The Story of My Family’s Journey through the New York City Foster Care System, how fate reunites us, and our continued search for one remaining brother.
This film will document my family's journey through the New York City foster care system. I will clearly illustrate the domestic situation and circumstances leading up to the division of each family member into foster care and our ensuing alienation from each other. The story will open with my distant memories of neglect and subsequent placement of my brother and me into the care of an elderly, abusive couple incapable of raising children by the Bureau of Child Welfare and the Saint Dominic's Home agency. This documentary will reveal my discovery of the many brothers and sisters I was unaware I had from both my mother and father. I will highlight my family's reunification after nearly a decade and I will also show the challenges we grapple with as we continue to meet new members of our family while searching for one remaining brother, Destiny Gittens. Finally, I will use the narrative of my personal story along with interviews with working social professionals to discuss and reveal the history behind the New York City Child Welfare Agency. How the agency transformed from B.C.W. (Bureau of Child Welfare) to A.C.S. (Administration of Children Services). Most importantly, I will cover some of the fundamental flaws within the old agency B.C.W. that have allowed so many children to slip through the cracks. In addition, through my story I will address the issues dealing with the laws of adoption, which prohibit the unsealing of adoption records preventing cases of negligence from ever being investigated. Essentially, I will show that every person has an inalienable right to know the facts surrounding their family's history with foster care agencies and most importantly the right to know and be reunited with their biological siblings at their own discretion.
Budget:
$ 70,000.00
Project's Financial Needs
Other financial Support
Current stage of production
Production
Estimated Completion Date
03/01/2010
What Your Donation Enables:
Screen Credit as a donor
$100.00
Purchase Sound, Images or Footage
$250.00
Group Screening and Discussion
$250.00
Watch dailies or pre-production rough cuts online
$250.00
A box of Digital Video Tapes
$500.00
Private Screening
$500.00
Submitted byJacob Guntherfilmmaker/writer/producer/director
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New York
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USA
I am 32 years old native New Yorker who grew up in the NYC Foster Care System. I was 4 years old when I and my older brother was separated from our entire fam
ily and placed in an abusive foster home. At the time of our removal I was aware of my 5 older brothers, 1 younger brother, and 3 older sisters. About a decade later my foster parents died and my brother and I reunited with our biological family. Thats when I discovered that 3 of my sisters and 2 of my brothers were from my father's marriage prior to marrying my mother. I discovered I have additional brothers and sisters my mother gave birth to while I was not in her care. I have since reunited with all of my brothers and sister except the younger brother Destiny Gittens who I remember at the time of our removal. This Documentary is an attempt to locate him.