The Forgotten Children's March, A March for Black Foster Youth to Call for Reform at Brooklyn Borough Hall on September 26th, 2020

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers for "The Forgotten Children's March, A March for Black Foster Youth" announced today their official March + Rally to take place on Saturday, September 26th, 2020 from 2:00 PM EST to 6 PM EST. The event will kick off at Brooklyn Borough Hall located at 209 Joralemon St, Brooklyn, NY 11201. With NYC demonstrations and protests ensuring that names such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah Mcclain, and countless others including the most recent Jacob Blake shooting do not go forgotten, calls for reforms on a multitude of levels are quickly rising nationwide for a multitude of levels regarding police reform, black lives, black youth, black seniors, housing needs, black LGBTQ and black livelihoods. Organizers for the March for Black Foster Youth and Children include Jamell Henderson, Larry Malcolm Smith Jr., Monique Tatum, Chantess Robinson, Nantasha Williams, and Felicia Wilson. Sponsoring organizations include What About Us Inc., The Black Code Revolution, Strategies for Black Lives, Qween Jean, Freedom March NYC, The Descendants, Black On Pride, The Nan Youth Network, and BLM- Brooklyn.

Demands include but are not limited to:

1. Give youth leaving foster care priority to Section 8 & HUD Housing urging that new federal laws be created immediately under Ben Carson and his administration to provide a safe-haven for youth to strive and thrive. This includes demands for ACS to utilize newly built buildings within NYC.
2. Prioritize and implement intense foster parent training in areas of mental health and advocacy.
3. Increase the number of hours foster parents will need to complete for training.
4. Require a mandatory 6-week mental health evaluation for foster parents as well as regularly scheduled mental health evaluations bi-annually.
5. The demand for an immediate sit-down with the ACS Commissioner to provide, review, and reform policies and plans in foster parent recruitment in particular for Black and Brown communities.
6. Increase recruitment for foster fathers by 50% to ensure stable male figures are readily available and present for Black and Brown foster children.
7. Deblasio to commit to providing funding towards the housing budget to prevent homelessness for youth aging /transitioning out of foster care. Suggested funds to come from the reallocation of funds provided to NYPD annually.
8. Mandate that nonprofit organizations are required to take sufficient training to understand and know services youth are entitled to on a federal level.
9. Create an NYC Foster Care Subcommittee created under Youth and Children's services that solely focus on foster care issues.
10. Create a Task Force Board inside the NYC Council and implement the suggestions provided by the task force comprised of foster youth, alums, community leaders, and experts in child services in making the foster care system better.
11. Better advertisements to increase recruitment of NYC foster parents.
12. Create an effective transition strategy for foster youth into adulthood so they do not feel they are leaving in the way they entered into the foster care system but instead prepared for real-world environments, secure and emotionally sound. Enrollment in crucial services including Mental health support, and therapeutic support.
13. Create a partnership with organizations to ensure that all youth receive suitcases or duffle bags to aid them in a respectful transition to foster homes and out of foster care. Many youths are transitioning home to home in garbage bags.

For more information please email [email protected].

Media Contact: Monique Tatum
BPM-PR Firm
646.617.4386
[email protected]

SOURCE The Forgotten Children's March- A March for Black Foster Youth