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YOUR FUTURE AFTER 18

Recognizing that 18 was too young for most young adults to be without support, a bill was signed into law in September 2010 giving foster youth the option to remain in foster care and receive services and supports until age 20. The bill is called the California Fostering Connections to Success Act, and is also known as Assembly Bill 12 (AB 12). Starting January 1, 2012, young adults are allowed to remain in care after they turn 18. This additional time will help them: 􀂇 Prepare for their futures through additional educational and employment training opportunities. 􀂇 Find and secure consistent and safe housing. 􀂇 Build permanent connections with caring adults, including relatives, mentors and community members. YOUR CHOICE Remaining in foster care is a choice. Foster youth can decide to leave foster care when they turn 18. They can also change their minds and return to foster care in order to receive extended services and supports at any time, provided they meet the requirements. Foster youth who choose to remain in foster care after 18 are considered non-minor dependents and they need to be doing one of the following to qualify for services: 􀂇 Completing high school or an equivalent program. 􀂇 Enrolled at least half-time in college, community college or a vocation program. 􀂇 Employed at least 80 hours a month. 􀂇 Participating in a program or activity designed to promote employment or remove barriers to employment. Young adults who are unable to do one of the above requirements because of a medical condition are also eligible for services and supports. YOUR OPTIONS There are a number of living arrangement options available to young adults who continue in foster care after age 18. These options include: 􀂇 The home of an approved relative, a non-related extended family member or a legal guardian. 􀂇 A licensed foster family home or a certified Foster Family Agency (FFA) home. 􀂇 A Transitional Housing Placement Plus Foster Care (THP+FC). This is a new housing option that will be similar to the current THP-Plus program. 􀂇 A Supervised Independent Living Placement (SILP). This is a new housing option that can be an apartment with or without a roommate, or a room-and-board living arrangement, such as a college dorm. These placements will need to be approved and supervised by the county, and young adults may be able to receive foster care payments directly if they choose this living arrangement. 􀂇 A Group Home Placement. Young adults can choose to live in their group homes until age 19 or until they graduate from high school, which ever comes first. Rev. 12.27.11 page 1 WE’LL BE BY YOUR SIDE Young adults who receive extended services and support to help ease the transition to adulthood also have responsibilities. They include: 􀂇 Creating a Transitional Independent Living Plan (TILP). With the help of a social worker or probation officer, young adults will develop a plan to reach their educational and/or professional goals. The young adults and social worker or probation officer will meet monthly to track the plan and discuss how to achieve those goals. 􀂇 Going to Court. Young adults will be assigned an attorney and will need to attend court hearings every 6 months to help monitor their progress. For additional information about California’s law, visit www.after18ca.org.

Foster care: Advocates demand more oversight on how children enter California system.

Foster care: Advocates demand more oversight on how children enter California system By Karen de Sá kdesa@mercurynews.com San Jose Mercury News Posted: MercuryNews.com The first stop for most California children entering foster care is supposed to be a quick one on their way to a family home. They can get a checkup, some nourishment and clean clothes while a foster family or relative is found. But a growing chorus of critics is calling for more oversight after finding that assessment centers in two of California's biggest counties -- Los Angeles and Santa Clara -- are struggling to provide some kids with that quick, safe transition. Instead, the state is ordering both counties to stop housing children for longer than 24 hours at centers that critics say are little more than dressed-up office buildings. A watchdog commission blasted Santa Clara County's new facility as "Spartan" and dangerous when it opened last month -- without adequate lighting and security, and with large shards of glass in a garbage bin outside its unlocked doors. The children's attorneys say the basement of the San Jose medical office building will never be welcoming enough for traumatized kids, no matter how many teddy bears are brought in and how colorful the fleece bedspreads. State investigators have still other concerns: On Feb. 1, licensing officials cited the county's social service agency for keeping children more than 24 hours in violation of health and safety codes, ordering they "immediately discontinue" the practice. With Los Angeles County facing similar critiques, youth advocates are calling for greater accountability and state licensing of such centers, noting that Sacramento even licenses drop-in day care setups in malls, department stores and ski resorts. "Some of them might be good, but we have no idea, we don't even know if everyone is fingerprinted, because there's really no one enforcing it," said Carole Shauffer of the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center. "Our view is, when they start to serve food, they start to have little cots, when they are predictably going to have children there for several hours, we want them licensed." Shauffer and other youth advocates lauded counties that shifted away from residential shelter care over the past decade, granting children the right to a family home, not an institution, when they could not live safely with their parents. Santa Clara County was among the most dramatic examples, downsizing its shelter from 132 beds to just eight, and limiting to just a day the stays that once had been weeks and even months. But the transition has been a challenge, compounded recently when county officials here raced to open the Receiving, Assessment and Intake Center at 725 E. Santa Clara St. by mid-January. The center had previously been on suburban Union Avenue, nestled in a section of the former shelter campus that was considered state-of-the-art when it was built 14 years ago. The center was relocated after the property was recently sold to an exclusive private school. The new center's goal is to accommodate just two to three children at a time. The kids are brought by social workers in between placements or immediately after being removed from their parents' care. Infants and children through age 18 are supposed to be on their way to relatives, foster families or group homes within 24 hours. And for that reason, the state does not require the center to have a residential license. Yet twice within the past two months the state's Department of Social Services has issued citations stating children have stayed too long. According to county records, between the Union Avenue and East Santa Clara Street sites, 31 children stayed past the 24-hour limit in 2012, with 11 "overstays" in December alone. The overstays lasted from one hour to 37 days. Continued violations could land Santa Clara County in the situation that Los Angeles now finds itself. On Feb. 7, the state ordered Los Angeles to "cease providing care and supervision of children" within 90 days at its Emergency Response Command Post. Los Angeles County recently opened a center designed for children 11 and younger, but authorities are scrambling to find an alternative to the "command post" for older youths and teens who remain in an office high-rise. "To have no child spend more than 23 hours and 59 minutes in the command post, that is a very challenging initiative," said Philip Browning, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. He said one 18-year-old, for example, had a history of setting fires, and had been repeatedly rejected by group homes. Still, youth advocates say 24-hour centers could be improved by more state monitoring. Until the Youth Law Center filed suit in the mid-1990s, even residential shelters were not licensed in California, operating instead on county officials' good faith. Now, Shauffer is returning to a similar battle, as more shelters have closed in the past decade to be replaced by unlicensed receiving centers. "We acknowledge that every other place that a kid could end up has to be scrutinized really carefully, but we don't do that" in receiving centers, said Ed Howard, senior counsel for the San Diego-based Children's Advocacy Institute. "It's never made sense." Santa Clara County officials say they don't need monitoring. Yet that assertion came into question just three days after the new San Jose facility opened, when members of the Superior Court's Juvenile Justice Commission found the center had trash outside, lacked healthful food and was in a dangerous neighborhood. Last week, a reporter found the shards of glass and trash were gone, but the security and lighting systems had yet to be fully installed. The kitchenette had a bowl of apples and oranges. An oversize stuffed panda, train set and posters of Babar showed efforts to make the medical offices more kid-friendly. Still, some say the lack of oversight means overstays and safety lapses could recur. In a sharply worded letter this month, the nonprofit law firm representing kids in the county's foster care system urged officials to find another spot sooner than the multiyear timeline now envisioned. "We appreciate their attempts to make it warmer," said Jennifer Kelleher, directing attorney of Legal Advocates for Children and Youth, "but I don't think there's anything they can do in that facility to make it appropriate." Contact Karen de Sá at 408-920-5781. Share this article inShare.1

These 12-Year-Old Children Are NOT Being Protected !!

County Foster Kids Recruited as Child Prostitutes Wride, Nancy, Long Beach Patch, 11/28/12. A chilling report says foster children averaging 12-years-old are being recruited from group homes for sex trade. The average life expectancy for these child prostitutes is 18. Some children in the county's foster care system are being recruited as child prostitutes from emergency shelters or group homes, members of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors acknowledged Tuesday. And of youth arrested on prostitution charges in Los Angeles County, a majority comes from the county's foster care system, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing county officials. The newspaper said that, according to the county, "in some cases, pimps use underage sex workers to recruit fellow group home residents." "`The average age of entry into prostitution is 12 years old, and the average life expectancy following entry is seven years,'' said Supervisor Michael Antonovich, citing sources from the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI. How youth in county foster care, particularly in the emergency shelter, would be able to leave the shelter was not immediately clear. But as the accompanying video shows, the typical approach to young girls is to shower them with attention gifts, and a recruiter or pimp can earn up to $140,000 per child. The issue of foster children being ensnared into the sex trade is not only a local problem. The National Foster Care Coalition is seeking $5 million to counter the preying on vulnerable foster children, who have double the rate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as do veterans, according to the coalition. Proposition 35, approved by voters earlier this month, increases prison terms for human traffickers, requires convicted traffickers to register as sex offenders, mandates training for law enforcement officers and requires criminal fines to help victims. Supervisor Knabe has also backed initiatives by the county's Probation Department to fight child prostitution and thrown his support behind an ad campaign designed to raise awareness of the issue. But Antonovich said he was especially concerned about children in the county's foster care system. "These children often come from broken homes with a history of neglect and abuse, and foster children often overlap with runaway and homeless youth with a lack of resources that makes them more vulnerable," Antonovich said. In 2010, 174 children under the age of 18 were arrested for prostitution-related crimes in the county, according to Antonovich. The accompanying video says they are all girls. He said pimps were recruiting foster care children at the DCFS emergency center and from group homes across the county. The board directed the Department of Children and Family Services to collaborate with the Probation Department, District Attorney's Office, Sheriff's Department, other law enforcement agencies and the Department of Mental Health to find additional ways to combat the problem. In the YouTube with this story, which was made as part of an anti-child-sex-trade ad campaign, an L.A. County Sheriff's deputy named Jeff said: "It's a whole new level of depravity when some guy says, 'You know what? I got a job for you .... and walks her into this life." The deputy tells the videographer that 98% of juveniles in the sex trade have pimps." posted by LA County Foster Alumna at 7:37 AM

100 Strong for Teens in Foster Care

San Diego businessmen stand '100 Strong' for foster youths Cadelago, Christopher. SignsOnSanDiego, Dec. 21, 2010. ENCANTO — After spending more time in group homes than with relatives, this was supposed to be the year — finally — when the boy with blond shaggy hair and a soft spot for animals celebrated the holidays with a new family. In the company of foster brothers and sisters, maybe he wouldn’t have to worry about being teased and punched. They’d exchange gifts and sit down to a festive dinner. Surrounded by family and friends, he said, maybe he wouldn’t feel so alone. I “would have been in Carlsbad,” said Nicholas, 13, a resident at the Center for Positive Changes in Spring Valley. “But I got angry and did things I shouldn’t have … and they said I couldn’t live with that family … I worry that I’ll be in the system until I turn 18.” On Sunday, Nicholas said he was skeptical when operators of the group home promised a holiday party with haircuts, gifts, lunch and the opportunity to network with business leaders for support, internships and eventually jobs. “I’ve never had this before,” he said, shortly after arriving at Christmas on Imperial Avenue, the inaugural celebration sponsored by 100 Strong, a fledgling community group in southeastern San Diego. “I think that they are using the kindness of their hearts to give us these presents.” The collective of businessmen has spent months promoting positive change by investing 100 percent — “not 97, or 98, or 99 percent” — of their energy into the community, co-founder Mario Lewis said. They support street fairs for networking, provide job training and mentorship for youths, and, more recently, work to calm the neighborhood after a fatal shooting. After the slaying of a 25-year-old man in Oak Park, 100 Strong called for a cease-fire, marching across parts of southeastern San Diego and renaming the intersection of Euclid and Imperial avenues “The Four Corners of Life.” (It had long been known as The Four Corners of Death.) They’ve knocked on 687 doors in five months, organizing community patrols and trying to inspire people to look out for their neighbors. The efforts generated meetings with county health officials to explore new initiatives to fight physiological problems and childhood obesity. For its inaugural event on Sunday, 100 Strong targeted teens living in foster care, said Lewis, the owner of Imperial Barber Shop on Imperial Avenue near 65th Street. “There’s Toys for Tots, and there’s Toys for Joy, but what about the kids, the teenagers, who need more than toys?” Lewis said. “Our goal was to find the most needy ones and then stay in touch with them beyond the holidays.” The daylong event included free haircuts and hairstyling, a photo shoot by Image Seed Photography and lunch by Chef Rick Catering. The African American Genealogy Association, Bay Vista Fund, Ground-Up Youth Foundation and In the Pinc donated gift cards, digital music players, clothing and basketballs. Michael Norris, a former photojournalist who now mentors young people out of his Image Seed studio, said it was important for foster youths to know that they’re supported. For Giovany, it represented an opportunity to solicit information about studying criminal justice in college for a career in law enforcement. Giovany, 16, was born in La Puente and grew up in El Monte. Long a product of the foster-care system, he was transferred here when his mother got sober in San Diego County. He moved in with his family two years ago, but soon got into trouble for destroying property, he said. Now back in a group home, he’s learning how to live independently and invited the opportunity to meet someone who could help down the road. “We have some programs, some support,” he said. “But I didn’t really expect nothing like this.” posted by LA County Foster Alumna at 9:50 AM

Former foster youth step into the workplace to shadow mentors

Mar. 6, 2012 -- Finding a job in today's economy can be a worry for many graduating seniors, but it is a particular concern for students who came to SF State from the foster care system. Kayla Daniels (right) and Vaneka Reed (left) visited the San Francisco Unified School District's School Health Programs Department as part of a Guardian Scholars careers event on Feb. 10. "Without a home base to fall back on it can be really scary," said graduating senior Kayla Daniels, who grew up in and out of foster care since the age of seven. "You can't ask your parents for job advice or a place to stay, so as graduation approaches you think 'Okay, I have to figure this out on my own.'" Daniels is part of SF State's Guardian Scholars Program, which helps former foster youth earn college diplomas. Until now the program has focused on what students need to get through college. A newly added emphasis on career planning is expected to prepare students for life after graduation. Daniels was one of 45 students who took part in the Guardian Scholars Program's first "job shadow day" on Feb. 10 when students shadowed professionals at such workplaces as Goldman Sachs, the Court of Appeal and YouTube. A psychology major with a minor in sexuality studies, Daniels wants to pursue a career in sex education. "My placement ended up being a perfect fit," she said after spending the day at the San Francisco Unified School District, visiting professionals at the School Health Programs Department. "I felt so happy because I met so many people and they gave me guidance about what I should study at graduate school to get a job in this field." Employees hosted a range of activities including company tours, small work assignments, resume assistance and the chance for students to ask professionals about their career paths. "Former foster students don't always have the networks and workplace connections that students from traditional backgrounds have, so we are giving them a little extra help to build those connections for the future," said Miriam Markowitz, who joined the Guardian Scholars staff team last fall as a career planning manager. She organized the recent careers event and is working with employers to develop a summer internship program for Guardian Scholars students. "Our students are hugely successful if they make it as the three percent of former foster youth who graduate from college," Markowitz said. "We know they're going to graduate and can go on to successful futures -- whether it’s work or further study -- but we want to make sure they have the support they need to get there." For more information about the Guardian Scholars Program, visit http://www.sfsu.edu/~eop/gs.html Read previous stories about SF State Guardian Scholars at: http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2008/spring/42.html; http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2011/spring/30.html; http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/2011/spring/50.html posted by LA County Foster Alumna at 11:20 AM

What do the young people think? What do the young people need? It's about more than the money, or shifting responsibility from one department to the other.

Many teen prostitutes come from foster homes, L.A. County officials say L.A. Times, 11/28/12. L.A. County officials say prostitution is a serious problem in the foster-care system. A majority of juveniles arrested on prostitution charges in the county come from foster care, and, in some cases, pimps use underage sex workers to recruit fellow group home residents, county officials said. Until now, foster youth caught in the sex trade have largely been the responsibility of the county Probation Department. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to launch a multiagency task force to address the ongoing issue of sex trafficking involving youth in the foster care system. The move was spurred in part by this month's passage of an anti-sex-trafficking ballot measure, which county officials said will shift much of the responsibility for juvenile prostitutes from the criminal justice system to the foster care system. Of the 174 juveniles arrested on prostitution-related charges in Los Angeles County in 2010, 59% were in the foster care system, according to Probation Department data. The department has launched initiatives to address the issue of sex trafficking, including running prevention workshops in juvenile halls. But underage sex workers may no longer fall under the Probation Department's jurisdiction. Proposition 35, which imposes tougher penalties on pimps, also includes language that decriminalizes prostitution for minors caught up in the trade — although there is debate about the effects of that change. But officials fear that greater numbers of young people involved in prostitution will become the responsibility of the county Department of Children and Family Services. Department director Philip Browning said his agency was "really unprepared at this point" to handle such an influx. Browning and others said the department was not empowered to keep children in group homes and other placements against their will and can't prevent them from running away. Emilio I. Mendoza, a children services' program manager, said many young sex workers fear they will be punished by their pimps if they don't leave foster homes when they have an opportunity do so. "These kids see themselves as having no way out unless they're in a secure setting," he said. Probation camps and juvenile halls provide that security. But advocates say the criminal justice system is not the proper setting for young victims of abuse and coercion. posted by LA County Foster Alumna at 7:29 AM

Sacramento International Airport Is Now Hiring!!

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Support Safe Housing for All Youth Aging Out of Foster Care .

by Jim Theofelis, Guest Contributor KING5.com Posted on February 28, 2013 at 4:04 PM Updated yesterday at 4:07 PM Jim Theofelis is a guest contributor and Executive Director of The Mockingbird Society Imagine a world where your child is forced to leave your home at age 18. You can no longer provide the love, support and roof you worked so hard for throughout your child’s life. On his or her 18th birthday, your child must instantly transition into adulthood with little more than a suitcase of their belongings. Would your child be ready? This is the reality for too many of the nearly 10,000 children and adolescents who have been removed from their families and placed in the foster care system because of abuse or neglect. They enter the foster care system in a time of crisis only to be kicked out at age 18, unprepared for the crises to come. It is unacceptable that in a society where approximately half of all youth live with their parents until age 24, we expect those who have experienced PTSD-inducing childhood trauma to be the ones surviving completely on their own at age 18 – with no family to fall back on when things get rough. And what happens to these youth? Study after study demonstrates that they end up homeless. In its most recent annual survey, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) estimated that one of every eleven youth from foster care will experience being homeless. The Mockingbird Society, in collaboration with community partners, foster parents and legislators, is laser focused on reversing the longstanding pattern of Washington discharging youth from foster care into homelessness. This pattern is not unique to Washington. In fact, it is a national epidemic. The NAEH has rightly identified stopping foster care systems from this practice as a key strategy for ending youth homelessness in America. In 2006, Washington established the Foster Care to 21 pilot program thanks to forward-thinking legislators. This program allowed up to 150 youth to remain in foster care to age 21 to pursue their post-secondary education. The evaluation results are consistent with national research as well as what most parents and grandparents might say: youth who had safe housing and other supports did significantly better than those who were literally on their own. Not only did they reduce their negative behaviors such as stealing, early parenting, and reliance on public assistance, but they also increased their academic achievement, gained valuable work experience, and began the successful transition to healthy adulthood. In fact, for every Washington tax dollar invested in this service, our community received a return on investment of $1.35. Ensuring youth have safe housing to utilize as a foundation for achievement makes both fiscal and common sense. Thanks to the bi-partisan support of our Legislature, we have made great gains ensuring foster youth have the opportunity to remain in foster care to age 21. Currently, youth who pursue their secondary or post-secondary education are eligible to remain in foster care to age 21. But certain populations don’t get this support. Now, we are asking our elected-leaders and community members alike to provide this opportunity to those youth who need it most. Current proposed legislation (Extended Foster Care HB 1302/SB 5405) would extend this support to the remaining youth who are not able, or not yet ready, for the educational track. This includes youth who have serious medical issues including cognitive or physical disabilities, youth who have significant barriers to employment or academia, and youth who are working part time but still unable to afford full independence. Earlier this year I testified in favor of HB 1302 with a courageous young man with a seizure disorder which would have qualified him for Extended Foster Care had this legislation been in effect when he turned 18. He modestly said that his condition made things more complicated after leaving care, and that pursuing his education or employment was not a realistic option for him at 18. Soon after his testimony he had a minor seizure, right in the hearing room. Are we really going to kick youth like him out at age 18? Imagining a world where we cannot provide our children the support they need to be successful, independent adults is a nightmare. The moment the state decides to remove a child from their home, that child becomes our collective responsibility as a community. As parents, our care and support guides our own children safely into young adulthood. Our commitment should be no less for youth in foster care. I call on legislators and community members alike to fulfill this responsibility and support Extended Foster Care, House Bill 1302 and Senate Bill 5405.

~Thanks you Patrick O'Brien !!!!!

A big shout out to Patrick O’Brien, manager of Chipotle on Freeport Blvd., for supporting Sacramento City College’s Foster Youth Club, “Fostering Futures.” His enthusiasm and willingness to help has made a big impact on our students. He will forever be apart of the SCC family!