FCYU-Feature Story

Working Up to Advocacy
I want to help kids like me

By Erica Orr Harrigan

In July 2004, my first story, “A Scar on My Heart,” was published in Represent. It was about the abuse I suffered before and after I went into foster care. After that, I received all these letters from foster youth about how they could relate to what I had experienced.

It seemed that my writing about my crazy past had a positive effect on someone else who had gone through a similar situation. I liked that feeling of helping others and wanted to keep it in my life.

After I aged out of care, I moved in with my boyfriend. On July 1, 2007, I gave birth to my oldest daughter, Emma. My life felt more stable, but I still felt both pain and the desire to help others. That continued even after I had my second daughter last year and had my hands very full with child care.

Helping Them Helps Me

I see it this way. I never had a parent’s steady, reliable love. I always wanted it and sure did need it, but I am no longer a child. There are children just like me who are lost and can’t find their way. Helping them is a way of helping that little girl still lurking inside me. There’s pain I still feel inside my heart that seems to never go away and tears that still need wiping. The thought of being the one to wipe some hurting child’s tears away brings a smile up on my face.

I knew I had a purpose and it was to help the needy. I looked online for all sorts of careers dealing with helping youth who need love, guidance, and support. The list ranged from teachers to judges, but what stood out to me the most were the advocacy careers, mentoring in particular.

I read on the website of the Virginia Mentoring Advocacy Network that, across the country, “10% of school-age children do not have access to responsible and caring adult mentors through family and friendship networks.” That made me want to be a mentor.

As I read about social work job opportunities, I thought of all the lame, ineffective, and untrustworthy social workers I’d had in the past. Is it possible that maybe I could be the kind of social worker I’ve always pictured having? I would have liked to have someone who showed me love, directed me to the righteous path in life, and helped me with my roller coaster childhood, but I never had anyone to advocate for me so I was just lost in the sauce.

I decided to sign up with VESID (Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities). That’s a good place for me—I can get help from them because I have a disability and I can also volunteer to help people with disabilities.

The people there said that maybe I should experiment with volunteer work before I try working a paying job. I really didn’t mind because my husband works and we have enough money to provide for our family without me having an income.

Not Quite Ready

I also found a New York City volunteering site through Google and registered to become a mentor for an organization called Episcopal Social Services. The specific volunteer mentoring opportunities there are foster care, preventive services, adult day programs for mentally challenged people, and day care. I called the number on the site and a lady told me to come either Mondays or Thursdays to apply.

Having a specific date like that made me realize that I actually wasn’t quite ready yet. I have two little daughters to take care of. When my kids are older it will be easier to focus on my goals. But now my children need me.

It’s going to take a while to get the ball rolling. I hope to eventually have time to go to college and volunteer while I take classes. After I get my degree, I can see myself being a patient advocate in a hospital. A patient advocate acts as a liaison between patients and health care providers. I’d also like to advocate for a child I mentor and maybe even have my own foster child someday.

Write a letter in response to this story. If selected, your letter could be published in the next issue of Represent.