FOSTER CARE TO INDEPENDENCE
For youth aged eighteen to twenty-one who leave the foster care system upon reaching the maximum age, independent living can be a daunting prospect.
Many of these young adults face life on their own without basic survival tools. Not only do they lack family support to ease the transition, but many also leave the system with few resources, no home, and insufficient preparation to successfully manage living on their own. Leaving the foster care system without a connection to reliable adults and support systems leaves youth at a significantly higher risk of homelessness, substance abuse, unemployment and criminality. A 2007 report from the Pew Charitable Trust and Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative documented the grim outlook for youth who age out of the foster care system:
> One in four will be incarcerated within the first two years after they leave the system.
> Over one-fifth will become homeless at some time after age 18.
> Approximately 58 percent had a high school degree at age 19, compared to 87 percent of a national comparison group of non-foster youth.
> Of youth who aged out of foster care and are over the age of 25, less than 3 percent earned their college degrees, compared with 28 percent of the general population.
Successful transition out of foster care is especially difficult for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender youth who may already feel a sense of isolation because of their sexual identity.
Program Strategies
AFF funds programs that add to the body of knowledge about how to explicitly use the Transitions Framework with youth in foster care as a way of preparing them to live an independent life beyond the child welfare system.
We believe that whether an organization is trying to improve systems or to position individuals to manage change successfully, it is imperative to pay attention to the emotional processes that enable people to move from the old to the new. Within foster care and, in particular, as youth age out of the system, AFF is exploring whether understanding the Transitions Framework increases the chances that youth can successfully progress from foster care to independent living.
AFF includes, but does not limit itself to, considering programs that support gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning youth, for whom leaving the foster care system may be particularly difficult.
Evaluation
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Transition Framework in preparing youth for independent living, the Oregon Social Learning Center has created a tool – the Youth Experience of Transition (YET) - for assessing a youth’s understanding of the framework. Using the YET, the OSLC is conducting a long term study comparing foster youths’ grasp of the Transition Framework with their results on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).
All AFF foster care to independence grantees are expected to administer these two assessment tools to the youth in their programs who are learning about the Transition Framework. If applicants have concerns with administering the assessments, they should outline their concerns in their online letter of inquiry.