Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/foster-care/page/5/)
A Senate Judiciary hearing, held this week as part of National Foster Care Month, looked at how jurisdictions across the country are finding ways to help “dual status” or “crossover” youth by sharing information, staff and responsibility for outcomes.
“Aging is not safe. Aging out leaves kids with sort of a lifetime of potential dire outcomes and loneliness," says Susan Grundberg, executive director and CEO of You Gotta Believe (YGB), a New York City nonprofit organization that focuses on finding permanent families for young adults, teens and preteens in foster care.
You can hear the frustration — and need — in each of their voices as this group of young adults, who grew up in foster care, give youth workers some heartfelt advice on working with foster youth.
Young people aging out of foster care face a multitude of obstacles, including unemployment and homelessness, health care access and education. Researchers, academics, practitioners and current and former foster youth came together to discuss transitioning out of the foster care system and some much-needed solutions to the complex problems.
Withelma “T” Ortiz Walker Pettigrew grew up in the foster care system in Los Angeles, where she lived in 14 different group homes, most of which featured various levels of abuse. Her experience showed her how children, in a system built to protect them, often face life-endangering risks that often go unnoticed by the public.
From loving mentors to abusive foster parents and indifferent social workers, a group of New Yorkers talk openly about surviving foster care and forging relationships.
"I never had that love and affection before, you know, and when I was searching for it, I got it all in the wrong places, " says one former foster kid, Rosie Williams.
"If we can get these kids to believe, and if we can get these parents on board to believe, we can make these connections and we can make these families," says Amber Williams of You Gotta Believe!
"They're kids. They need a home; they need to be loved," says Catherine Harm, a social worker and prospective foster parent. Harm and her partner, Erica Chesser, are in the process of applying to become foster parents, including an in-home orientation session
"You might not be able to choose what time you go to bed or what you're eating for dinner, but you can talk to the legislature about how to make things better for youth across the state," says Lisa McMahon, program director of the Oregon Foster Youth Connection. Driven by current and former foster kids between the ages 14 and 25, the OFYC helps shape foster-oriented bills that go before the Oregon legislature.
Cook County now has a pilot program for dual status youth. It’s an intensive wraparound program with up to 30 hours a week of programming, including mentoring.