Neglected as she moved from one relative’s home to the next, Kristin, 12, entered state custody when she was only 2 years old. She was also exposed to domestic violence, sexual abuse and drug addiction.

Kristin spent a year in Youth Villages’ intensive residential treatment to address challenging behaviors. Meanwhile, John and Melissa Miller were training to become foster parents.

“The timing was meant to be,” Melissa said. “We didn’t know what to expect as new foster parents, but Kristin captured our hearts. By the end of our first weekend together, we couldn’t imagine life without her.”

With consistent and attentive parenting, Kristin’s defiance disappeared. John and Melissa signed an intent to adopt as quickly as possible. Eight days later, the adoption was finalized.

“Being Kristin’s mother feels like I am fulfilling my calling,” Melissa said. “John and I find pure joy in providing the love and support she has always deserved.”

Melissa and John enrolled Kristin in horseback riding lessons. Kristin wants to become a veterinarian, and they regularly volunteer at the local animal hospital. Kristin’s grades have never been better, and she looks forward to attending private school in the fall.

“This happy ending reflects the amazing teamwork of Youth Villages and the Department of Children’s Services,” said Joli LaRoche, Youth Villages adoption specialist. “Thanks to everyone’s efforts, Kristin found her forever family.”

Justice Rutherford (far right) speaks about her experience as a participant in the YVLifeSet program at a forum on Capitol Hill.

Every year about 26,000 young people in the United States turn 18 and age out of foster care without ever being united with their biological families or finding a new one through adoption. They are one of the country’s most vulnerable populations, more likely to be homeless, never reach education milestones, to face unemployment and incarceration.

Last week, the American Youth Policy Forum hosted a Capitol Hill briefing highlighting the need to expand effective programs capable of helping transition-age youth overcome challenges and go on to be successful, independent adults. The forum was co-sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth.

Moderated by David Sanders, Ph.D, executive vice president of systems improvement for Casey Family Programs, the briefing examined the Youth Villages YVLifeSet program and ways to improve federal and state systems to better meet the needs of transition-age youth.

“This is about a system that fails to provide the kind of services and support that young people need to be able to become contributing adults,” Sanders said. “Twenty-eight percent of all children in out-of-home care are teenagers. Nearly half have been in care for two years or longer and don’t have a case plan goal that supports permanency. How do we support permanency so youth are not leaving care without families? Right now the pipeline is not very encouraging.”

On the panel were Mark Courtney, Ph.D, professor in social services administration at the University of Chicago; Mike Leach, director of independent living for Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services; Jeff Rainey, senior executive for strategic advancement at the YMCA of Greater Seattle; and Justice Rutherford, a 20-year-old YVLifeSet participant from Memphis, Tennessee.

Youth Villages CEO Patrick Lawler described the development of the program. By 2015, YVLifeSet had helped more than 8,000 former foster and disconnected youth in seven states and had shown significant impact in the country’s largest randomized controlled study. The organization began to study how to scale the program to reach every young person who ages out of care each year.

“It seemed like too big a hill for us to climb ourselves,” Lawler said. “And the numbers fluctuate. We know that there are young people who are 19, 20, 21 and 22 who still need help now.

“As an organization, we decided to change direction, to partner with others for the first time, to work with organizations across the country with the goal of providing effective, comprehensive services to this very vulnerable population, to every young person who needs help.”

Courtney reviewed the evidence on interventions for transition-age youth. He is the principal investigator of the Midwest Study, the largest study of outcomes for former foster youth, and conducted multisite evaluations of foster youth programs under the Chafee Act. He also worked with MDRC for the five-year randomized evaluation of the Youth Villages program, which involved nearly 1,300 young people receiving services in Tennessee.

Most evaluations of programs showed no impact, or the studies were very small.

“The Youth Villages study dwarfs in size other evaluations,” Courtney said. “There were a number of significant impacts and the range of impacts is striking: increased earnings, reduced housing instability, a one-fifth reduction in homelessness, reduction in economic hardship, improvement in health and safety outcomes.”

The program should be tried in other settings to see what its impacts would be in different contexts, he said.

“One of the things that this study suggests to me is that we need to rethink what kind of adult support we provide to young people,” he said. “What are the implications of an intensive case management program for basic delivery of transition-age services in the country.”

The YMCA of Greater Seattle will be the first partnership using the YVLifeSet model. The YMCA chose the model after an extensive two-year study of community needs, Rainey said.

“We’re bringing a model in that has been tested, evaluated and is something we need,” he said. After failing to get a federal grant, the expansion is being funded through private philanthropy and the United Way of King County. Outcome evaluation will be done by the University of Washington.

The Seattle expansion will provide a test for the YVLifeSet model in a different environment. The YMCA already has housing, mental health services and employment assistance for this group of youth and layering YVLifeSet on top of these other programs is going to be exciting for the community, Rainey said.

Leach gave insight into what Seattle could expect. By offering comprehensive services to transition-age young people – including extension of foster care and YVLifeSet – Tennessee has achieved dramatic system improvements and is expecting to exit federal court oversight next year.

Traditional case management with a social worker seeing a young person once a month was usually not enough for this population, Leach said. YVLifeSet provides consistent intensive help for young people and is flexible and timely, he said.

“They collaborate with partners in the community; they know employers; they know the educational community,” Leach said. “YVLifeSet specialists make sure that the young people are connected to housing, education and employment.”

Because it is a public-private partnership, YVLifeSet can help young people who don’t meet traditional governmental requirements for help.

“There are a lot of young people who fall through the cracks every day in every state,” Leach said. “I see it all the time. Because of YVLifeSet, I don’t say ‘no’ to young people; I don’t have to.”

Justice Rutherford is one of the young people receiving help in Tennessee; she was a participant in the MDRC study and randomly assigned to receive help through the YVLifeSet program. Rutherford was in the foster care program for many years and then reunited with her mother.

“I went to six different schools and was homeless at one time,” she said. At 16, she became pregnant and signed herself back into foster care to receive more help. Through YVLifeSet, Rutherford meets with a specialist once each month face-to-face and has 24/7 support. She is in college, working toward a bachelor’s degree.

“There have been plenty of times when I’ve broken down in the middle of the night, crying because I felt like I wasn’t doing my best, I wasn’t making enough of myself,” she said. At those times, Rutherford reached out to her YVLifeSet specialist for support.

“I have people behind me who support me, who push me to be great, who let me know that I can be somebody,” she said.

More information about the briefing is available at from the American Youth Policy Forum. Program information is available at youthvillages.org and yvlifeset.org.

Nine participants in Youth Villages’ YVLifeSet program joined other foster youth from around the country (above) for the Congressional Foster Youth Shadow Program in Washington, D.C., this week. They are participating in three days of education, advocacy and relationship building with the goal of improving and strengthening child welfare systems across the United States. They were at the White House today and heard from administration leaders on why advocacy by foster youth on the local, state and national levels is critical to affecting the decisions made by elected officials and policy leaders on their behalf (below).

May is designated National Foster Care Awareness Month, a time set aside to help raise awareness of the needs and challenges of children in foster care.

Youth Villages partners with the states of Tennessee and Mississippi to help find and train foster parents and oversee the care they provide to children. Youth Villages is also one of a handful of organizations that handle adoptions from foster care in Tennessee.

“The need for foster families is great and ongoing,” said Tiffany Dickerson, who oversees Youth Villages’ foster care recruitment and training efforts in the Shelby County in Tennessee. “Every child needs and deserves to live with a family, and for many children, a foster family is the first time they experience stability. We see it over and over how foster families make a difference for children who cannot live with their birth families.”

Children are placed into foster care when it’s determined that their families cannot safely care for them. Some of the children have faced abuse and neglect. States look for an appropriate placement for the child among its pool of foster parents and calls its partner organizations to help find a family who’s a good match.

“The calls come daily about a child or several children, or a sibling group who need homes,” Dickerson said. “We want to be ready to answer the call, and in order to do that, we are looking for more foster families.”

Each state has requirements that potential foster parents must meet.

“The most important requirement is that people interested in fostering have a passion for making a difference in the lives of children,” Dickerson said.

Youth Villages foster parents receive 24/7 support and a monthly stipend to help offset the cost of caring for a child. Adoption through Youth Villages is free.

“Her doctors didn’t think she would survive,” said Kristyn Vanderland, Youth Villages foster care counselor. “Jason and Kealy have been a huge part of Desmae’s recovery.”

Jason and Kealy Mead are Desmae’s adoptive parents. While Desmae spent her first five months of life in the intensive-care nursery, Jason and Kealy were at the hospital almost every day.

“It was so hard to see Desmae struggle in the hospital,” Kristyn said. “But watching Desmae look to Kealy and Jason for comfort was so special. They were family even before the adoption occurred.”

Jason and Kealy have children of their own and an adopted son with disabilities. With love and dedication, the family welcomed Desmae into their home and helped nurse her back to health.

“They are remarkable people,” said Elena Tanase, Youth Villages adoption specialist. “They are fully committed to Desmae, who will most likely need extra support for the rest of her life.”

Desmae’s adoption was celebrated with grandparents, family friends and Youth Villages staff. Thanks to the selfless hearts of Jason and Kealy, Desmae has a forever family.

“It has been amazing to see Desmae’s story unfold,” Kristyn said. “With Jason and Kealy’s care and attention, she has reached milestones no one ever expected her to reach. We are so thankful.”

Scarlett, 16, hopped on the living room couch with a cookie and a glass of milk. She brushed her hair out of her face and giggled.

“When I first moved into Jack and Christie’s foster home, I was very quiet,” Scarlett said. “I kept to myself and had a horrible temper.”

Scarlett faced abandonment in her biological home. She lived with numerous foster parents and experienced a failed adoption.

“She had a hard time developing positive and trusting relationships,” said Tara Shepherd, Scarlett’s Youth Villages counselor. “She was introverted, self-harming and angry.”

But with Jack and Christie Barton, Scarlett experienced a loyal relationship for the first time.

“She was adopted into an open-minded, nonjudgmental and loving forever family,” Tara said. “After a few months with them, Scarlett blossomed.”

Jack and Christie provide Scarlett with unfailing support. They meet with a physician to maintain a healthy balance of medication. They look for new ways to help increase her confidence.

“Scarlett has an exceptionally good sense of humor and she is witty,” Christie said. “She is fun to be around and we encourage her to be herself.”

Scarlett used to hide behind her long black hair. She wouldn’t speak to anyone unless her hair covered most of her face.

“Every time we spoke, we reminded her that we wanted to see her pretty face,” Christie said. “After a while, she didn’t feel the need to hide anything.”

Scarlett’s temper tantrums lasted for days when she entered Jack and Christie’s home. Now, she draws, journals and writes fan fiction to cope with her emotions in a healthy way.

“She’ll always have stability here,” Jack said. “She will attend the same school for more than one year for the first time in her life. She’ll go to prom, graduate and receive her diploma with these classmates.”

Scarlett’s personality shines with Jack and Christie’s encouragement. Their stable home allows her to be confident and comfortable in her own skin.

“My attitude and behavior have improved because Christie and Jack accept me for who I am,” Scarlett said. “They treat me well, they’re honest and I can trust them.”

Mary Lee

When I was about 12 years old, I was removed from my family and placed into the Tennessee child welfare system as a foster child. I had to pack all my belongings into trash bags and leave the home I knew behind. Roughly five years later, one week before my 18th birthday, I was adopted by my forever family.

I was very, very fortunate. I went on to earn undergraduate and law degrees and found a career where I can work every day to help foster children and youth. I work in a program that helps young people who age out of state custody without ever being reunited with their families or finding a new one through adoption. Last week, I was one of 12 foster care advocates honored by the White House as Foster Care Champions of Change. We all can help the 400,000 children in foster care and the 23,000 who will turn 18 and “age out” of foster care alone this year.

But to do that, we need more people to understand foster children and the unique challenges they face. Here are six things foster children and youth want you to know.

1. Many of us could avoid foster care if the right help were provided to our parents. Intensive services that strengthen and restore struggling families can keep children out of foster care entirely. That’s best for most kids – and society. Just the act of entering the foster care system, being taken away from your family, is traumatic and can cause serious emotional damage. The state just isn’t equipped to be a parent.
2. Thankfully, most children don’t actually “grow up” in foster care anymore. There was a time when a baby could enter foster care only to exit at 18. Now, under federal regulations, states are required to help children and youth find a permanent family situation more quickly than before. In 2013, the average length of stay in foster care was 13.5 months. That’s still too long in the life of a child. Children enter foster care at all ages. The greatest need is for people to become foster and adoptive parents to teenagers. Most of the young people who age out of foster care at 18 enter foster care as teenagers or have had multiple foster care stints.
3. The system is a scary place for children. Even if your family is chaotic, neglectful or abusive, being taken away from everything you’ve known is terrifying. Imagine having to go live with strangers, often a series of strangers, and there’s nothing you can do. Foster children have no control over their lives, and that lack of control causes continual insecurity. They don’t know how long they’ll be in a particular foster home or where they’ll be going to school next month or next year. Foster teens aren’t allowed to do many things other teens do, like getting a drivers license or going to sleepovers. Just the act of entering foster care can cause serious emotional trauma. In fact, one study found that foster children are more likely to suffer PTSD than combat veterans.
4. Most foster parents are good people, but there aren’t enough of them. Most foster parents aren’t like the ones you see on TV news in unfortunate ways. They try hard and do the best they can to help the children who come to them. There just aren’t enough good foster homes. When foster care is at its best, each child is matched with a family who best meets his or her specific needs and interests. Stays are really temporary – a month or so, as intensive services are provided to parents or kinship care is found. In today’s systems, most often kids go to the foster home that has an empty bed. Some children end up in group homes, shelters or other congregate care facilities. That’s worse.
5. Foster kids are good kids in a bad situation. Foster kids are just kids – like your kids. But they’ve experienced more difficult situations and hard times than most adults ever will. Some develop emotional and behavioral problems and challenging behaviors. Most have tough outer shells to protect themselves from more hurt and rejection. They desperately need committed adults to make a difference in their lives. They want someone to cheer for them at their football games, go to ballet recitals, help with homework.
6. Adopting from foster care is not as hard as you would think. Heard about how expensive adoptions are? Well, not from foster care. When you foster-to-adopt, you’ll receive a reimbursement to cover the cost of providing for another child in your home, and you may qualify for a continuing support after adoption. The child’s health care and college expenses may be covered as well. And you may be surprised to hear that most teens want to be adopted; I was 17 when I was adopted and my family is still so important to me today.

In every state system, there are thousands of children and youth who haven’t received the help they need to be reunited with their family or find a new one through adoption. We can do better than this and we should.

Mary Lee is national coordinator for YVLifeSet, a program of Youth Villages that provides help to youth who age out of state custody at 18 without continuing support. The program was recently the focus of an MDRC/University of Chicago study that found it increases earnings and economic well-being, improves mental health and decreases homelessness and partner violence for the young people who participate in it. For more information, visit YVLifeSet.org.

As part of the collective effort led by Give an Hour, Youth Villages joined 50 other campaign partners in this effort with its pledge to spread awareness of the five signs of emotional suffering to the 23,000 children it helps each year and their families. The organization will use its 2,700 staff and all of its communication channels to spread the word to donors, volunteers, mentors and foster and adoptive parents.

Inspired by discussions at the White House National Conference on Mental Health in 2013, “Change Direction” is a response to the way society addresses mental health. One in five Americans lives with a diagnosable mental health condition, and it is expected that more Americans will die by suicide than in car accidents this year.

“Youth Villages is proud to join this important effort because recognizing the signs and symptoms of mental illness is so important to the well-being of America’s children and families,” said Tim Goldsmith, Ph.D, chief clinical officer for Youth Villages. “Mental illness can limit a child’s potential for success, but effective help is available. Recognizing the signs of illness early can make all the difference in getting the right help.”

The campaign launched at a mental health summit at the Newseum on March 4, which included a keynote address from First Lady Michelle Obama, an appearance by Academy Award-winning producer of “Silver Linings Playbook,” Brue Cohen, and a performance by G.R.L., a musical girl group that was personally touched by the issue when their lead singer, Simone Battle, committed suicide in September 2014.

“Give an Hour is proud to lead this collective impact effort of partners from every sector of society as we change the direction of mental health in our nation,” said Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, founder and president of Give an Hour. “By creating a shared mission, by educating Americans about the five signs of emotional suffering, by encouraging compassion and action, we can change our culture to reflect what we know to be true—that mental health is not something to be afraid of or embarrassed about.”

Youth Villages encourages individuals and other organizations to “help change the direction” of mental health in our country and let your voices be heard by joining us in making a pledge, however large or small. The simplest pledge is one that anyone can do: Learn the five signs of emotional suffering so you can recognize them in yourself or help a loved one who may be in emotional pain. To learn more or to make a pledge to Change Direction, visit www.changedirection.org.

About The Campaign to Change Direction
The Campaign to Change Direction initiative is a collection of concerned citizens, nonprofit leaders, and leaders from the private sector who have come together to create a new story in America about mental health, mental illness, and wellness. This initiative was inspired by the discussion at the White House National Conference on Mental Health in 2013, which came on the heels of the Newtown tragedy.

“This month, and all year long, let us all recognize that each of us has a part to play in ensuring America’s foster children achieve their full potential,” President Obama said in his proclamation. “Together, we can reach the day where every child has a safe, loving, and permanent home.”

Youth Villages’ foster parent recruiters have lots of events planned for May, including foster parent appreciation events, fundraisers, orientation sessions, training classes and more. The community is also encouraged to get involved by participating in a Day of Prayer. Flyers, prayer cards and other resources are available for your church, business or organization to help spread awareness of the need of loving foster homes. Contact your local foster parent recruiter to learn how you can get involved, and visit the Youth Villages Foster Care Facebook page to stay up-to-date on all of Youth Villages’ foster care awareness activities this month.

You can help the Vaughns, one of Youth Villages’ foster and adoptive families, win a wheelchair accessible vehicle!

During National Mobility Awareness Month in May, the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association will award at least four wheelchair accessible vehicles to winners of its Local Heroes contest.

Click here to vote for the Vaughns!

In addition to their biological children, Mark and Debbie Vaughn have opened their home to four children with special needs. Having a wheelchair accessible vehicle would allow their children to be positioned properly throughout their travels, and the Vaughns would be able to attend church and other activities together as a family. Youth Villages is thankful for the commitment the Vaughns have made to caring for children in need of a loving home.

Voting is open through Friday, May 9. You can vote once every 24 hours, per email address. You can also answer a simple trivia question each day to earn one extra vote for the Vaughns! Be sure to vote daily and spread the word to your Facebook friends!