenile justice system in Philadelphia, I was attending Girls High School in Philly. 

Being incarcerated and living in group placements- makes you lose connections to people, family, mentors, it creates a bigger problem than what youth are going in for. When I first entered into a juvenile placement facility I lost so everything.  I lost connections with my family, my teachers, my school, and friends. I had to start all over. 

I moved through several types of placements when I was in the foster care and juvenile justice system. I still do not understand how I ended up at the first juvenile placement. I was living in a shelter after running away from a group home, and shortly after, I got locked up for the first time ever. I was taken to the youth study center (now the Juvenile Justice Services Center). While there, I remember a staff telling me I was not going to be locked up and that no one wanted to press charges. I just needed a parent or guardian to come and pick me up so I could go home. I tried calling my case worker, and I left a message, and texted. I also tried calling her supervisors, and thought the supervisor would have followed up. No one called back. I wouldn’t even have gone to placement if I could have gotten in contact with my adopted parents or case worker. 

 My case worker came to visit me the next day, and I thought I would go home. I found out she only came to visit me and I couldn’t leave. I remember a staff member at the youth study center telling me that I could have had someone come to get me out, but not even my case worker did. After no one came back for me I was sent to a vision quest. When I got there, the staff said there wasn't any room, and so I was sent back to the youth study center.  Then, a few days later I was back at then at Vision Quest for two months straight until I was sent to another group facility. 

Being in placement makes it harder for youth than actually helping them. I don't know why people just want to lock us up. There’s no real mental health services or support when youth get there. It doesn't solve our problems. It creates more. Instead, it seems more like a system more about getting money for having kids in placement than actually using the funds to help the actual young person.

Being in these placements creates a bigger hole for youth. It leaves us with more problems than before we went in. Instead there should be more investment in community programs because there’s not a lot of resources in our community that kids have access to. If you did this, It would give youth more access to programs that would help them better than just locking them up, 

If you were to invest in the actual community there would be changes you can actually see. I believe in creating a local Ombudsman Office because it would help the community. Youth could get access to mental health support, help in the community, and it could keep kids from being locked up. If this office was around when I was in placement, I could have called, and maybe I never would have gone to the youth study center, or the groups homes. If I knew there was a place I could call to report that no one was coming to pick me up, maybe I would have had access to real school work instead of relearning my elementary school work, like abc’s and 123’s as a 9th grader. Maybe it would have helped me reconnect to my adopted family. 

I support having a local Ombudsman office, and am asking Philadelphia to dedicate funding of $500,000 to this year’s budget to create a Youth Services Ombudsperson office so kids can get the help and support they need. 

Banner photo credit - Eskay Lim via Unsplash