'You Have To Gear It Towards The Child's Needs': Brad Wenstrup Calls For Tailored Welfare Programs
During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing late last month, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) questioned witnesses about child welfare programs, and government overreach,.
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00:00Very passionate to me, and I think it's vital that we learn from programs that have found some success.
00:06You know, but what is success? You just mentioned, it's not paperwork, it's not getting paperwork done, that is not success.
00:13And often we vote for bills that sound real good, they have a really nice sounding title,
00:18but they don't really bring the success that we should be looking at and what we're talking about today.
00:24You talked about succeeding in a family, and I want to add to that, succeeding in a family even if you never had one growing up.
00:32That's where success comes in, in my opinion.
00:36You know, and there's a difference between government oversight and a non-profit oversight.
00:42Because the things I've been involved in, you know, when you're a donor to that non-profit,
00:48you take a role in oversight because you care.
00:52And there's volunteer oversight that's involved.
00:56And those are the right motives for what we're trying to do.
01:00You know, we visit, we get to know the children, we look for evidence-based solutions,
01:05and again, with a different definition of success rather than it just being paperwork.
01:11And the idea that moving from one chaos to another is just so heart-wrenching.
01:18You know, I've been in a lot of things.
01:20I've been a big brother.
01:25Gosh, I've always been looking for opportunities for people that would not normally have them.
01:31And what we're talking about is an opportunity for loving, caring, developing, and stable environment,
01:37especially for those that rarely get that opportunity.
01:41And my wife and I, we have a 10-year-old son and a 6-year-old adopted daughter.
01:48One of the most beautiful things we've been able to do.
01:55But I want to talk about the agency we used.
01:58So the woman who runs it, she's an attorney.
02:01She's an adopted mother of two.
02:04And she decided to become an adoption professional.
02:08And I have a letter from her that I would like to submit for the record here today.
02:13They talk about voluntary surrenders of children from their biological parents
02:17and making the best connection in every situation so that we place the best interest of the child
02:23at the center of our decisions.
02:26And we see our role as a lifelong commitment to the children we have placed
02:30and the adoptive families that we have served.
02:34There's no aging out.
02:36There's no aging out.
02:38And we have a relationship with a birth mother.
02:41What child doesn't want more people loving them?
02:45So there's a lot of different situations that exist.
02:48We have to have flexibility.
02:50You have to gear it towards the child, the child's needs,
02:53and what's going to work best for everyone involved.
02:57I'm involved with something in Cincinnati I have for 30 years or so, Boys Hope, Girls Hope.
03:03And this is a program that is a combination of what we talk about.
03:06You still have the family involved, and yet we get a better environment.
03:11And so parents say, I want my child in this program.
03:14And basically we call it a scholarship.
03:17And as early as fourth grade, because the home situation is not good,
03:21the child lives in a home where they're mentored, where they're safe, where they're stable,
03:26where they're developed, and they go to good schools.
03:30And this is all private.
03:32And we see them through high school, college, and they come back.
03:37It's part of a family.
03:39And their families are involved.
03:41There's the Thanksgiving party, the Christmas party.
03:44They go home on the weekends.
03:46But we've turned this into a scholarship, and these kids are proud.
03:51There's opportunities all over the place.
03:54And, yes, it's faith-based.
03:56But we don't proselytize.
03:58We don't make someone join your religion or anything like that.
04:01It's those Christian values, Judeo-Christian values, that are in place that make the difference.
04:08I see you nodding.
04:10First of all, I'm so proud you're from Ohio.
04:12Thanks for being my neighbor.
04:14But I just want to say, what are some of the things you would recommend to states
04:19if they have flexibility with the dollars they get to enhance successful programs,
04:26and maybe specifically through Title IV-B?
04:32I'd love to see organizations do more job shadowing for youth, bringing them along.
04:37Like I said earlier, foster youth need more opportunities.
04:41They need to be shown what they're capable of.
04:44And so I'd love to see more job shadowing from organizations.
04:47And something that my church did was they invested in me before I aged out of the system.
04:54So I think that we talk about the foster care system and how to support youth a lot, like once they age out.
05:00And that's actually a very reactive solution.
05:03These children deserve us to be proactive for them.
05:06And so we need to be serving them and reaching them before they age out of the system.
05:11And so one of the things that my church did was they actually covered for me,
05:15they paid for me to go through this financial budgeting program.
05:19They prepared me.
05:20So by the time that I was aged out, I had had money saved up.
05:23By the time that I was aged out, I knew what a budget was.
05:26I knew what investment was.
05:28And I knew how to manage my life as an adult because of the work that was done before I was an adult.
05:36Well, I'd like just to finish with a quote I heard from a caregiver 100 years ago or more.
05:41There are no bad children, only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.
05:46And I yield back.
05:48Thank you.
05:49I now recognize Mr. Davis.
05:53Thank you, Mr. Chairman.