About the Founder
Delilah(age unknown)
Delilah Bruskas was around the age of five years old when she was taken away from her family and became an unwilling part of the child welfare system. For the next 13 years, she was in and out of the system until she graduated from high school or “aged out” of care. The reasons Delilah required care from outside agencies are vague; no explanations were offered to her by those in charge. Moreover, she was deprived of any information pertaining to her biological family throughout her childhood. Having no alternative, she had to learn to cope within the child welfare system by herself.
Today, she shares her experience to help others learn about the important needs of children in foster care and to positively influence those who help determine their futures. More importantly, she tells her story for those too little to speak, for those unable to speak, and for those too wounded to speak and has become a willing advocate. She shares her story… and theirs.
Prior to her placement in the child welfare system, Delilah felt that all her needs were being met. She was unaware of any family problems, and felt secure knowing that she was part of a large family that was close by anytime she needed them. Even today, she has memories of her and her sister running free in her grandfather's bakery. They could pick any assortment of pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) from the ”hundreds“ still on the baking sheets, stacked on baking racks cooling down for packaging. She did not remember ever being hungry or not having enough food to eat while living with her biological family.
The first time Delilah remembers ever experiencing anything painful or traumatic was the day that she realized she was not going back to her family. This was the beginning of her life within the child welfare system. She would live with seven different families and with each would experience similar but different traumas. By the time she graduated from high school and the child welfare system, Delilah had attended four elementary schools, two junior high schools and four high schools.
Not knowing why she was removed from her family and when she could return home, Delilah waited and yearned for her mother to come and get her. Each time the phone rang or the doorbell sounded, her heart raced. For years, her eyes and ears were constantly searching for that familiar presence. As far as she was concerned, her life was on hold. This was not living – this was waiting.
Throughout the rest of her childhood, she never again experienced the freedom of running carefree as she did in her grandfather's bakery. She could never forget her plight and relax. As a misplaced person, she felt like she was a guest in each home and constantly struggled to learn what was expected of her.
While a dependent of the states of California and Washington, Delilah was never asked by anyone if she wanted to speak to her biological family. Social workers never even mentioned their names. She had to learn to live as a child and young adult as if her life with her biological family never existed. For an adult, this would be a difficult and confusing policy to live with, for a child, these omissions and lack of explanations were devastating. Sadly, her experiences are not the exception; many youth in foster care have similar experiences.
In February 2007, Delilah founded the Pacific Northwest Alumni of Foster Care to help create a voice for youth and alumni of foster care. Delilah hopes this voice will help bring about innovative changes in policy and practice resulting in a system that validates and addresses the hardships children in foster care endure and, more importantly, assist them through their time of distress.
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