"During a recent press conference at the White House, First Lady Melania Trump announced a new initiative of her "Be Best" campaign, which she launched in 2018, during her husband's first Administration. The original " Be Best," which aimed to raise awareness about cyberbullying and other issues facing American children, was pilloried as a hypocritical project for the spouse of the country's most powerful cyberbully."
"But its latest offshoot, "Fostering the Future," which seeks to expand access to educational and employment opportunities for kids aging out of the foster-care system, has been received much more positively, as having great potential to aid the more than fifteen thousand young adults who exit the system each year without being reunified with their families or adopted. (Twenty per cent of them face youth homelessness upon leaving foster care, and only three per cent graduate from college.)"
A presidential executive order tied to the "Fostering the Future" initiative increases the role of faith-based organizations in the foster-care system and prioritizes their religious rights. The policy allows faith-based providers to refuse placements that conflict with their beliefs, effectively permitting discrimination against LGBTQ youth. More than fifteen thousand young adults exit foster care annually; twenty percent face homelessness and only three percent graduate from college. The order elevates religious exemptions within child-welfare practice, revives longstanding inequities, and undermines equal access to stable homes and services for vulnerable and marginalized children.
Read at The New Yorker
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