Hello, my name is Jazmyn Vasquez I am a foster youth from New York City. I am most interested in the Fostering Youth Success Alliance (FYSA), which is an advocacy program. I feel that I am able to have a voice where I can express the needs of young people like myself that may feel like they are not being heard or understood. I feel that now I have a support system that listens to what I need and how I’m feeling.
Some policy issues that interest me are in the social work field for example, in terms of housing children, I feel like sometimes the system places children with people who do not care, who just say “yes, I will try to take care of them” because they will get money off of the child. In addition, in regards to health care and mental health, many children in the system have to wait an extensive amount of time before they can get referrals to places because either the agency staff is limited or they do have sufficient time to write a report for the child.
I want to be remembered for my efforts to try to make the system better for other children. I understand that while I am unable to change the whole world, especially not overnight, but at least I can try to make some little changes here and there so that someone else who may be going through what I’m going through does not have to share the same experience. I want to be able to simplify things for others so that they do not become overwhelmed with making life choices like I did.