Every Child Healthy, Safe And Prepared For Life's Challenges
Our Issues:
Preparing Youth for Adulthood
Supporting Foster Teens
Half of Westchester’s foster children are aged 14 or older and many may leave care within a few years to live on their own. Those who “age out” between ages 18 to 21, often lack families who can support and guide them. They are more likely than other young people to experience unemployment, homelessness, ill health and other “lousy outcomes.”
WCA successfully advocated for the 2005 creation of Pathways to Adulthood, a coordinated public-private effort to make sure foster teens are better prepared for adulthood. Also, WCA pushed for the creation of the Independent Living Fund in 2006, which provides up to $3,000 for each foster teen as they begin independent adult lives. Fund resources can be used to pay for rental security deposits, work-appropriate clothing, driving lessons or licensing fees or any other item to support independent and productive lives.
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