Shenango Valley News

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Wednesday, during a Ways & Means Committee hearing entitled "Strengthening Child Welfare and Protecting America’s Children," U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Tax, emphasized the importance of strong family units and the role faith-based welfare providers and foster care programs play in caring for younger Americans. The hearing examined challenges within and facing the child welfare and foster care systems.

"Children are 25 percent of our population, but they are 100 percent of our future. We must ensure families and children are set up for success, so no one has to endure hardships and trauma when all they are seeking is a loving home," Rep. Kelly said. "This is why I remain a champion for faith-based organizations, which have always played an extraordinary role in caring for our nation’s most vulnerable children. Millions of Americans are better off today because of their noble work."

Kelly leads the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act, legislation which protects child welfare providers from being discriminated against for acting in accordance with their deeply held religious beliefs and prohibits federal, state, and local government agencies that receive federal adoption assistance funding from discriminating against child welfare service providers based on the providers’ unwillingness to take action contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs. Rep. Kelly leads the bill in the U.S. House while Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) leads legislation in the U.S. Senate.

During the hearing, Rep. Kelly questioned witness Tori Hope Petersen. Ms. Petersen entered the foster care system twice in her life due to physical and emotional abuse she endured while living with her mother, who struggled with mental illness due to her own childhood trauma and being sex trafficked as a young teen into her adulthood. Ms. Petersen, now an author and public speaker, discussed the role her faith played during this period.

"The leadership of my church allowed me opportunities and encouraged me to share my story," Ms. Petersen said in her prepared remarks." By witnessing their love for me and other kids in the foster care system, I began to believe that Jesus might love me too, and I gained a confidence I didn’t have before... I believe our society would significantly enhance outcomes for youth if we created greater incentives for churches, communities, and nonprofits to wrap around children, foster families, and kinship providers before youth turn eighteen because the church, faith-based organizations,and our communities are a central component to needsand well-being of foster children as they help prepare them for adulthood."

The hearing also included entrepreneur Paris Hilton who cited her own negative experiences while staying at a youth residential treatment facility.

"When I was 16 years old,I was ripped from my bedin middleof nightand transported across state lines tothe firstoffour youth residential treatment facilities.These programs promised 'healing,growth,and support,'but instead did not allow meto speak move freely or even look outofa windowfor two years.I was force-fed medicationsand sexually abused by staff.I was violently restrainedand dragged down hallways,stripped naked,and thrown intosolitary confinement.My parents were completely deceived-liedtoand manipulatedbythisfor-profit industry…so can you only imagine experienceforyouth whodon'thave anyone checkinginon them?"Hilton said inherprepared remarks.

You can watchthehearing here.