Fostering Futures

EMPOWERING A GENERATION OF THRIVING ADULTS

WHAT WE’RE DOING IN MARATHON COUNTY?

CASA of Marathon County received a grant from the Youth Philanthropy Fund from Community Foundation to launchFostering Futures.

Program focus

Through Fostering Futures, participating youth will:

Take part in age-appropriate programming activities
Have opportunities to help to plan and lead activities, building confidence and leadership skills
Connect with other youth who share similar experiences
Engage in experiences that allow them building friendships and exploring interests

our goal

Fostering futures aims to create a supportive environment

where youth feel:

Seen and heard
Empowered to make choices
Connected to peers
Encouraged to dream about their future

With the support of the Youth Philanthropy Fund, CASA of Marathon County is committed to helping youth build connections, confidence and hope for what lies ahead.

WHAT IF EVERY YOUTH

WHO AGED OUT OF

FOSTER CARE REACHED

THEIR POTENTIAL?

THE LONG ODDS OF FOSTER CARE

The transition to adulthood is a challenging time no matter what. Young adults who lack a support system are at an even higher risk of hardship, and those who are in or have spent time in foster care are especially vulnerable.

133,000+ youth age 12 and older were in foster care in 2019

20,000 youth aged out of the foster care system in 2019

77%

Of youth who enter foster care at age 13 or older will age out of the system

WHY FOSTERING FUTURES?

Every young person has the right to thrive in adulthood, no matter their zip code and no matter their childhood experiences.

Every year, more than 20,000 young adults age out of foster care. Some experience the foster care -to-person pipeline firsthand. Some leave the child welfare system and become homeless on day one. Some start families of their own and in the face of untreated mental health conditions, the remnants of early trauma or crushing poverty - the intergenerational cycle of abuse can continue.

This is unacceptable, and we can change it.

GENERAL POPULATION

YOUTH FOSTER CARE

87%

58%

Graduate high school by age 19

80%

46%

Employed at age 26

28%

3%

Earn a college degree by 25

$32,312

Average earnings of employed 26 years old.

$13,989

THE POWER OF A CARING ADULT

While poor outcomes are more likely, they’re not inevitable. One key to overcoming these odds is resilience. we now know that resilience can be cultivated and that caring adult figures are essential to helping young people bounce back from difficult experiences and develop healthy responses to conflict and stress. For more that 70,000 young people across the country,

We believe high school graduation, living wage employment, social networks and healthy relationships, a place to live and a thriving adulthood is within reach of every youth aging out of foster care. To help every single youth achieve their potential, National CASA/GAL launched Fostering Futures, a multi-year initiative to strengthen our service to the transition-age youth we already serve and expand our services to more young people preparing for adult life after the foster care system.

With Fostering Futures, we will implement an enhanced volunteer framework and equip our volunteers serving older youth to implement transformative evidence-based practices, activities and interventions that can help ensure every young person aging out of foster care is set up to thrive in adulthood.

FOSTERING FUTURES

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RESILIENCE:

THE GAME CHANGER

The effects of child abuse and neglect can have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences. So why do some youth in foster care struggle while others thrive?

The difference is resilience - the ability to adapt and recover after a traumatic event. Resilience was once thought to be an innate quality, but it is now widely accepted that resilience can be learned and cultivated.

Having a caring adult to rely on is a key component to building resilience. For many youth in foster care, their CASA volunteer is that person. Relationships that build trust, provide role models and offer encouragement and reassurance help bolster resilience, develop conflict resolution skills and build confidence.

Our volunteers also help youth strengthen “protective factors” that promote well-being and buffer against risk. Protective factors include activities that support academic success, cultivate professional skills and promote mental and physical health and well-being. Young people who feel connected to their schools, communities and peers are more likely to be resilient.

Today, our network of programs and volunteers serve approximately one-half of the older youth in foster care - more than 70,000 youth over the age of 12 and more than 28,000 youth 16 or older. For these young people, their CASA volunteer may be the one caring, consistent adult in their life.

CASA volunteers listen. They follow up. They empower youth to set goals and support them in identifying lasting connections and building a network of supports. Volunteers are brokers across the court, foster care, education, and healthcare systems to improve the quality of services to make sure all professionals working on the youth’s behalf are communicating.

Our network of highly trained Fostering Futures volunteers can be a powerful vehicle for implementing evidence-based practices to move the needle for this vulnerable population. Every Fostering Futures volunteer will receive additional rigorous training to help make sure every youth we serve achieves educational success, finds a living wage job or gets training in a trade, finds housing and can access resources so they can live healthy, fulfilling lives.

Our volunteers are uniquely positioned to make a life-changing difference for older youth in foster care, but we need more of them.

Every youth in foster care can achieve their potential and become a happy, successful adult. With Fostering Futures, National CASA/GAL is committed to achieving better outcomes for the 70,000 transition-age youth

National CASA/GAL has developed deep expertise serving older youth in foster care over 40 years, but we see an opportunity to strengthen the effectiveness of our advocacyby incorporating new evidence-based interventions into our model and focusing the efforts of our volunteers on activities that get the best outcomes.While CASA volunteers advocate for youth in all areas of their life, Fostering Futures volunteers will focus on outcomes in the areas of educational success, building social capital, preparing youth for adulthood, living wage employment, access to housing and health - including improving access to mental health services, as well as preventing substance use disorders and unintended pregnancy.

We will consult former foster youth and innovative leaders from within our own network.

We will identify peer organizations that are getting promising results and explore how to cooperatively incorporate their best practices into our model. We will test promising practices within our network and evaluate which interventions to scale. National CASA/GAL will also pursue new partnerships with job programs and corporations to generate opportunities for living wage employment for the youth we serve.

Once these benchmarks are set and evidence-based interventions are identified we will build new Fostering Futures curriculum with learning tools to equip Fostering Futures volunteers to be effective on day one for as long as their support, advocacy and mentorship is needed.

To pilot these innovations, we will identify local CASA/GAL programs currently working with older youth and partner with them closely to launch the Fostering Futures demonstration project. We will work with these pilot sites to successfully implement the new program model and assist them in tracking data and practicing continuous evaluation.

To close gaps in those communities, we will pilot a volunteer recruitment campaign to enlist new volunteers who are passionate about serving older youth, who match the diversity of the youth we serve and who are from the communities where they live. After the pilots, we will assess our results, update the model and curriculum accordingly, and make plans to bring the Fostering Futures program to scale nationwide.

A VOLUNTEER WORKFORCE OF CARING ADULTS

HOW DO WE GET THERE?