Most people understand that foster youth are traumatized by experiences prior to foster care, but many people do not realize that entering foster care is also traumatizing. Youth are taken from the only family they’ve ever known to live with strangers, creating a new kind of fear and uncertainty as they navigate a completely foreign environment. Many are also re-traumatized by neglect, poverty, abrupt changes in caregivers and schools, lost relationships, and unrealized academic potential while in foster care.

When young adults age out of foster care with this history of instability, it can be extremely difficult for them to find and maintain stable housing or work, set and achieve educational goals, seek out appropriate mental health treatment, or budget for the future. Nationally, former foster youth face daunting statistics: 50% will be unemployed at age 24; 1 in 4 will experience homelessness within four years of leaving foster care; and nearly 23% will not complete a high school diploma or GED by age 21.

We are the anchor youth need in the chaotic transition from foster care to independence. We begin with early intervention through our Teen Programs, which provide tutoring, internships and life skills to teens in foster care (ages 13-17). Our work continues in our Transition Program by providing wrap-around case management services to many of the same youth when they age out of foster care.