Focus on foster youth
Katlyn Perugini is only 18 but she's been living on her own for more than a year, thanks to a Youth and Family transitional housing program she enrolled in, as a 17 year old in foster care. "They helped with the little things like dishes and silverware and an iron and how to start PG and E and what not. Very helpful."
Perugini says she loves the freedom of having her own place. Her studio apartment is small, but cozy. It's all she can afford .... working a part time job and taking a full load of classes at Butte College. "I love this place, I don't ever want to move out."
THC-plus made it possible for Perugini to sign a Lease, even though she was underage. It also helps with rent, allowing foster teens a bit of a safety net to help with the transition to full independence. There are only 12 THC "beds" offered in all of Butte County, and there's a waiting list of teenagers looking for a helping hand as they age-out of the system.
"A lot of foster youth feel like they have a Verizon team behind them, like the commercial, but as soon as they're dismissed they go from a lot of people to nobody", says Eric James, the Assistant Director of Youth and Family Programs. He says the agency's Independent Living Program helps teach kids the skills they'll need as adults, starting at age 16. "Everything from financial aid help, job hunting, job skills, resumes, really whatever they're needing to get on their feet."
But the funding is year to year, meaning these programs could fall victim to budget cuts. That has both administrators...and people like katlyn ... Worried, "If I wasn't in transitional housing I would be homeless. If I didn't have the support I have today, just financially, wouldn't be able to live on my own and afford college."
James says, "Foster youth are...throw out the foster...and they're just youth. They're in this situation through no fault of their own and they need our support as a community, as teachers, as policy makers, as legislators to help them get on their feet and have the type of support that most people have in our society that aren't foster youth."
Linda Watkins-Bennett
26 May 2010
http://www.khsltv.com/content/fcm/story/Foster-Care-Series-3/4pzhEHh-d0a-IrJEigQ3gA.cspx
