Aging Out of Foster Care

If you are looking for a glimpse of hope in the fight to help the 20,000 youth that will be released from foster care system this year, you need look no further than The Children’s Aid Society’s Next Generation Center (NGC). On Thursday, March 5, 2009, the Associate Council’s Social Issues and Advocacy Committee hosted a forum on the topic of Aging Out of Foster Care, with NGC’s director, Lynne Echenberg as the keynote speaker.

Youth aging out of foster care face poverty, homelessness and the criminal justice system. NGC, is a one-stop center designed to meet the needs of young people transitioning to adulthood and self-sufficiency. The mission of NGC is to provide support, guidance, training and opportunities to young people, ages 14 to 24, in the Bronx — with a special focus on youth in foster care and those who have aged out of foster care. These youth often struggle with homelessness, have trouble accessing healthcare and experience extreme financial hardship. As Lynne explained, the child welfare system is often not equipped to address the needs of those young people not connected to either school or labor force and who have no social safety net.

However, through the work of NGC and passionate leaders like Lynne Echenberg, foster care children are making smoother transitions to adulthood. NGC assists this target population through housing assistance, job placement, access to its lending library, college counseling, youth leadership programs, health services, culinary arts, dance, vocal coaching, spoken word/creative writing, among others. The center currently services over 1,000 young people and its focus is on comprehensive one-on-one engagement, whereby these young people form a personal and lasting relationship with staff. One of the main objectives of the center is to always be there for these young people no matter the situation they find themselves in.

At the end of the discussion, a couple of action points were introduced such as 1) becoming a foster care parent, 2) hiring these young people if an individual is an employer capable of doing that, 3) as well as donating to the center or supportive housing programs.

If you are interested in helping children in foster care visit the Children’s Aid Society’s website at http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/.

- To learn more about becoming a foster parent:
call 212-949-4962; in Spanish 212-949-4905.

- To Hire a Teen - contact Unique Morris, Employment Coordinator.
uniquem@childrensaidsociety.org or 718-589-4441.

- To make a donation:
call 212-494-4936 or visit us online at www.childrensaidsociety.org/donate.

Also, remember to check the Children’s Aid Society’s website to hear about more events hosted by the Associate Council’s Social Issues and Advocacy Committee.

Contributing Writers: Devyn Fomer and Alma Subasic.

Photograph Contributed by Ben Russell.