Featured Teen Staff Member

 

Two years of “horrible arguing” with her mom culminated in a trip to the hospital for Nakea Paige. Although her two sisters remained at home, Nakea was taken from her mother’s custody, placed in the child welfare system, and moved into a group home.

 

Life in foster care was a shock for Nakea, who hadn’t known group homes existed before she found herself living in one. “I thought the foster care system was just about adoption,” she recalls. “I didn’t know about group homes, foster homes, CFSA, judges, and jails.” The unfamiliar and unwelcoming environment of the group home made Nakea homesick, even though her home had been anything but welcoming.

 

Making the best of the situation, Nakea says “the group home wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I didn’t feel like I had control over my life. My social worker never came to meet me. I never went to court because no one told me that I was supposed to. I was not informed.”

 

As she spent more time in the home, Nakea realized things weren’t quite right, but wasn’t sure why. “I started to see things, like how the staff would talk to kids, how the place was kept. I knew it was disrespectful, but I didn’t know there were actual laws” governing the treatment of her and the other girls in the house. “I didn’t know group homes were monitored, and there were regulations about how many times we were supposed to see our social workers and GALs [guardians ad litem].”

 

Her eyes were opened once Nakea started working with the Young Women’s Project’s Foster Care Campaign. She learned about YWP from her group home social worker. Nakea hadn’t heard of YWP but was eager to get out of the house and earn money. “It was my first job. I didn’t care so much what it was about.”

 

But once she began to learn about the regulations guiding the care and treatment of youth in the child welfare system, Nakea began to care. “I told the other kids how it was supposed to be,” she says, “but they didn’t believe it at first.” Nakea’s complaints about problems in the group home such as staff spending all the time on their phones, making teens do work that staff were responsible for, and leaving during their shifts and then fabricating teens’ activities in their absence, ruffled some feathers, but garnered results. Nakea says some of the staff were fired and conditions began to change. Nakea remained in the group home for 10 months and was moved to a foster home.

 

Her experience in foster homes unfortunately didn’t differ much from the group home. She realized that foster parents were not always doing what they were supposed to do for foster care youth, and youth didn’t necessarily know their rights. For example, foster care youth are entitled to a weekly allowance. The foster parents in her first home did not give Nakea hers.

 

Three years into life in foster care and work with YWP, Nakea now knows all of her rights and how to teach her peers about theirs. She has overcome initial fears about public speaking and regularly trains other foster care youth at conferences and workshops. She has taught workshops on resume building and money management.

 

YWP works, Nakea believes, because teens are teaching teens. “It’s effective because it’s not adults lecturing you. You learn more from peer staff who you can connect with. That causes you to be more open and self-motivated.”

 

She credits her time at YWP with boosting her skills and confidence. “Before YWP, I never cared about making change. Now I know I’m able to tell people ‘your voice counts. Don’t be told no. If you want it, go get it.’ I have better self-esteem and I’m more determined. When I want something, I work for it.” Currently Nakea is working to graduate from high school and plans to attend either Florida A&M or North Carolina A&T.

 

Nakea works hard to fight the apathy she sees in some of her peers who feel beaten down by the foster care system. “A lot of people will settle for anything. You need to know you’re a person, not just a category.”