The Need

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Background on foster care youth

The vast majority of children and youth who enter foster care come into care through no fault of their own after having been abused or neglected. Older youth in care have often already lived through a lifetime of such treatment – trauma that is then compounded by their removal from a home and the disruption of their families. Although the goal of foster care is almost always reunifying the family, too many parents just can’t get their lives together enough to have their children returned to them. At that point the goal for the child changes and a permanent place for that child is sought, usually through adoption or guardianship.

For too many youth, however, no permanent home can be found. It is these youth who are left to “age out” of foster care. Outcomes for these youth are all too often quite grim.

THE Numbers

  • In Ottawa County during the Fiscal Year of 2012 (from 10-1-11 to 9-30-12) there were 241 children and youth in foster care. Of these, 43 were teens age 14 to 18; and 18 youth were aged 19-21.

  • As of June 30, 2012, the State of Michigan had 13,882 children of all ages in foster care. 25% (3,517) of these were youth age 12-18.

Facts

Long-term outcomes for youth who age out of foster care are grim. Consider the following statistics from a study of Midwestern youth who aged out of care (in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois):

By age 24:

  • Only 6% had achieved a 2 or 4 year college degree

  • Almost 25% had no GED or high school diploma

  • 37% had been homeless or “couch surfed” since leaving care

  • 42% of young men and 20% of young women had been arrested

  • ¾ of the women and 1/3 of the young men had received government benefits to meet their basic needs within the last year

  • About 75% of these young women had been pregnant (compared to 40% of all same-aged women) – 2/3 of these pregnancies were unplanned

  • 2/3 of the young women and almost half the young men had at least one child.

  • 61% of the young men had impregnated a partner

  • Only 48% were working (compared with 72% of their peers who had not been in foster care)

  • Nearly 60% of the young men had been convicted of a crime (compared with 10% of their non-foster care peers)