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Following are some examples of what local jurisdictions are doing for and with emancipating foster youth. They can serve as guides for those who wish to begin or expand their own efforts.
- The county provides housing through First Place for Youth, Beyond Emancipation and Project Independence to address the housing needs of emancipated foster youth. The County is also funding a new Emancipation Village that will provide supervised housing and supporting services for emancipated youth.
- Alameda County has made strides in addressing permanency. According to Chet Hewitt, former Director of Social Services, 1,600 children have been adopted in the county in the past 5 years and the rolls of foster youth have been reduced from 5,000 to 2,600 in that same time period. Family finding software is used to locate family members as potential foster care providers or who may be able to act as permanent sources of support and connection.
- Project Hope is a collaborative effort to increase employability and education of transitioning foster youth. This is a joint effort of the Alameda County Department of Children and Family Services, Alameda County Workforce Investment Board and the City of Oakland Workforce Investment Board. The project sets aside federal Workforce Investment Act formula funds for aging out and former foster youth, and links the youth to numerous providers and one-stops.
- Independent Living and mental health counseling are provided through a U.S. Department of Labor grant. The county created a liaison position to serve as a “translator” between the foster care world and employment and training programs. Mental health services are provided under the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSTD) child health component of Medicaid.
- Placer County addresses the needs of emancipating foster youth as well as all children in the child welfare system through an integrated services approach. Teams of workers from education, mental health, probation, and child welfare share caseloads. The most challenging cases are handled by the SMART team composed of the highest-level managers in the partnering systems.
- The system promotes academic achievement through tutoring, mentoring, counseling and enrichment programs. Tutors go to the youth and follow them from placement to placement to ensure continual support in reaching high school graduation.
- The county has developed a shared data system through its integrated team approach. This supports timely transfer of records between systems, between schools and to foster families. By assigning education specialists to integrated teams and paying them for 20% of their time from child welfare, all team members have access to the California Welfare System/Case Management System.
- Keys is a vocational services program that has historically served youth on path to homelessness and those with significant barriers to employment. It is limited to 25 youth due to financial restriction. PRIDE Industries, a private non-profit that helps disabled youth find and retain employment, expanded its services to include jail and probation populations. PRIDE provides job coaching and employment. Admission criteria for foster youth is based an Individual Educational Plan (IEP).
- San Pasqual Academy is the first residential academy in the country to serve only foster youth. The academy is a collaboration between San Diego County, the County Office of Education and non-profit providers. The Academy campus is comprised of a school, residences and acreage. High school-aged foster youth and their siblings as young as 12 are residents. The school meets A-G (college entrance) graduation requirements, offers remedial support and offers a variety of arts and enrichment programs to expand skills. There is also career planning on site as well as medical care. Youth live in residences of 8 with house parents. There are 19 additional houses located on the property. These houses accommodate transitioning youth for up to three years after high school graduation. Senior citizens, who receive discounted rent in exchange for providing expertise and support to the youth, occupy some of these houses. Some staff members live in the remaining homes. The Academy creates learning environments that focus the youth on furthering their education and increasing their independent living and vocational skills to prepare them for emancipation. Through a private foundation, any youth qualified for college receives full financial support.
- The San Diego County Office of Education and California State University San Marcos have developed a collaborative to better prepare future teachers for working with foster youth. Student teachers from the university serve as mentors/tutors for foster youth
Both Santa Clara County and Tulare County have established employment programs for emancipating foster youth.
- Santa Clara County's Emancipated Foster Youth Employment Program provides entry-level job opportunities to untrained; economically disadvantaged emancipated foster youth who are transitioning out of the system. Between 130 and 150 youth "age out" of foster care in the county each year at age 18 and are at risk of poverty, homelessness and being placed in institutions. In the past, the county had limited job opportunities for these youth. Three county departments developed a pilot employment program for the youth to be trained for paid temporary assignments. The program has now been expanded to include more than 500 alternately staffed entry-level positions. To date, 30 emancipated foster youth have been hired into temporary positions and 10 have been hired into permanent positions with the county.
- Tulare County's Youth Transitions Program was established to provide at-risk youth with an opportunity for real work experience and a career path leading to self-sufficiency and lifelong success. The program provides jobs with Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency for selected youth - a match that benefits both youth and an agency that traditionally had difficulty keeping all of its positions filled. Each participant is provided an assigned mentor, opportunities for training and preparation for various civil service examinations. Through participation in this program, young people are finding a confidence and independence they have not previously known. In addition, the salaries paid to them have provided needed income and positioned them on the road to becoming self-sufficient.
- The City of Fremont has blended three types of funds to provide transitional housing for older foster youth. These include Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) social services grants, “tenant-based rental assistance” funds (TBRA) from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) HOME program, and city general funds.
- Fremont and the neighboring city of Livermore are using these funds to support Project Independence of the nonprofit Tri-City Homeless Coalition. Project Independence provides rent subsidies and case management for up to three years for transitioning foster youth. City support for Project Independence began in 2002 with $151,000 in TBRA and by 2006 had grown to $207,000 to assist a minimum of 15 participants for up to 36 months.
- Fremont has also helped support the Rotary Bridgeway apartment complex, which includes eight units set aside for transitioning foster youth.
uses funds from Measure Y, a local voter-approved tax initiative to address several transition issues, with greatest emphasis on housing and employment.
- The Oakland Fund for Children and Youth (OFCY) addresses employment, access to safe and affordable housing, and healthy choices.
- The Oakland Youth Council gives priority to youth in transition for employment and training programs.
- The city’s workforce board applied successfully for a special US Department of Labor grant to meet employment, housing, and other support needs of youth in transition.
- The city’s Community & Economic Development Agency channels some CDBG funds to supportive or transitional housing for transitioning foster youth.
- The City of San Francisco created a mayor-appointed Transitional Youth Task Force which has made the following recommendations:
- Put mayoral support behind developmentally-appropriate policies for transitional-age youth (TAY)
- Create an inter-agency council to improve service delivery quality
- Increase system capacity via four community-based centers for TAY and other issue-specific programs.
- A team from San Francisco’s Human Services Agency and Department of Public Health meet monthly with the foster youth liaison from San Francisco Unified School District and interested community based organizations. Meetings focus on improving the education of foster youth.
- The city has found ways to finance transition age youth services:
- Blend funding from the Human Services Agency and the city general fund for support services;
- Use Section 8 vouchers to support occupancy of 24 transitional housing units;
- Channel state housing funds to programs for transitioning foster youth; and
- Provide training and employment for transitioning foster youth through community based organizations with Children’s Fund allocations by the Department of Children, Youth, and their Families.
- California Connected by 25 Initiative (CC25I) is focused on building an integrated comprehensive continuum of services across systems to support positive youth development and successful foster youth transitions to adulthood. It is part of the larger Annie E. Casey Family to Family Initiative and is funded by five foundations. Five counties participate: Fresno, Orange, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Stanislaus. Humboldt County is completing its self evaluation and will join the initiative in fall 2007.
- The initiative focuses on foster youth 14 to 24 years old. Each county conducts a self evaluation and develops an individual plan that addresses: K-12 education; employment/job training/postsecondary education; housing; independent living skills; financial literacy; savings and asset development; personal/social asset development; and permanency.
- The Youth Transition Action Team Initiative (YTAT) is a grant-funded effort to bring together the resources of the workforce, education, and child welfare systems to better prepare adolescents who are current or former foster youth to achieve economic, educational, and employment success as they transition into the adult world. The strategy is designed to support counties statewide in meeting their systems improvement objectives.
- The project:
- Provides coaching, training, and cross-initiative networking
- Works with 13 Counties: Glen, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Orange, Placer, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Tehama, Tulare and Ventura.
- Supports collaboration across agencies (child welfare, education, workforce development, juvenile justice) and with youth and community leaders to assess community resources, develop plans, and assist county child welfare in youth permanency.
- Focuses on high school graduation and completion of California State University admission standards, workforce readiness, employment, and support networks.
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