Young people who were left out in the cold when they turned 18 in youth care, now reward social workers who prevent others from facing a similar fate.
“I’ve been so frustrated about it for years.” It comes from the bottom of the heart of Ine Aested-Madsen, when she sits opposite young people who are committed to the Het Vergeten Kind foundation. The young people celebrated their eighteenth birthday in youth care, just like 3,300 other children placed in care each year. It is the moment when youth care usually stops. And so children can end up on the street from one moment to the next, to the dismay of Aested-Madsen.
The former member of parliament eventually took in young people who had nowhere to go with her husband, to start Tobas Youth Care later. At that shelter in South Limburg, they only let young people go when they can really stand on their own two feet. And as long as that is not possible, they will stay. That ensured that Aested-Madsen received a Hartenhuis Award from Het Vergeten Kind on Friday, just like two others.
Special
And that is not only a special moment for social workers like Ine, but also for the jury, which consists of young people who were in youth care. Just before his eighteenth birthday, Kenley was still looking on the street to see where he could sleep, because he couldn’t find a suitable place to stay, and he wasn’t ready to live on his own. Now he is holding discussions with other young people as a jury member about initiatives to do better.
“I can now commit myself to making sure that there is a change, I think that is very nice. Of course, when I hear the stories of these aid workers, I think for a moment: ‘What if I had had people like that?’ But I find it especially encouraging to see that there is light. That there are initiatives to do things differently. These social workers see the child, not the rules.”
The same goes for the other winner, Lucas Pinkse. The fact that one of the residents of his family home was not allowed to stay when she turned 18, despite an application for extended youth care, meant that Pinkse was fully committed to guiding ‘his’ young people towards independence. And that one resident? Even after she turned eighteen, she remained welcome in the house she was forced to leave behind – for her reason to nominate Pinkse now.
Outside the lines
“We see that aid workers color outside the lines to still help children,” says Margot Ende-van den Broek, director of Het Vergeten Kind. And that works well, but children should not be dependent on such initiatives in order to be well taken care of after the age of eighteen. The petition to, among other things, ensure better, uniform rules, so that good care is available to all young adults has now been signed more than 100,000 times. “We notice that it is alive, that people think back to their own eighteenth birthday.”
It should also be a real party for young people in youth care, says youth protector Marjan Varenhout. The young people she says hello to as a youth protector in Rotterdam Rijnmond receive a letter full of memories from their youth, the places where they lived and the people they met. Marjan also always provides a gift. And her phone number. Because anyone who still wants to speak to the tall youth protector of 1.94 meters as an adult should know: Marjan’s door is still open then.
When Varenhout receives her award, she triumphantly holds it in the air. ‘Proud,’ she summarizes, being cheered on by the team she works with. Pinkse emphasizes when he gets his but a little timid: it’s actually all about the children, of course. And Ine? At the end of the ceremony, she thanks her sister, who took Ine in when it was no longer possible at home at the age of 13. Ine was 16 when she got the key to her own home.
Watch our news videos in the playlist below:
Comment can be found at the bottom of this article. Only comments with a full name are placed. We do that because we want a debate with people who stand by what they say, and therefore put their name to it. If you still need to enter your name, you can do so by clicking ‘Login’ at the top right of our site.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.
#youth #workers #differently #rewarded #young #people