ISIS Projects

Disempower Social Workers

emilymeehan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:44:16 +0000

Part of the message of the script for “Blowing Out” and the Foster Youth Development Initiative mentioned in an earlier blog post is this: Society, counties, and the law must disempower social workers if foster children are to be given opportunities to avoid lifelong disenfranchisement.

Social workers have many cases on their hands, and they are bureaucrats. They should not be entitled to decide whether one of their cases leaves one county and enters another on a Saturday afternoon to visit a lake. Nor whether another case enrolls in a hip hop dance class, or MCs a concert at school. This amounts to micromanagement, and disempowers children from living life in a normal way, because social workers usually say no. This allows them to avoid filing more paperwork or taking risks. But foster children already have enough negatives and abnormalities in their lives. They have foster parents or caretakers who have been to hours of training and met state regulations. These day to day caretakers should be allowed to decide whether children can go to a friend’s house after school.

Foster Youth Development Initiative

emilymeehan — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:32:48 +0000

This is a Russian prison tattoo on a youth. It says, "I shall not forgive betrayal!"

Imagine if your life was run by someone who works at the DMV. Think about that for a second.

Okay. Now you have an idea of what it’s like to be a foster child.

Right now I’m developing a program proposal to take the fates of adolescent foster kids out of the hands of incompetent case workers and put into the hands of the kids themselves.

Not assisting foster youth to prepare for their future has devastating consequences — after emancipation 40-50% become homeless, 50% are unemployed, and 25% are incarcerated. Those in the field of foster youth services are aware of these stark realities and the challenge of preparing foster youth for independence.

Congratulations

emilymeehan — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:06:10 +0000

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” won the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was picked up by Fox Searchlight. Here’s a review of the movie from dearest Slate.com. The Hollywood Reporter says it is “one of the most striking films ever to debut at the Sundance Film Festival… a poetic evocation of an endangered way of life and a surging paean to human resilience and self-reliance.” David Kavanaugh worked on this film, and I’m so proud of him.

It’s wonderful to see unpretentious, creative artists — skilled, dedicated craftsmen — validated by the establishment. Bravo to Benh Zeitlin, the writer and director.

BLOWING OUT

emilymeehan — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:31:45 +0000

We’re developing our first feature film, “Blowing Out.” Emily Meehan will write the script and produce. This is a project about foster children in the California Central Valley. It will be part of an advocacy campaign to improve life for vulnerable children in California.