Research help?

[naomikritzer]

I'm thinking about my next novel. I think it's going to be another one in which someone travels back and forth between another world and ours; however, it'll be YA, the other world will be pretty dystopic, and while she's in our world, the character is going to be a teenager in the foster care system.

To get some basic real-world details for this character's life, I would really like to find a social worker, or someone who has worked with teenagers in foster care, who is willing to talk to me. (Or someone who was a teenager in the system -- but it would have to be relatively recently, I think, since things change over time.) The absolute ideal would be someone who has worked in Hennepin or Ramsey County, since the story is set in the Twin Cities, but I'll take what I can find. Are any of my readers social workers? Or do any of you know anyone? I'm looking for someone willing to answer a few questions at the outset, and possibly a few more as I get further in.

Comments

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

I'm emailing you.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this'd help, but my sister taught in an inpatient program for a while, so she might have some insites. The last school she taught at before retiring was a "storefront" school that worked pretty much with street kids, and the like. Should I ask her to contact you?

[amylynnhines.livejournal.com]

Hey, you helped me with my research several years ago...it's payback time! I am in the process of becoming a social worker (in my second year of the grad program at MSU), and also work as a mental health therapist with kids and adolescents, some from the foster care system. Don't know how much help I'll be, but I'm willing to try!

[amylynnhines.livejournal.com]

oh, and I am also currently doing a resarch project for a class about adolescents aging out of the foster care system and the troubles they face and the strengths that help them get through it, if that is of any use to you ;-)