Improving Aftercare Support for Youth in Preparation for Independent Living

Abstract

“The Needs and Independent-Living Preparedness of Children Who Have Aged Out of Foster Care”, a 2020 survey study of which this brief is a part, finds that youth in preparation for independent living need support in their psycho-emotional realm, as well as in housing, living, education, employment and asset building. To help them meet their such needs requires improvement in the aftercare system. Indicators suggest that youth in preparation for independent living, as compared to general youth or children who have yet to age out of foster care, are worse off in terms of health, psycho-emotional state, social relationship, housing, education, employment and economic conditions. Youth in preparation for independent living have lower life satisfaction scores and a higher prevalence of suicidal thoughts than the general youth population. It was in their third or fourth year out of foster care that their life satisfaction was at its lowest and their prevalence of suicidal ideation at its highest. A high percentage of these youth reported having experienced difficulties as regards housing in their fourth or fifth year after leaving the foster care system. Such economic indicators as unemployment rates, cost of living, and debt levels suggested that the situations turned for the worse for them in their third to fifth year after leaving foster care, pointing to the need for continued aftercare support for youth out of foster care. This study finds that youth who have aged out of foster care lack psycho-emotional support and social network, both essential for them to cope with the challenges they face as they wend their way along to independent living. An estimated 61.6 percent of youth in transition to independent living are living alone, who, as they have no parents or have little contact with them, are unlikely to have support from their own family. Youth in preparation for independent living receive less social support than they did when they were in the foster care system. The relationship they have fostered with their facility guardians or foster parents tend to wane over time. All this brings to the fore the need for providing socioeconomic and psycho-emotional support for these young people, at least until they age out of eligibility for aftercare.