Name: Fred

Social Justice Group: Child Welfare, Foster Care and Adoption

Date of Fieldwork: February 7, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):NAC: New Alternatives for Children

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On February 7, 2022, I had the pleasure of meeting with Bobbi, Arlene, Carola, Carla, and Paris, all whom have different roles at New Alternatives for Children (NAC). This organization is based in New York City. These people are important to my topic of Child Welfare because they specialize in supporting children with special needs, such as children with autism. NAC was the first child welfare agency in New York State to serve children in family-based care who have dual diagnoses.

I learned a lot from this meeting. I learned how they maintained up their communication with families through the Covid 19 pandemic. I also learned how they placed their high-needs kids into foster care — the age range of all the kids that are adopted and fostered. I also learned that NAC has their own staff of doctors to help the kids. This was quite an amazing experience.