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Social Programs
Mohamed Salama
Research Paper As adolescents, we tend to thrive off of experiences in our lives and we base our personality and future upon them. Some of those experiences can be good but some can be malicious. Unfortunately there are some kids that are present in social programs who do not feel this opportunity to make mistakes or correct them. Which is why adolescents who are enrolled in social programs tend to have a different view upon the world. A perfect example of a adolescent who is troubled in a social program would be Antwone from the memoir Finding Fish by Antwone Q. Fisher. We do not only see it in Antwone but in adolescents around the world who are scarred from the enrollment in these social programs. Social programs are a government run program that takes in minors who have been ostracized from family and are taken to foster care. There they are given foster parents and the care is intended to be a short term situation until a permanent placement can be made such as adoption or being reunited with the parents (Smith, Ziets). All may seem simple but what if the child does not get taken in? They are then held in until they are 18 where they are released to the unknown world. Statistics show that the U.S have adoption percentages higher then no adoption. That is not the case in other countries such as Puerto Rico. 38.9% of their foster kids are adopted while 61.1% are not adopted (Havinga, Ivo). One of those non adopted kids would be Antwone Fisher Great duress has been seen in Antwone ever since the beginning. Antwone Fisher was sent up for foster care ever since he was born. His father had been murdered and his mother could not support a child for she was in jail. Antwone discusses the truth behind some of these foster homes and really shows what experiences adolescents in foster homes really deal with. Antwone had been sent to the Pickett’s household where he was abused mentally and physically at such a young age (Fisher, 68). In a result of



Cited: Fisher, Antwone . finding fish. New York : Morrow: Perrenial, 2001. Print. Iva, Havinga. "Monitoring and Reporting on Social Statistics Programs Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Millennium Development Goals and 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses." unescap. N.p., 21 Sept. 2006. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.

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