Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative

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(No Transcript)
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Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative
Thursday, April 29, 2004 200 PM and 315
PM Kansas City, MO Presented by Carla Owens,
Associate Director, Jim Casey Youth
Opportunities Initiative and Kathy Prell, Project
Coordinator, Local INvestment Commission
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Our Mission

• The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative is a
  major national effort to help youth in foster
  care make successful transitions to adulthood

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Our History

• The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative was
  created in June, 2001 by two of the leading
  foundations that work with children and
  familiesthe Annie E. Casey Foundation (based in
  Baltimore, MD) and Casey Family Programs (based
  in Seattle, WA).
• We are named for the founder of the United Parcel
  Service (UPS), Jim Casey. Mr. Casey had the
  vision to help establish these foundations that
  assist in the betterment of disadvantaged young
  people and families throughout this country.
• Gary Stangler, former Director of the Missouri
  Department of Social Services and a respected
  leader in the field of Human Services. We are
  based in St. Louis, MO.

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The Nature of the Problem

• There are approximately 100,000 young people
  between 16 and 21 who are about to leave, or have
  already left, foster care.
• Most 18-year-olds coming from intact families can
  expect emotional and financial support for years
  to come, but once a foster child turns 18 the
  state is no longer legally obligated to provide
  any assistance.
• Four years after leaving care 25 of youth who
  were in care have been homeless, just 46 have
  graduated from high school, 42 have become
  parents themselves, and fewer than 20 are
  self-supporting.

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The Nature of the Problem (contd.)

• The Chafee Act
• Expanded the target population, services, and
  funding of the 1986 Independent Living statutes
• Allows states to expand Medicaid for youth 18-21

• Increased accountability for states and federal
  agencies for youth outcomes
• Emphasized the importance of securing permanent
  families for youth in foster care
• Requires states to submit multi-year plans, with
  youth participation mandated

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The Nature of the Problem, contd.

• More resources became available for youth leaving
  care with the signing of the Chafee Act, but the
  funds appropriated are not adequate to the
  challenge.
• The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative
  seeks to improve opportunities for the roughly
  20,000 young people who leave foster care each
  year.

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Why We Are Here

• We are working with communities to
• Create and/or support collaborative efforts to
  create opportunities for young people leaving
  care
• Test some ideas, including youth leadership
  boards and Opportunity Passports
• Raise awareness about the issue
• Include young people in this process

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Theory of Change

• Strategies to create opportunities
• actively engage young people in developing and
  advocating for opportunities
• involve systems partners, both public and
  private, in creating these opportunities
• direct research and communications efforts at
  documenting results and identifying and
  disseminating best practice
• galvanize public will and policy to better focus
  on needed reforms

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Youth Outcomes

• Personal and
• Community
• Engagement

increased supportive social attachments, and
responsible participation in community activities
Employment obtaining/retaining jobs
with sufficient income and
benefits for self-support Education
obtaining a high school diploma or completing
education/training that
leads to steady
employment Health and Mental Health
obtaining sufficient and affordable health
insurance and mental health services
Housing obtaining/retaining safe,
stable, conveniently located
and affordable housing.
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System Outcomes

• Policies and practices that
• Increase the employment opportunities
• Increase the educational opportunities
• Increase permanence and connections to families
  and other consistent relationships with caring
  adults
• Increase opportunities for community engagement
• Increase safe, stable and affordable housing
  opportunities
• Support the maintenance of good health and mental
  health
• Cut across domains to support positive youth
  development

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Youth Engagement

• Youth Leadership Boards are established in every
  community
• The young people who serve on them are provided
  with support and training in youth leadership,
  personal and strategic planning, communications,
  and other skills
• Members will advocate for greater responsiveness
  in the foster care system to the needs and
  desires of youth

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Youth Engagement

• Youth Leadership Boards
• Membership is only youth who are or were in the
  public child welfare foster care system
• Members identify barriers to access for
  education, housing, employment, health care, and
  relationships

• Each member is paid for serving on board
• Each member is an Opportunity Passport
  participant

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System Partners

• Community Partnership Boards
• The boards primary role is developing
  opportunities for youth in all outcome areas
• The board operationalizes the Opportunity
  Passport
• The Community Partnership Board must include
  youth and young adults as full decision-makers

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Evaluation

• Gather and track data to document impact on
  individual and system outcomes
• MISIDA - a web-based tracking system for the
  savings component of the Opportunity Passport
• Opportunity Passport Participant Survey -
  On-line survey providing first-hand data from
  youth at regular intervals
• Diarist documents the youth perspective
• Administrative data, including Chafee data in
  future years, collected for each site
• Self-evaluation is mandated in all sites
• Intensive, on-site evaluation is being conducted
  in Michigan, Denver and San Diego

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Public Will and Policy

• Make youth transitioning from foster care a
  national priority
• Advocate for opportunities for economic success
• Develop public will and influence local, state,
  and federal policies and procedures that support
  best practice

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Grantee Sites Core Partner

• Core
• Atlanta, GA
• Kansas City, MO/KS
• Nashville, TN
• Jacksonville, FL
• Detroit 10 County Rural Region, MI
• Des Moines, IA
• Denver, CO
• Indianapolis, IN

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Grantee Sites Core Partner

• Casey (CFS/CFP) Partners
• Portland, ME
• Hartford, CT
• Providence, RI
• San Antonio, TX
• San Diego, CA

• Partner Foundations
• Tampa FL-Eckert
• Bay Area-Schwab
• Indianapolis-Lumina

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Opportunity Passport

• The organizing tool that actualizes our Theory
  of Change is the Opportunity Passport.

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Opportunity Passport

• The Opportunity Passport is a tool designed to
  organize resources to create opportunitiesfinanci
  al, educational, vocational, health care,
  entrepreneurial, and recreational
  opportunitiesfor young people leaving foster
  care

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Opportunity Passport

• Purposes
• Give direct experience in money management
• Provide opportunities to achieve improved
  outcomes in employment, education, housing,
  health, and personal and community engagement
• Help accumulate assets needed to make a
  successful transition to adulthood

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Opportunity Passport

• Goals
• To help youth leaving foster care
• become financially literate
• gain experience with the banking system
• amass assets for education, housing, health care,
  and a few other specified expenses
• gain streamlined entry to educational, training
  and vocational opportunities

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Opportunity Passport

• Opportunity Passport Three Components
• Matched savings account Individual Development
  Account
• Debit account personal debit account
• Door openers our term for a host of other
  opportunities to be designed locally
• All three components are linked.

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Opportunity Passport

• Door Openers
• Working with local employers, schools and
  organization, special opportunities are created
  for participants
• help getting and keeping a job, and developing
  long-term career plans.
• easy access to education and training programs
• help obtaining low-interest student loans or
  tuition-waivers
• help connecting with adults in the community who
  could serve as mentors

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• Unique Features
• Participant must engage in all three components
• Community Partnership administers the incentive
  and reward payments, equally dividing them
  between the IDA and Debit components
• All payments for effort and contributions are
  also equally divided

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Opportunity Passport

• Participant Eligibility
• 14 23 years old
• Been in the public child welfare foster care
  system at the age of 14
• Successfully completed financial literacy
  training
• Agree to all participation requirements
• Sign Opportunity PassportTM participant agreement

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Opportunity Passport

• Door Openers (examples)
• Help with financial aid applications
• Leadership, public speaking, and media training
• 10 Section 8 housing vouchers set aside
• Employment and training opportunities with HCA
  Network
• Emergency food vouchers-Publix grocery store

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Opportunity Passport

• Door Openers (examples)
• Kaiser Permanente Health Insurance-10 copay
• Employment opportunities and discounted
  services-UPS Stores
• Mentoring and peer counseling-Penn Valley
  Community College and Kansas City, Kansas
  Community College
• Expedited services, including resume help, free
  printing, job shadowing, and internships
• Discounted eye and dental care services

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Opportunity PassportTM GoalsCore Sites
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Opportunity PassportTM Goals Casey Partner
(CFS/CFP) Sites
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Public Opinion

• Most Americans believe that the average age a
  young person is completely on their own is 23.
• One-third believes it is 25 or older
• Most people, 70, expect that youth leaving
  foster care experience more challenges during
  the transition to adulthood
• Nine out of 10 respondents say that transition
  programs are very (70) or somewhat important
  (23)

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Youth Economic SuccessSchool to Career
Partnership

• Economic success if broader than youth
  employment and includes educational attainment,
  workforce development, financial education, asset
  accumulation and entrepreneurship.
• Started by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in
  1998, the School to Career model employs all
  facets of this economic success. It is currently
  being implemented in our New England sites, San
  Antonio, TX and San Diego, CA. Additional sites
  include Baltimore, MD, New York City, NY, and
  Oakland, CA.
• Our partners in the effort include the United
  Parcel Service (UPS), Home Depot, Marriott, CVS,
  and a host of local employers and workforce
  development agencies in each community.

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Public Opinion

• The greatest public support 98 - is for
  programs that teach young people how to manage
  and save money and to efforts that involve local
  businesses and community activities
• Equally strong endorsements came for supports
  that connect youth with caring adults who can
  help them make life connections
• Public support for the Opportunity Passport is
  very strong on a scale of 9 to 10, the mean was
  8.3 (one-half gave at 9 or 10)

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Public Opinion

• Public support was strong for all three
  components of the Opportunity Passport
• Debit Account, mean 8.02 (46 gave it 9 or 10)
• Matched Savings Account, mean 8.11 (over half
  gave it 9 or 10)
• Door Openers, mean 8.46 (60 gave it 9 or 10)
• 92 said they would favor having an Opportunity
  Passport in their community (two-thirds
  strongly favor).
• Two-thirds say they would likely include such a
  program in their charitable giving plans.

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Public Opinion

• Over half said they would volunteer a few hours
  per month for a program under the Opportunity
  Passport
• Public support dampens when government is
  introduced or tax dollars used, but support
  remains strong
• Strongest support comes from women and
  African-Americans the Northeast and California
  showed strongest support weakest in the South
• Democrats gave slightly stronger support 70
  strongly favored the program Republicans 63,
  Independents 63

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Opportunity Impact, Influence and Leverage

• Next State Chafee plans are due in June 2004
• Reauthorization is anticipated in 2005
• State and federal fiscal pressures will continue
  to put a premium on tools that can organize or
  re-deploy Chafee funds
• GAO review of Chafee will add to that pressure in
  late 2004 or early 2005. Request for the review
  came from Sen. Grassley and Cong. DeLay, both
  from states where we have sites.

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Opportunity Impact, Influence and Leverage

• Disproportionate representation of children of
  color in foster care
• Center for Study of Social Policy
• Engage a larger community CFP, AECF and others
• Increasing resources and broadening involvement
• Transition Funders Group (Foster Care Workgroup)

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2004

• 2004 is a building year as Opportunity
  Passport participants will surpass 1,000, our
  book is released, and the documentary is launched
  in festivals and special events
• The build year sets the stage for the policy
  environment in 2005 (probable Chafee
  reauthorization year) and 2006 (30 gubernatorial
  elections)

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2004

• Communications and policy activities build on
  the release of the book and documentary.
• On Their Own
• Martha Shirk and Gary Stangler
• Westview Press, August 2004
•  Aging Out
• Roger Weisberg, Producer/Director
• Public Policy Productions, Inc.
• To air on PBS, 2005
• (Pre-released Jan. 2004)

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Results

• When we do this, we will have
• Data that supports a national mandate to help
  youth in foster care make successful transitions
  to adulthood
• Strategies to create opportunities that are to be
  embedded in practice and in local, state, and
  federal policy to
• actively engage young people
• involve systems partners
• direct research and communications efforts
• galvanize public will and policy

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Kansas City

• The Kansas City local grantee is the Local
  INvestment Commission (LINC). LINC has a history
  of positive outcomes with children and families
  in the Kansas City area.
• LINC has established Youth Leadership Boards in
  Wyandotte and Jackson Counties. A community
  Partnership Board is composed of stakeholders
  from both counties as well as the Greater Kansas
  City area.
• Both child welfare agencies (SRS and DFS) are
  active partners with LINC to build on present
  activities with the Independent Living Programs
  in both states.

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JIM CASEY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIESINITIATIVE
For more information, please visit our website
www.jimcaseyyouth.org For youth board
activities, see www.fyi3.com