Vanessa Diffenbaugh, author of The Language of Flowers, will be reading at San Francisco’s main public library on Tuesday, January 24th from 6:00-7:30 pm. For more information, click here.

Each year, nearly 20,000 young people “age out” of America’s foster care system, and many of them have nowhere to go. Writer Vanessa Diffenbaugh, who grew up in Northern California, has transformed this sad statistic into an extraordinary debut novel.

From Amazon’s book description: A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.

Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what’s been missing in her life, and when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

A group of politicians gathered in East San Jose in search of solutions to the disproportionate number of Latino youth in foster care in Santa Clara County when compared to the number of Latino foster youth in the state, or 64.1% against 46.8%. Many involved in the discussion stressed the importance of Spanish-speaking social workers and Latino foster parents, while some former foster youth expressed frustrations at the lack of education about services provided to their parents before they were removed. Texas was used as an example of success in recruiting Latino foster parents as the state collaborates with Latino community organizations in this recruitment. Kentucky was mentioned as well for offering “free college education and extended health benefits to foster youth pursuing degrees.” Click here to read more.

In several states, foster homes are no longer approved simply based on a background check and a clean home. These states have begun looking more closely at the specifics of each home and the foster parents to determine the appropriateness of placements. Many special needs children are now being placed in foster homes instead of being placed in the group homes they may have normally been laced in. The Quality Parenting Initiative Program, found in many counties in California, has increased communication between social workers and foster parents. This program, in its call for and encouragement of more foster parents, has resulted in increased quality foster homes while cutting those homes deemed inadequate. To read more about this initiative, click here.