Archive

Advocacy on the Air

Executive Director Raymond Torres and Casey Family Services' spokesperson and foster care advocate Victoria Rowell participated in a national radio tour to promote National Foster Care Month.

Following are several comments by Ms. Rowell that aired on both local and national radio networks.

• "Casey Family Services is looking for parents on a national level. We're looking for parents who will take in siblings. I was one of six children, three of us raised together and three of us, not. We reunified later as adults. But it's imperative that we try to keep some portion of the family nucleus together."
  
  
• "Children don't want to be moved. Children want to stay in their schools. They don't want to leave their friends. So, we're looking for families within the community, and not at socioeconomic [factors]."
  
  
• "I was emancipated at the age of 18 and lost all of my services. If it were not for the continuing care of my foster parent and other foster parents, I don't know what I would have done. So I just want to encourage the community to keep our kids in the community."
  
  

Currently, Ms. Rowell is leading a national foster care awareness campaign, and is working on writing projects focused around foster care. She recently visited an orphanage and AIDS clinic in Africa and in Russia.