EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Across the U.S., youth who have experienced foster care struggle to establish independence in their early twenties, as do many of their non-foster care peers. Without the safety net that parents often provide to their young adult children, foster youth who “age out” of care face significant barriers as they seek a foothold in adulthood. In Sonoma County, as elsewhere in the country and throughout California, outcomes among transition age foster youth are concerning, as far too many are homeless or unstably housed, disconnected from education and employment, and struggling with poor physical and mental health. California took a significant step toward strengthening support for transition age foster youth with the passage of Assembly Bill 12 (AB 12), the California Fostering Connections to Success Act of 2010. Sonoma County has embraced AB12, and continues to develop a system of supports and services for youth ages 18 to 21 who participate in extended foster care. Over the past decade, Sonoma County’s government and public agencies have shown commitment to improving the support system for transition age foster youth. The Sonoma County Human Services Department (HSD) released two reports, Patchworked Lives: Sonoma County’s Emancipating Dependents and Patchworked Lives Revisted: Services for Former Foster Youth in Sonoma County, which provided a list of steps to build community awareness about the challenges facing foster youth and potential strategies to overcome them. Patchworked Lives Revisited calls for expanding and improving coordination among existing services as well as funding new programs to support transition age foster youth. The 10–Year Homeless Action Plan: 2014 Plan Update produced by the Sonoma County Continuum of Care recommended approximately 270 units of Permanent Supportive Housing targeted to youth under age 25.
2
In 2014, Voice Our Independent Choices for Emancipation Support (VOICES), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and empowering foster youth in their transition to independence, received a multi-year grant from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation and support from the May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust to convene a cohort of Sonoma County transition age foster youth to identify systemic, county-level barriers facing foster youth in their transition to independence and develop recommendations to address them. The county’s culture of collaboration, authentic youth engagement, and commitment to supporting foster youth set the stage for the VOICES AB 12 Youth Cohort Project, which launched in January 2015. The Walter S. Johnson Foundation approached the leadership of Sonoma County which had a long and productive partnership with VOICES. The Youth Cohort was charged with looking in particular at AB 12 services as they are delivered and accessed in Sonoma County as well as in other jurisdictions around the state. With the support of VOICES staff, the cohort began studying the foster care system and AB 12, examining resources and challenges unique to Sonoma County. They then met with youth receiving AB 12 services, county and nonprofit leadership, content experts, and other stakeholders.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE SERVICES
