Beyond Emancipation

By no means has anyone credited AB12 to be the “end all, be all” for emancipating foster youth, but I will say it has served as an alleviation to thousands of youth.

From an early age, as Zimbabwe Davies played with his siblings in front of their house in the Ghost Town neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., he would often look up to see his mother in the doorway with her video camera rolling, jazz drifting from the stereo inside the house.

By Erica Hellerstein A group of social workers, child advocates, and therapists gathered in downtown Oakland last week to learn what some area programs are doing to keep foster youths in college.