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Handpicked Reads
Youth Leaving Foster Care
Each year more than 25,000 youth age out of the American foster care system to face uncertain futures as young adults. Many of them have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, disrupted family relationships, and multiple foster care placements. The past two decades have seen increased funding and services in a society-wide attempt to mitigate the effects of such childhood adversity, but a consistent pattern of loss and broken attachments adds up. Development and education are severely compromised. A quarter of youth experience homelessness after exiting care; 25-50% will not complete high school, and only 3-6% will graduate college. Four years after leaving care, less than half are employed, and their earnings remain well below the poverty line. Rates of mental health disorders, early pregnancy and parenthood, and involvement in the criminal justice system are all heightened.Youth Leaving Foster Care is the first comprehensive text to focus on youth emerging from care, offering a new theoretical framework to guide programs, policies, and services. The book argues that understanding infant, child, and adolescent development; attachment experiences and disruptions; and the impacts of unresolved trauma and loss on development are critical to improving long-term outcomes. It provides an overview of the foster care context, detailed discussion of the effects of maltreatment on development from infancy through young adulthood, and common mental health problems and treatment recommendations. It includes a discussion of delinquency and the juvenile justice system, as well as issues facing pregnant and parenting youth, LGBT youth, and youth with disabilities. Presenting the best practices in transitional living programs and policy and research recommendations, this crucial guide also reviews and summarizes the latest research, which are enhanced with illustrative case vignettes. Each mental health and program chapter concludes with key practice principles reflecting the relationship-based approach. Presenting a multidimensional, integrated perspective that gives greater consideration to psychological and interpersonal needs, this vital guide offers an approach that will strengthen the capacity of youth leaving care to transition into successful adult lives.
Hope's Boy
From the moment he was born, Andrew Bridge and his mother Hope shared a love so deep that it felt like nothing else mattered. Trapped in desperate poverty and confronted with unthinkable tragedies, all Andrew ever wanted was to be with his mom. But as her mental health steadily declined, and with no one else left to care for him, authorities arrived and tore Andrew from his screaming mother's arms. In that moment, the life he knew came crashing down around him. He was only seven years old. Hope was institutionalized, and Andrew was placed in what would be his devastating reality for the next eleven years--foster care. After surviving one of our country's most notorious children's facilities, Andrew was thrust into a savagely loveless foster family that refused to accept him as one of their own. Deprived of the nurturing he needed, Andrew clung to academics and the kindness of teachers. All the while, he refused to surrender the love he held for his mother in his heart. Ultimately, Andrew earned a scholarship to Wesleyan, went on to Harvard Law School, and became a Fulbright Scholar. Andrew has dedicated his life's work to helping children living in poverty and in the foster care system. He defied the staggering odds set against him, and here in this heartwrenching, brutally honest, and inspirational memoir, he reveals who Hope's boy really is.
Former Foster Youth in Postsecondary Education
This book examines the attainment gap between foster youth and their peers. Specifically focusing on post-secondary access and success for foster youth, Gross points out the challenges foster youth face in the primary and secondary school context, such as being less likely to complete high school. These barriers to former foster youth continue once enrolled in post-secondary education, and can manifest as lack of institutional support, financial barriers, and limited to no familial support. The author discusses what policy makers and practitioners need to know to better support the educational attainment of former foster youth.
Some Type of Way: Aging out of Foster Care
Some Type of Way: Aging out of Foster Care seeks to address the following questions currently relevant to practitioners, policymakers, and researchers: What are the realities of the lives of youth aging out? Why are youth aging out struggling? What are agencies and service providers doing to help youth aging out? What should be done to help youth aging out negotiate the transitions out of care and into adulthood? Based on over 90 interviews and almost 1,000 hours of observation of youth aging out and service providers in a mid-Atlantic county in the United States, Some Type of Way presents stories of youth aging out along with relevant research and theories to help understand how youth transition out of foster care and into adulthood. Featuring five youth—Plato, Solana, Titi, Matty, and Jaden—and including poignant examples from many other youth, the book explores the complex and complicated challenges youth face as well as their creative survival strategies and resilience. Some Type of Way includes descriptions of service providers’ efforts to assist youth aging out and shares service providers’ insights. The book highlights the limitations of the foster care system and the service delivery system for youth aging out. Some Type of Way details systematic barriers in society that creates obstacle as youth leave care. The book concludes with concrete recommendations of how best to assist youth aging out.