These are momentous times. In the last few weeks, Americans have witnessed the Affordable Health Care Act upheld, gay marriage made legal across the country and serious conversations held about removal of the Confederate flag from state houses and store shelves. And while so many of us are celebrating the progress shown through each of these events, we know that they were not easy or quick victories.
Indeed, when you're looking to reform policies or systems that are broken or unjust, change does not come easily. But, as evidenced by the successes of those who have championed solutions to seemingly insurmountable social problems -- from affordable healthcare coverage to protection of civil rights -- change for the better is possible. And we should never stop striving for it.
Over the course of my own 30+ year career, including my work leading the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the kind of change I've advocated for involves reforming the child welfare system -- specifically, improving the odds for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood.
It's a very real challenge: hundreds of thousands of young people in this country have aged out of foster at the very young age of 18 -- many without achieving permanent family connections. And without a family or other supports, many of these young people face difficulties immediately upon aging out of care: homelessness, lack of education, unemployment and other challenges. And these difficulties have a ripple effect across society, so that we all end up paying the price.
Fortunately, what we've learned about the remarkable resiliency of the adolescent brain, combined with learnings from the Jim Casey Initiative's work with young people across the country over the past 14 years, have helped us make a strong, credible argument for improving outcomes for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood.
And today, as I transition from my post as executive director of the Jim Casey Initiative, it is gratifying to reflect on what the Jim Casey Initiative has achieved for young people transitioning from foster care to adulthood. I'm pleased to say we've made promising progress, at both the national and state levels:
- A law enacted in late 2014, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, sets a new national precedent for promoting normalcy, improving permanency and improving the health and well-being of young people in foster care. The law includes key provisions that align with the Jim Casey Initiative's goals for more youth-led decision-making in the case planning process, calling for young people aged 14 or older to take an active role in developing their own case plans and selecting their planning team members. Other provisions in the bill reinforce our long-time goal of supporting critical developmental opportunities for young people in foster care, including increased funding in the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program specifically for "supporting participation in age-appropriate activities" for youth who are in foster care. The law also requires states to implement a new "reasonable and prudent" parent standard to allow decision-making that more closely reflects the best interests of a young person in foster care.
- The passage of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act in 2008 allowed child welfare advocates to make great strides, serving as the first time we saw youth-directed planning incorporated into policy. This law also helped the Jim Casey Initiative launch Success Beyond 18, our national campaign to create a better path for young people transitioning from foster care, in 2013. The campaign's efforts centered upon advancing three policy goals: 1) Young people are not on their own at age 18; 2) Young people have a say in their futures; and 3) Greater accountability for the oversight and care of young people in foster care leads to better outcomes. In just two years, Success Beyond 18 has mobilized communities across the nation and challenged state leaders to better serve thousands of young people as they transition from foster care to adulthood.
- The reality for most young people in foster care is that money is frequently exchanged on their behalf, yet there are few opportunities for them to practice the skills needed to wisely earn, save and spend money. The Opportunity Passport™, the Jim Casey Initiative's unique matched savings program for young people, has exceeded our expectations in terms of helping youth in and transitioning from foster care meet the unique developmental need of financial literacy. Since the establishment of The Opportunity Passport™, more than 2700 young people aging out of foster care collectively saved almost4 million and purchased at least one asset. A recent article in Cascade, the journal of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, highlighted our work in its cover story, noting the evidence from our data that these young people can change their life trajectory with the opportunities to build financial capacity.
- The Jim Casey Initiative also sparked a national conversation about the importance of authentic youth engagement across a variety of disciplines, including education, employment, finance, housing, health care and child welfare. Our National Summit on Authentic Youth Engagement last summer brought 450 of the nation's leading policy makers, youth advocates, researchers, grant makers and practitioners together to showcase the important role of young people as partners and decision makers.
Indeed, the groundwork has been laid, and I am confident that the Annie E. Casey Foundation and my successor, Sandra Gasca-Gonzalez, will continue to make progress to achieve improvement in the life outcomes of young people -- improvements that have important implications for all disconnected youth.
As Crystal, a young person formerly in foster care with whom I've worked closely over the last few years, once said: "Let's see young people in foster care not as a problem to be solved, but as an asset to be developed." Indeed, as we continue to work toward change in the foster care system, let's focus on the positive -- the assets, the promise and the possibility of what each of our young people in foster care can achieve with the right support.