by Jean Jackman
Please join me in voting for Linda Deos to represent District 4 on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. We can use her lawyerly skills and her demonstrated commitment to children’s issues, social justice and healthcare.
For nearly a decade, we have been represented by five male supervisors. It’s time for diversity on our board and Linda is the energetic, informed person to start that happening and restore some balance.
Because Linda cares about children, she will question and review new policies supervisors created in 2016. Yolo County out-of-home placements for foster children increased by 68% from 2015 to 2019 while those rates elsewhere in Ca have declined. Since 2008, Yolo’s rate of out of home placements is higher than 2/3rds of CA Counties and our neighboring counties. This happened after actions the Board took in 2016 in response to tragic home deaths, but perhaps they have gone too far with their actions. Only 40% of Yolo Count foster care placements are within Yolo County.
When there is severe and significant adversity, removal from the home is justified but removal too soon or without significant adversity can, in fact, cause more trauma for the child and result in more adverse impacts than keeping the child with their family. Early adversity has been shown to affect a child’s brain development and can result in significantly increased health impacts later in life.
I also respect Linda’s stand on creating compassionate justice, emphasizing rehabilitation, education as opposed to locking people up for long periods and then releasing them with no support.
She has acquired the skills as an attorney specializing in consumer protection law, bankruptcy, student loans and debt collection defense and understands the real pressures of so many underserved people with the fewest resources. Please support positive, diverse change for our county supervisors.
