The author feels that many foster parents are not prepared to handle kids who’ve come from abusive homes and carry a lot of emotional baggage.

Ask your residents to write quietly for 10 minutes about an experience they had in foster care where they felt the foster parent or staff didn’t understand them. Why do they think the foster parent didn’t understand them? How would they have liked their foster parent to treat them? When they’re done, have them share their stories.

Then ask: What recommendations do you have for improving communication between foster parent and child? What can be done to help foster parents better understand what a foster kid has gone through?