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Many of the ideas, analysis, and recommendations in this book derive from our work and relationships with youth in foster care. Their passion to become successful contributing citizens and to improve the foster care system was our motivation for writing Beyond the Foster Care System. If we have made any contribution to helping youth in foster care, it has been eclipsed by what they have taught us about resilience, independent thinking, loyalty, and optimism. These youth are the coauthors of this book. Countless individuals, foundations, and organizations have encouraged us. Their support not only acknowledges our work but also recognizes the capacity and strengths of youth in foster care. Dr. Francine Cournos, professor of Clinical Psychiatry and deputy director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, provided us with delightfully challenging and encouraging support throughout the process of developing this book. Sean Bolser and Deborah Hayes were with us when we began the Youth Advocacy Center in 1992 and have remained strong collaborators to this day. The following people were instrumental in converting Beyond the Foster Care System from an idea into a book: Dr. Leon Botstein, president of Bard College ; Philip Coltoff, chief executive officer, Children’s Aid Society; Tracy Conn; Lauren Bank Deen; Rebecca Iwerks; Jeremy Kohomban, chief executive officer, Children’s Village; Commissioner John Mattingly of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services; Deirdre Mullane, the Spieler Agency; Gara LaMarche, vice president and director of U.S. Programs, the Open Society vii Acknowledgments Institute; Kristi Long, Rutgers University Press; Johanna Osburn; Xavier Reyes; Sashine Rivera; Earl Shorris, founder, the Clemente Course in the Humanities; Leigh SInger; Evette Soto-Maldonado; Ashley Terletzky; Florence Vigilante, professor, Hunter College School of Social Work; and Dr. Joseph Vigilante, former dean, School of Social Work, Adelphi University. Moreover, we appreciate the encouragement given us by our friends and families, especially Winton and Noah Pitcoff; Lisa Ranghelli; George Pitt and Noreen Clark; Martha Rayner and Danny Haselkorn; Ruth Pearl; Jeffrey Krebs and Kaja Ross; Marjorie and Harold Seftel; Evelyn and Bernard Yudowitz; Lillian and Bernard Stein; Dan, Elissa, and Ken Krebs; Suzette Gerardi; Leslie Adelstein; Sharman Stein and Stuart Sherman. A very special acknowledgment goes to Gabriel and Daisy Stein. Most important, we are grateful for the support of Harriet Pitcoff and Sheldon Stein, for this project would not have been possible without their understanding and love. Finally, we changed the names of institutions, places, and individuals for this book. The incidents and dialogue we describe present our best recollections . The stories are true. In some cases, we combined characters or incidents where we felt it made the book clearer, and where it represented what we found to be the most common experiences of our work with teens in the foster care system. Acknowledgments viii ...

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