Don’t miss the next Caffeinated Connections where you’ll meet a local parent and author who has worked tirelessly to rectify the injustices of in the current child welfare and juvenile justice system.
Meet Toni Hoy, a long time foster-adoptive parent, lives in the Chicago area.
Her book, Second Time Foster Child is the story of a boy who was forced into foster care, to access treatment for disorders that resulted from the pre-adoptive trauma, which brought him into foster care as an infant. It’s a story of a child who was separated from the only family he remembers in exchange for treatment of severe emotional disorders. His parents, charged with neglect in exchange for his treatment, subsequently battled the state to unravel the injustices inflicted upon them by child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Second Time Foster Child links parents locked into a custody relinquishment nightmare with other historically oppressed peoples. Child welfare attorneys, judges, and child welfare professionals will gain understanding of the parents’ perspective of a no-fault dependency case.
Daniel received a forever family when his foster family made a lifetime commitment to him through adoption. Daniel’s permanency was disrupted when the state denied every funding source for his severe emotional disorders, forcing him once again, back into foster care.
His family grieved as they made the Devil’s Deal with the state, trading custody rights for treatment in order to give Daniel his only chance at emotional stability. Facing legal prosecution, while enduring personal persecution and oppression, his mother unscrambles federal laws, re-approaches the state, and fights back to regain the custody they never should have lost.
Key selling points of Second Time Foster Child
· Identifies the importance of adoption preservation
· Exposes the stigma associated with mental illness
· Reveals the disparity between mental illness and physical illness
· Stresses the importance of medically necessary funding
· Gives scope to the barbaric practice of custody relinquishment for mental healthcare
· About the author: As a leading child mental health advocate, Toni Hoy has made presentations before state departments and legislators. Safeco Insurance recently selected Toni as the “Community Hero” with an award for her advocacy efforts and a monetary grant for NAMI. Toni was interviewed on WORT’s radio program, “Healthwriter” and KKSF 910 Newstalk radio, and has authored articles for the Family Defense Center newsletter and Rise Magazine as a free-lance writer. She chairs the Children’s Advocacy Committee for NAMI Barrington Area affiliate, where she serves as a board member. In addition, she authors a regular column for the NAMI Barrington Area newsletter called “In the Trench” and facilitates a family support group. She earned a B.A. in Communications from Thomas Edison State College and was a recipient of the Arnold Fletcher Award for academic excellence. She is married and has four children.
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