Early Takeaways from 50-State Look at Extended Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]

To anybody in the community who would like to participate in a very beautiful experience, being a CASA is extremely rewarding and very reasonable in time demands.  And, if you kow about ACEs, you are WAY ahead of the game.

After a period of training, the commitment is to one weekly in-person meeting with the child.  You commit to stick with the youth for 2 years or more, ideally until their case closes, and thereafter as a friend.  Twice a year, the CASA writes a court report (to give a more, human and intimate picture of the child/ her needs to the judge), and you attend court. 

At the front end of a new case, you need to meet or have phone contact with all the key people in the child's life:  family, foster family, key friends, therapists, teachers-- to get up to speed on the whole picture.  But once that getting-to-know phase passes, the commitment is to the weekly meeting with the child, staying abreast of their situation, and seeing what might be achieved to benefit them.  For me, 2-6 hours per week depending what was happening.  Mostly easy evening and weekend tasks like emails, phone calls, and online research/reading.  A few times, we spent a long day seeing colleges.  (I attended an Echo Parenting ACE event, in LA as a part of my research, which is how I found this community!)

It helps to be a a bit tough, as some of what your child may need may not be standard or part of the system, and you have to push for it.  It helps to be persistent and creative. 

ACE- aware CASAs are needed!  

ACE-aware summer employment or internship opportunities for teens are needed!

Laura

I just cannot imagine being 18 and all on my own .... so grateful for folks like Laura and other families for stepping up to fill in these gaps.  Grateful too for states that have taken the bold step of leading these efforts.  

From the article:  Three states with the most robust plans are in Nebraska, California and Ohio.  “These are the states with good legal frameworks,”.  

After Fostering Connections became law, there was a lull for about five years during which only a handful of states opted into the extended care plan. But in the next five years, the number shot up, with Ohio becoming the most recent state to pass a plan. 

I am a first hand observer -- I am a CASA to a youth (19) who is now receiving extended services.  In California, you have to be at least half-time in school or half-time employed in order to qualify for the extended services.

In my youth's case, this program has been a godsend.  Many foster youth have had their natural  path of development stunted and warped.  You cannot learn life skills when rigid with fear or undergoing terrible experiences.  It takes time to acquire new skills.   Some kids enter care in their teens with zero skills.  Extended care allows a buffer period for learning-by-experience, where the youth is able to rely on a base level of continued help. 

It also recognizes on an institutional level that "18" is not a magical portal to instant adulthood, which is how most foster youth see it-- they've been counting the days till 18, and expecting themselves to be magically self-sufficient and to get to leave "the system" behind... not realistic for most of them.  

Knowing she had the help de-stigmatized not being magically/perfectly self sufficient at 18.