From Overlooked to Overcoming

Note: This article originally appeared on Medium.

How to Include All Texas Youth in the Evolving American Dream

By Darrell Cox, Ed.D., Head Start Superintendent; and Paul Hernandez, LCCA, LCPAA, ORR Senior Executive Director at Upbring

We know a person who is tenacious and resilient, strong and brave. They like to dream big, have a never-give-up attitude and are grateful for the blessings in their lives.

Sound like someone you’d like to know? They’d probably make an excellent friend, neighbor or coworker.

We’ve just described someone we at Upbring know quite well: a child who has endured incredible hardship. Our organization serves a vast range of children who are at risk in Texas, including those in foster care, who come from poverty, and who enter the United States without a parent or guardian. More than 13,000 such children come through our doors every year.

You often hear that children are the future. But the prototypical future isn’t designed to include children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It’s easier for society to ignore children with a history of abuse, neglect or other trauma than it is to include them. They tend to be left out or, worse, left behind.

And that is truly America’s loss — because the children we serve have such extraordinary potential. When we make space for children to heal from trauma and succeed, we make progress toward a better future for our Texas community and beyond.

We won’t break down systemic barriers overnight, and we can’t do it alone. Here are four ways to get started.

1. Create better policies and systems: We must reimagine our education, juvenile justice and other systems to adequately serve the specific needs of children who are at risk of dropping out of school, becoming unemployed or homeless, and other poor outcomes. Upbring is working to address the institutional challenges facing children and families in Texas, such as operational and financial inefficiencies; archaic technology and data structures; and overcoming dismissive attitudes toward staff in the child wellbeing sector. When we ask the right questions, we get closer to identifying novel, collaborative solutions that will lower barriers for all children and youth.
2. Celebrate children’s accomplishments: As child wellbeing professionals, we understand the power of verbal encouragement and praise — something children crave but don’t always get at home. Walk through the halls of our Head Start preschools and children’s shelters, and you’ll notice lots of warm smiles and high-fives. This type of support helps kids build new skills and pursue their goals, whether it’s reading a new book or kicking a soccer goal. We listen to our children with an intent to truly understand them, and we celebrate their small victories on the path to bigger achievements.
3. Focus on family support: When we strengthen the family unit, we further increase the chances that a child will thrive. That’s why Upbring offers wraparound services for families. Once a child is enrolled in Head Start, we assess their parents for areas of need, and then guide them toward the necessary tools and resources. Oftentimes, people don’t even know what’s possible until we show them the way. In this setting, it’s not uncommon for parents to earn their high school diplomas while their children are in preschool.
   
   In the case of reunification for unaccompanied minors, we provide post-release services to help children reestablish relationships with their family members and adjust to life in a new country. This is how we help break the intergenerational cycle of abuse and neglect.
4. Educate everyone: Education has long been proven to lift people out of poverty and help them overcome adversity, and it is interwoven into all Upbring programs and services. But we must also educate our communities about the power of child welfare services, and the benefit they provide to our society.

In our experience, people are quick to write off foster care, Head Start preschools and programs for unaccompanied minors as a drain on our tax dollars. In fact, a lack of support is the more costly proposition — for example, consider that a child who ages out of foster care can cost taxpayers $300,000 in poor outcomes per year.

We wish our fellow Texans could see what we see every day at Upbring. We see children who want to do well, and parents who want better for themselves and their families. We’ve watched as toddlers progress from being completely nonverbal to loving school and being eagerly ready for kindergarten, thanks to Head Start’s early interventions.

We’ve met teenagers who fled dangers in their home country without any formal education. In the safety of our children’s shelters and with the guidance of case managers and other compassionate professionals, they can catch up and even earn high school credit.

This is, after all, supposed to be the American dream: A country built on inclusion, where everyone has the potential to succeed and contribute positively to society, regardless of their background, demographics or upbringing. While no one should endure the struggles these children have been through in their young lives, perseverance is one of their greatest strengths.

For our part, Upbring is committed to creating environments where every child feels valued and supported, for as long as they are in our care. We know this is the path to child wellbeing, so the children we serve can grow up to become business owners, doctors, educators, entrepreneurs, civil servants — or whatever they dream of being.