BHCW to hold community forum on foster care system

On Wednesday, August 27, 2014 Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin, Inc. (BHCW) will be hosting a community forum titled, The Foster Care Industrial Complex in Milwaukee – ‘Beware!’ Part 1. The meeting will be held at BHCW, 3020 W. Vliet Street, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Dr. Patricia McManus, BHCW President/CEO, will be the presenter. This forum is free is open to the community.
The topic of this forum is very timely as far too many families are losing their children to the child welfare system; child abuse tragedies are continuing and the recent reports of there being a backlog of open child neglect cases. The public forum will provide the community an opportunity to learn important facts about the child welfare system and provide an opportunity to get answers to their pressing questions.
BHCW is providing this forum through its Milwaukee Healthy Beginnings Project’s (MHBP) African American Infant Mortality Task Force. MHBP provides perinatal services to the most “at risk” populations in our community with the goals of reducing the incidence of low birth weight babies and infant deaths. In recent years, BHCW has been working as advocates for families who have open child welfare cases. Through this work, the agency has seen firsthand how families are treated by the child welfare system; oftentimes loosing placement of their children because of their lack of understanding of the system and having no one on their side to truly fight for their rights.