For most kids, turning 18 is a milestone to look forward to. It means freedom and no longer needing to ask your parents’ permission for everything.
But as 225 details in the cover story of the May issue, the coming-of-age tale is quite different for teens in foster care.
Eighteen is a birthday to dread because it’s the day these youths age out of foster care. A few graduate high school and get jobs. A few go to college. Fewer still will graduate from college. Despite the obstacles, entering the real world and figuring out how to succeed can be done.
One woman who bucked the trend for at-risk 18-year-olds coming out of foster care is Jennifer Vidrine. The 24-year-old is not only a high-school graduate but a college graduate. She’s the director of Healing Place Serve’s Louisiana Collaborative Intervention Model and is working on a federal-grant-funded research project about foster care and at-risk youth.
“You have to realize, day to day, I don’t wake up and think of myself as a former foster care youth,” she says. “It almost feels like a different life.”
Vidrine was 23 when she started the job at HP Serve. She lives and breathes her job.
The focus groups she leads engage and learn from the most at-risk foster care youth. She and her team work to help the youths transition successfully into adulthood, teaching them about bonding, resilience, self-determination and self-efficacy, behavioral/moral competence, and social, emotional and cognitive competence.
The exercises are meant to help the teens confront the harsh reality of their situation—and also think about a way they can tackle it and overcome it.
A lot of youths assume when they age out that they have an aunt, uncle or sibling they can live with. But often, these people are not able to emotionally or financially support them, which is why it’s common for former foster care youth to end up on the streets, she says.
Her research has shown that 42.2% of foster care youths ages 14-17 lack a permanent connection with an adult, meaning they have no one to look up to for guidance, which is why Vidrine is a huge advocate for both mentorship programs and post-adult adoption.
HP Serve’s goal is to identify a permanent connection in every foster care child’s life—and that doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who can provide financial support. Their research shows that having one caring and committed adult invested in a foster child’s life for even just four to eight hours per week is directly related to better outcomes in education and employment attainment, good mental health and reduced behavioral problems.
