BY THE NUMBERS
The statistics associated with children who age out of foster care at age 18 are staggering:
- Half will become homeless within two years
- A third of all chronically homeless individuals come from foster care
- For girls, the chances of getting pregnant are five times higher than their peers
- Half of the prison population comes from foster care
- Eight out of 10 children in foster care dropout
- Virtually all are unemployed or underemployed
While the young adult population is the most challenging and complex when it comes to foster care and childhood trauma, it is not without hope. With the right balance of healthy adult relationships, trauma-responsive interventions, resources in our community, and a safety net into which they can safely “fail” as these kids learn to make it on their own, we can help these young people become productive citizens.
How we handle adulthood
Healthy relationships
Each month we bring these young people together through a program called Haven, in which they can engage with each other and with specially trained volunteers in the service of others. By cooking meals together, breaking bread, and being social, they know they have a place they belong. The goal is that each young person will have three healthy adult relationships in his or her life, with support into the late 20s.
Housing
It is difficult if not impossible for a young adult to focus on the future when facing housing insecurity. Fostering Hope provides supportive housing for the young adults we serve after they leave foster care. Through the generosity of our donors and community partners, we offer safe and desirable apartment units and a single-family home for an affordable rent that matches a young person’s income as they are getting a foothold in adult life. This enables them to enjoy apartment life, learn how to live independently, build credit, and manage their independence. It prevents a setback such as a temporary job change from spiraling into eviction or homelessness.
Transportation
Volunteers help these teens and young adults get to interviews, work and college, and in some cases help guide them on the path to getting a driver's license and a vehicle of their own.
Creating a future
Volunteers and businesses find ways to help our older teens and young adults go to school or get a career-oriented job, so that they can become gainfully employed.
Teens in foster care don’t have the same opportunities and support as most of us did when we were there age. They don’t have someone to show them how to dress for an interview, or to reach out to a network for job leads. And because of the trauma they experienced, they often don’t have the same social and relational skills that are vital in a workplace.
FOSTERING
Successful Teens
In response to this need, Fostering Hope partners with nonprofits and a variety of local businesses to provide training, internships and jobs for kids to put them on a path to productive citizenship.
Did you know something as simple as drinking applesauce through a straw can help calm trauma symptoms? Equipping work supervisors with this knowledge can lead to lasting employment instead of termination.
We have many local businesses who have signed on to prepare these kids for sustainable employment.
Our vision is that they become adults who will thrive and someday give back to the community. That they learn their traumatic past does not have to define their future.
Learn how your business or employer can participate.