(Radio Iowa) – A former Iowa Democratic Party spokesman who worked on congressional and presidential campaigns in Iowa has written a book about his experience as a foster parent. Mark Daley will be at a Des Moines bookstore tonight (Thursday) to discus his memoir. “Initially I had this idea that I was going to write a policy book on how we were going to solve this and I quickly learned I don’t have the answers,” Daley says, “so what I decided to do was share our story and drive more conversations and bring more people to the table to discuss this.”

The book’s title is “Safe: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care and the Risks We Take for Family.” Daley and his husband are now the parents of three adopted children, but they first became foster parents for two young brothers they hoped to adopt. In the book, Daley describes their worry and angst as the boys’ biological parents who were dealing with addiction and mental health issues went to court and eventually regained custody of the children. Later, Daley learned the two boys and another sibling were back in the foster care system.

“I wrote this book with the hope that it would really inspire some sort of change and greater awareness of the children and families that are struggling, living on the margins in this country,” Daley says. Daley’s target audience, though, isn’t just policymakers. “It really is something that’s on all of us to be aware of what’s going on in our own families and own communities and our own neighborhoods,” Daley says. “Where can we help? How do we get involved to help families before they reach this ultimate tragedy of losing their child to foster care.”

Every day in America, over 700 children enter foster care. The latest data from the State of Iowa is for the fall of 2021, when there were 41-hundred children in Iowa’s foster care system. Daley, who lives in California, is an investor and business consultant who’s founded and sold two marketing agencies. Daley was the chief spokesman for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Iowa Caucus campaign, then he served as communications director for Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell’s campaign for reelection in 2008.