Adulthood

The Tennessee-based Youth Villages, one of the largest nonprofits in the country, has awarded New York City and Pittsburgh major funding to implement a promising support program for young adults who have recently left foster care.

The Ohio legislature passed House Bill 50 last week, which would extend foster care until the age of 21 for teens who wanted extra time. Alaska may do the same this week.

By Darian Woods New research suggests that supporting foster youths’ transition to adulthood is important to protect against mental illness. Help navigating the administration of life, such as how to buy health insurance, balance a checkbook or prepare for a job interview may be associated with stronger mental health decades later.

By Johanna Greeson A bleak portrait continues to emerge for youth who age out of foster care without connections to caring adults and with inadequate independent living skills. The field of child welfare has yet to develop an effective response to this problem.

The study follows the progress of foster youth in the participating states through age 21 who reached the age of 17 years old while in out-of-home care and who had been in care for at least one year prior to their seventeenth birthday.

The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (hereafter referred to as the “Midwest Study”) is a prospective study that was designed, in part, to provide a comprehensive picture of how foster youth as they transition to adulthood since the John Chafee Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 became law.