A foster youth's 18th birthday means they are aged out, turned loose as adults and their case file closed.
The Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative has a mission to help make this abrupt transition easier while also advocating for systemic changes in how the state manages foster care.
In northwest Michigan, the program serves 110 youth ages 14-23 in a ten-county area. It is one of two initiatives statewide, the rural version of a pilot that also features an urban initiative based in Wayne County.
The first coordinator for the Traverse City-based office began in 2002, launching an outreach to an unserved, and often forgotten about, slice of the population. The concept and funding spring from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Casey Family Programs, two leading foundations dedicated to the well-being of children and youth. The idea is to link people and resources to help foster youth get an education, find jobs and obtain health care and housing.
One key facet of the initiative is that the program is not about adults telling the young people what to do. Instead, foster youth in their late teens and early 20s provide input through leadership boards and also advocate at the local and state level for systemic improvements to the foster care system.
"The youth leadership boards are taking this program to the highest potential,” said Shawn Semelsberger, a student intern and youth advocate who herself aged out of foster care. "The youth form their own community and peer network. They provide to some extent not a parental role but kind of like a family; you can acquire the feel of a family and that's a good thing.”
Semelsberger is a member of the youth leadership board based in Traverse City; there are also boards in Cadillac and Petoskey. One policy level change is that the Medicaid coverage for foster youth has been extended to 21 instead of 18 in part because of youth involvement.
"These youth are their own best advocate,” noted Marco Dedenbach, community partnership coordinator for the Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative.
While devoted to making changes that will improve things for those still in the system — having found herself addressing large audiences of child welfare professionals as well as state legislators — Semelsberger also takes a larger perspective.
"Policy reform takes time, it doesn't happen overnight but we're well on our way to making changes,” she said.
The sense of a safety net provided by parents or extended families is missing for foster youth. Hitting 18, many lose their homes and, sometimes, their opportunity to complete a high school diploma. Large and small supports and services provided by families in the area of higher education, applying for financial aid, finding and furnishing a living space and more are often unavailable to foster youth.
The Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative is there to bridge that gap.
One recent example was a duffel bag drive for kids moving from home to home, where the community donated so many items that there is a stockpile for future needs. Also, a hope chest program provides household basics that a youth might not be able to afford. A new mentoring program will provide one-on-one caring by an adult to foster youth.
Another piece of the support puzzle is to help foster youth believe in themselves enough to go to college or trade school.
Jodie Annis, the Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative education planner, added in January a dozen new college students to the ten on her roster. Annis helps the student navigate the application process, manage financial aid, find housing and other details of high education. She also runs a monthly support group for these students.
"We come up with different tools that will help them stay in college and get the degrees they are working towards,” she said.
For more information on the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, see the Web site www.jimcaseyyouth.org.