The City Wire Special Report: Jedlicka finds a family

Editor’s note: The following is part of a series of stories The City Wire will post in 2011 about foster care issues and organizations in the Fort Smith region. At least one story a month will attempt to provide some insight into a state and regional foster care system with realities that range from deeply troubling to wonderfully successful.

Link here to the first story in the series.

story by Aric Mitchell
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Shaden Jedlicka entered the foster care system when he was nine years old. At the time he was a quiet boy, who along with his sister was more concerned about feeding and clothing his younger siblings than being a kid.

“It wasn’t something my sister and I thought about. No one else was going to do it. It just came naturally for us to act as parents,” he said.

Physically and mentally abused by his birth mother, Jedlicka admits he is not opposed to telling his story in certain settings but that, due to his siblings that are still in foster care, he prefers to stay away from the specifics.

Now at close to 20 years of age, he admits he saw little value in making friends and getting involved at school.

“I went through 12 different placements. When a kid first moves and leaves behind all his friends and surroundings, it can be traumatic. For me and my siblings, it was just a way of life. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to have friends. I just figured, ‘What’s the point?’” Jedlicka explained.

In the past 11 years, he confesses he’s had time to think about what led him from being a shy, timid boy burying his head in “Indian and the Cupboard” to avoid human contact to an outgoing public speaker, a former president of the DCFS Youth Advisory Board, and now a consultant at National Resource Center for Youth Development.

“It all started with my first placement. A teacher at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter in Bentonville realized that I loved to read. I was so closed off that it was an escape for me, so she allowed me to teach myself how to teach myself, basically,” Jedlicka said.

The gesture is something that has stayed with him through the years, pushing him to become an advocate for the youth voice in the foster care system. “It shouldn’t be, ‘You’re going to be successful.’ It should be, ‘You can be successful if you choose to be.’”

For Jedlicka, the people who impressed this philosophy upon him, were Jack and Penny Jedlicka of Fort Smith.

“Penny was one of the first people to ask me what I wanted out of life,” Jedlicka explained. “I met her my 10th grade year and it only took about three years to develop that ‘forever family’ bond. It was almost overnight, I had grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Their taking me in was the best thing that could have happened for me, and I have to credit God for that.”

Jedlicka adopted the family name, and said that “as a graduation present,” the family plans to make it official soon. Though grateful for his “forever family,” Jedlicka stays motivated by children, who are still in the system and not so fortunate. “The shortage of available homes is overwhelming, so it’s important that youth have a voice, and they can be heard.”

In January The City Wire reported that in Sebastian County alone, there were close to 600 foster children in need of homes and only around 50 interested families available to care for them. Statewide numbers for 2010 reported 4,000 children in need of care and only 1,800 available homes. Despite the deficiency, however, Jedlicka is encouraged that good can still come out of the system as it stands today.

“Certainly we need more good homes, but transitions are important,” he explains. “How a child moves out of the system and how he moves within the system. That’s where good foster homes, mentors, and role models are important. As an adult, you never know the impact you are going to have on a child, so it is important you meet children where they are and help them find their purpose, because everyone has one.”

Jedlicka continued: “It’s vital that we adopt a more optimistic mindset towards foster children. Think about kids that are troubled. These kids didn’t choose their parents. These are just situations they’ve been placed in. A lot of kids are willing to listen. They may be rebellious at first, but they need mentors and role models and someone who will attend their graduation just like any other child.”