Today’s episode of Fostering Change is an in depth discussion with Susan Rich, founder and president of 7th Generation Foundation, about FAS: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

FAS is close to home to our host, Rob Scheer, as one of Rob’s children has FAS. And although the diagnosis for Rob’s son was that he may never walk, or even talk, his son has achieved amazing things in his life, including being the President of his Student Government in High School, and has been accepted into the college he’s loved for years.

Susan and Rob discuss the importance of animal therapy on those diagnosed with FAS (one reason Rob and his husband Reece moved his family to a farm!) 7th Generation Foundation operates an inclusive, sustainable green care farm animal sanctuary with programming for children and youth.

Author of The Silent Epidemic: A Child Psychiatrist’s Journey Beyond Death Row, Susan and Rob also discuss the thousands of inmates on Death Row who were in Foster Care and diagnosed with FAS at a young age. This is not a coincidence, and there is much that our society can do to curb this horrifying statistic.

To learn more about or to purchase Susan’s book, please visit: www.prenatalalcoholexposure.com

To learn more about 7th Generation Foundation, please visit:

Website: www.7thGenerationFoundationInc.org or www.dreamcatchermeadows.org

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheDreamCatcherFarm

Blog: www.bettersafethansorryproject.com

Book: www.prenatalalcoholexposure.com

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After you listen to today’s episode of Fostering Change, take a moment. Take a breath. Reflect on what you heard, and ponder how you would handle the situations that our guest Jackie Polk faced.

Here is part of the note Jackie sent us when she inquired about sharing her story:

I'm a boy mom of 3. I have 8 year old twins, and an 11 month old baby. 6 years ago I completely rebuilt my life from rock bottom. My rock bottom was filled with drug addiction, domestic violence and having my children removed from my care. I changed everything about my life and regained custody of my children and have been sober for almost 7 years. I'm happily married to an incredible man who's also in addiction recovery.

I share my story in order to inspire and encourage others to never give up on themselves no matter where they find themselves in life. There's so much of my story that I could feel guilty or embarrassed about which would make it easy to keep to myself but there's so many people struggling the same way that I was and I want them to know that there's hope for a better life. I'm no more special than anyone else, I just decided I wanted a different life and I worked really hard to have it.

In our interview, Jackie stated: “Foster care gave me the chance to be a better person… a better mom.”

Our host, and founder of Comfort Cases Rob Scheer shared that “We all have the ability to change and write your own life chapters. Don’t let anyone else write them for you.”

A reminder that Fostering Change now posts on alternative Tuesdays. Our next episode will drop on April 23! You can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you! Please write to us at info@comfortcases.org.

As always, thank you for listening!

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Jerold Hawkins was introduced to Rob Scheer and Comfort Cases in 2023 when the company he works for, Aptiv, held a “Packing Party,” packing up backpacks filled with new essential items to be delivered to local social service agencies for distribution to youth entering foster care in Michigan.

Following the event, Jerold reached out to us because he wanted to share his story: his experience in foster care, moving to a variety of homes over a 5 year period - recalling “all my life’s belongings dumped into a black trash bag.”

Jerold shares his journey with Rob and also his now mission to help make positive change to the foster care system.

We know you’ll enjoy today’s episode.

A reminder that Fostering Change now posts on alternative Tuesdays. Our next episode will drop on April 9! You can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you! Please write to us at info@comfortcases.org.

As always, thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.