They’ll foster safe adult life
AS HE AGES out of the foster care system, Ezekiel Jimenez, 21, is dealing with a lot — finding housing and a job, and taking college classes — without much of a support net. It’s not always easy to cope. “I’ve gotten angry and I’ve been seen as disrespectful because of my situation, so I came off the wrong way. But I’m under a lot of stress,” Jimenez said.
“They expect a lot from us, but they forget to see the obstacles that we face.”
Helping young people aging out of the foster care system deal with those obstacles is the goal of YVLifeSet, a pilot program the city will launch next month.
Launched by Tennesseebased organization Youth Villages, YVLifeSet will be rolled out at two nonprofits that serve ACS: this year at the Children’s Aid Society, where Jimenez gets services, and next year at New York Foundling.
“So many young people age out of the foster care system who are just really not prepared,” said Youth Villages CEO Patrick Lawler.
YVLifeSet aims to help them learn basic life skills — how to keep themselves fed and a roof over their head, how to land and keep a job, how to pay bills and how to continue their education.
“They just don’t think about those kind of things,” Lawler said. “They’ve planned out maybe the day — but after that, they start over the next day.”
YVLifeSet started in Tennessee and now operates in 10 states, including New York.
New York and Pittsburgh are the first big cities where the program is operating.
Caseworkers in the program will have small workloads — eight to 10 cases apiece, Lawler said. They’ll be be required to meet with their charges at least once a week.
The program asks the young people to come up with living plans that caseworkers help them carry them out. The program will help about 350 young people over three years adjust to adulthood, Saroya Friedman-Gonzalez, executive director of New Yorkers for Children, said.
Half will not have jobs when they age out, she said. And about 60% of male former foster children will end up with “some connection to the criminal justice system” by age 24.
YVLifeSet is one of several programs ACS has launched to help older youth in its care, Children’s Services Deputy Commissioner Julie Farber said. Other initiatives include college prep, mentoring and workforce development.
“We are doing everything we can to support them,” she said.
Jimenez has been in foster care since he was 15 and butting heads with his mother, who was in a violent relationship and asked him to leave home.
He’s now looking for a job while he takes classes at Westchester Community College, and is on a waiting list for supportive housing. A program like YVLifeSet would have helped organize some of these things earlier, he said.
“When I was 18, I felt like I had less help, like they took their eye off me,” he said. “They need to start focusing more on the kids that are about to age out.”