Get in Touch
The Dark Corners of
Foster Care
As young adults exit foster care, they are often left to face a myriad of challenges, including homelessness, early pregnancy, and the risk of incarceration. Without the proper support and guidance, these young adults are ill-equipped to navigate the complexities of the world outside the foster care system.
The Transition
Most of us had some kind of home life that eased us into being adults. Remember your parents or grandparent, older sibling or cousin. That one person (some of us were lucky to have several), that slowly guided you to become an adult.
Guiding you to schools and classes. Encouraging your choice of friends, teaching you to drive, letting you make early decisions about small things, then bigger things. Giving you some control over what was happening in the world around you.
Now imagine.....
All of that is taken away. Without notice. Without explanation.
Just you, being dropped in a new home. They know your stay is limited, so at best, they meet your needs. Give you food, maybe drop you at school. Or maybe they don't.
One home after another, after another, until you just learn how to fly under the radar.
No Stability
No Choice
Survival Mode
Most of the young adults that have been in the foster system struggle with fundamental skills and resources necessary for a successful transition into adulthood.
Most youth that are still in foster care by the age of 18 have been in at least 7 different homes. Many of them have had well over 10 placements. Others have spent years in youth homes.
So we don't ask, "Why?" our question is ......
The Harsh Reality
-
College
Imagine graduating from high school...you are full of hope! You figure out how to fill out your college application forms and FAFSA, without having parents, their income, work and address to list on the forms. You scrounge together the application fees. Somehow, best case scenario, you get accepted and secure funding to go to college! But then you find out you need money for books, and labs and fees. Often your stomach is so empty it's hard to study. You have nowhere to live when the campus closes for winter break. When you're at the end of your courage, the end of your resources, you have no one to call.
-
Transportation
Imagine leaving foster care without knowing how to drive. Maybe you're in a big city with great public transportation, but in most locations, without having the freedom of mobility, you are limited in your choice of where you can work and what people you can put yourself around to learn from.
-
Housing Insecurity
Where would you live? Can you afford to live in a safe area of town on minimum wage? At best, you jump through all the hoops, get a voucher for housing, live in the projects and sleep on the floor because you don't have any furniture.
© Copyright 2024. Elev8 Villages, a not-for-profit, section 501(c)(3).