An ode to New York. How many have you seen? I, myself have seen more than my fair share. Never seems like enough though, does it? Not to me.
There is just something about that city.
On the surface it doesn’t make any sense. What could someone possibly find appealing about crowded streets, tiny apartments, angry neighbors, hot
summers and unbearable winters? Couple all that with the inherent greed, homelessness, violence and constant threat of terror attacks and you have
to ask yourself, “Are these people friggin crazy?”.
But it’s so much more than that. In the long run, they say the good outweighs the bad.
The culture; nearly every race, country, religion, creed and lifestyle walks the brightly lit streets of the center of the world. The food; pick a food, any
food, chances are there is a restaurant or food truck that is making the exact thing you were thinking of and they make it twenty four hours a day. How
about a little entertainment? What are you into? Like plays? Are you familiar with a little row of theaters called Broadway? Looking for a laugh? Pick any
of the thousand comedy clubs the city has scattered about. Movies and TV? They film what feels like 80% of the movies and TV shows on our screens
in New York City.
And it never stops. There is a reason they call it the city that never sleeps. Anything you can ever want at any point of the day or night. Think about that.
Now ask yourself why the lost souls of the world are drawn to this place.
There is hope there. There is the sense that what you are after lies somewhere among the throngs of humanity that fill it’s’ streets. So many people
have found their fame and fortune there that surely your dreams will be fulfilled if you could just find a way to be among them.
That’s why foster kids fresh out of the system head there in droves.
I don’t claim to be an expert in many arenas but I know my stuff when it comes to being a foster kid. It is with that first hand, intimate knowledge that I can
write with such certainty. I know the appeal. I get the moth to the flame thinking that goes with considering whether or not to take a bite of the Big Apple.
Aging out of care is a process most can't fathom. You turn 18 or 21, depending on the state, then BOOM! Here’s your freedom! No rules. No guidelines.
No compass. No clue what to do first.
Every year 20,000 kids get those walking papers. Every year 20,000 kids feel forsaken by the world as they walk out, alone.
And every year, those kids without friends or family to fall back on, venture aimlessly to the bright lights of the big city.
So there they are. Lining the streets. Wandering. Looking for a connection. Searching for a tribe.
People look to me to give them insight into the mind of a foster youth. Well, here it is. This is why NYC is the Mecca of former foster kids. They are lost.
They have no clue what they should do. Now that we know why, let’s figure out how to address it.
To the city’s credit, NYC is aggressive in its’ attempts to facilitate a solution to the swarms of wide eyed dreamers who enter the city daily.
New York City is home to hundreds of programs aimed toward helping the city’s recently aged out youth. The idea of this issue was to highlight a few of
them, though secretly I think it was just an excuse for me to explore why the kids of the foster care world are so drawn to it.
The city is broken up into five boroughs with dozens and dozens of neighborhoods within those boroughs. Each of these neighborhoods is as diverse
and eccentric as the people who live there. On first glance, it’s overwhelming. It seems so huge, way too much to take in. If you break it down into these
boroughs and neighborhoods it becomes much more manageable. Moreover, when you break it down in this fashion, you see through the big city lights
and all the people, it gets smaller and you understand why people live there.
You have to look for these places. They aren’t the reason you came to New York, it’s not the reason these kids all flock there. That’s where they woul
d all like to end up, a little place just outside the heart of the city in a quiet, safe neighborhood. Most won’t make it that far and that’s when places like
Covenant House come into play. Sheltering the homeless youth of the city, while trying to help them get back on track.
Maybe the answer is meeting them when they age out like the people at the Possibility Project. Giving them something to strive for, a community of
other like-minded kids from similar backgrounds all working to achieve a goal while finding allies in their fight to stay on the right side of life.
I know I don’t have the answers to such a monumental problem but I think shedding light on some of the people that work to fight it every day is a pretty
decent start.
Have I explained why kids from all over go to the city in masses? I imagine not, though I hope I’ve highlighted some of the reasoning. Have I come up
with a solution to help them make it once they get there? No, not even a little bit. Perhaps more groups working throughout the city might stifle the
problem. There are hundreds, if not thousands of organizations trying desperately to fight homelessness in the city but with so many people, not just
foster youth, there are war veterans, the mentally ill, formerly and current human trafficking victims and so many more people and families that have
been forced to call the streets their home, that the organizations feel as though they’re barely making a dent.
They have to be having an impact. There are a lot of success stories that come from the streets of New York. Many change their fortunes with the help
of these groups. My hope is that is a trend that will continue. I’m an eternal optimist, my hope is that things are improving and will continue to improve.
When I was young, New York City was a scary monster full of porn theaters, gang violence and it was a city that just threw away the lesser of its
inhabitants, giving no thought to what may happen to them. Nowadays it is more like a family friendly resort getaway with lots of rushed businesspeople
mulling about. Except for those faces and those signs that remind you that not everything is as perfect as it seems.
This wasn’t so much an ode to New York as it was a plea for you to pay attention to those faces when you visit the city that never sleeps.
Owner/Editor - Chris Chmielewski