After Nico’Lee Rohac Biddle ’12 作为美国寄养系统一部分的挑战有第一手的经验吗, she became determined to fix it.
As she recounted in a recent article she wrote for Teen Vogue, Biddle was removed from her home at age 14.
“By all outward appearances, I grew up in a “normal” American family. My dad worked in construction and my mom was a registered nurse. We had a four-bedroom house, a large yard, and a dog. I was a cheerleader with straight-A grades in school. 但我的家庭也有问题——最糟糕的是我的父母都对海洛因上瘾,” she wrote in the Teen Vogue article, 题为“预防服务如何帮助青少年避开寄养系统”.”
“我的寄养经历始于14岁那年的一个感恩节, 当我姐姐和我妈妈吵架离开家后，我和父母一起去了法院. The judge told my parents that if they didn’t comply with random drug screenings, they would remove me from their care—even though I had food, clothes, and a safe place to live. On the day of the first random drug test, 我的父母因为在澳门葡京博彩软件家的车上伪造车辆检查标签而被捕(澳门葡京博彩软件没有钱这么做) pass the car inspection legally). 因此，我的父母没有参加药检，我被送到了寄养家庭.”
虽然她的父母有他们的斗争，但他们尽了最大的努力来照顾他们的孩子. 比德尔被从家里带走后，她父母的毒瘾恶化了. 他们后来都死于成瘾引起的并发症.
When she arrived at W&J, 比德尔开始作为啦啦队长与同龄人建立密切的关系，并与她在Kappa Kappa Gamma的姐妹会的姐妹们建立密切的关系, though she shared her personal story with very few of her friends.
当她努力理解她的经历和她想成为什么, Professor of Psychology Elizabeth Bennett, Ph.D., suggested that Biddle use her psychology major to go into social work. While in graduate school, she began to integrate her history into her goals, and started advocacy work.
“我在读研究生的时候就开始了(倡导工作)，因为有些事情需要改变. 我意识到我自己的经历很有价值，因为对我来说，开始说出来很重要，这样我就可以帮助那些正在经历类似情况的人,” she said.
After graduation, Biddle became a licensed clinical social worker, doing outpatient therapy, 她在这个职位上干了五年，同时还兼顾了她的志愿者倡导工作. At the beginning of July, 她转行在一家亲属寄养机构担任监督寄养个案工作者和家庭治疗师的工作.
As part of her advocacy, 她致力于纠正围绕寄养系统的错误信息，并在系统出现问题的地方改进系统.
“我认为误解是大多数父母不关心他们的孩子, 或者在寄养环境中长大或经历过寄养的孩子在某种程度上是不好的，或者对发生在他们身上的事情负有责任,” she said.
比德尔现在关注的是与她合作的家庭和儿童的经历，以告知她的倡导方法和改革制度应该做出的改变. 她的主要关注点是保持家庭完整，并确保他们在破裂之前得到他们需要的支持, not after.
“With advocacy, 很多都是为了防止寄养儿童经历的创伤,” Biddle said. “在做这类工作时，照顾好自己并有一个强大的支持系统真的很重要.”
有了这个关系网，再加上她在W&J, 比德尔希望防止发生在她身上的情况再发生在后代的孩子身上.
