MESA, AZ — Foster youth in the Valley are using their voices to fix issues in state group homes.
Friday night, lawmakers met with dozens of teens in the foster care system to have a candid conversation about the concerns they have and brainstorm potential solutions.
The meeting was hosted by the Jacob's Mission Community Center Congregate Care Coalition.
State Representatives Khyl Powell, Walter Blackman, Lisa Fink and State Senator David Farnsworth attended the meeting.
“I want to understand each individual experience,” Farnsworth said. “See what we might be able to do in the Senate to help make things better."
Security concerns, runaways and mental health struggles topped the list for the teens’ concerns.
They told lawmakers that they often don’t feel safe in group homes, have been offered drugs and have tried to run away because of the many issues they've experienced.
"They've discussed the inability to be normal to have normalcy,” organizer Anika Robinson said. "They've expressed that, a lot of kids who have been moved in and out of group homes, how some staff have not been properly trained on how to properly de-escalate or how to care for them."
Richilyn Fox also attended the meeting in support of the teens sharing their stories. Fox was the former kinship caregiver of 16-year-old Zariah Dodd, who police said was shot and killed by the father of her unborn child and another known man.
“If this was someone in your family, how would you fight for them?” Fox said. “These kids, just because they're in the system in group homes and don't have that solid family, they matter.”
Dodd was living in a group home at the time. Fox said she had been let out to take a walk the night she disappeared.
Fox has also been an advocate for reform in the Department of Child Safety as a former group home manager and foster child herself.
"Day by day, month by month, year by year the system is getting worse and failing multiple kids,” Fox said. "These are kids who want this change."
