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The New York Foundling’s Youth Development Program is designed to meet the needs of youth, ages 14-21, who are aging out of foster care. This vulnerable population has numerous developmental and mental health needs, having experienced trauma and spending many years in the child welfare system. As young adults aging out of the foster care system are at higher risk of unemployment, homelessness and incarceration, Youth Development staff, mentors, volunteers, caseworkers and caregivers are committed to helping them acquire the life skills necessary to live independently and successfully.
Staff of the Youth Development Program provides:
- Ansel Casey Life Skills Assessment and evaluation of the strengths/needs/life skills of each youth, and an individualized care plan based on these assessments
- Life skills instruction
- Academic support & advocacy
- Career planning services
- Support in fostering long-lasting connections to community resources
- Assistance with finding and securing housing
The Youth Development Program employs a variety of tools to help prepare our youth for adulthood, including:
All youth 14 and older who are actively involved with the Youth Development Program will receive their own personal copy of a “Life Pak” – a book/folder in which we encourage our youth to organize and maintain a personal history and other important life documents. We ask all staff, volunteers and adults to help the youth as they begin to answer the questions and complete the forms in this book, which relate to their family, medical, educational, vocational/employment, and foster care histories. It is primarily the young person’s responsibility to complete the items in this important book and keep it with them throughout their lives.
The Foundling’s Mentoring Program provides an opportunity for youth to have a mentor – a positive role model, confidant, teacher, advocate, supporter, tutor, coach, and friend - in their lives. With a mentor’s help, we can expose teenagers in foster care to a world they may never have thought possible. Whether it is attending a professional sporting event, shadowing a mentor at his Midtown law office, going behind the scenes at a television station or seeing a dance performance and meeting the artist, our mentors have the potential to open the eyes of teenagers whose sights are limited by their circumstances. We carefully match our mentors and mentees so that the relationship is mutually beneficial, and we will review the match frequently to ensure both people are learning from the experience. In the fall and spring of each year, the Youth Development Department organizes tours to local colleges. Our teens meet with faculty, tour the campuses and dorms, and explore options for their next academic endeavor. The Youth Development Department holds an annual Career Fair for all youth, ages 14-21, to introduce them to the career opportunities that are available to them, as well as inform them about education and skills required in order to enter the fields of their choice. At the end of each school year, the Youth Development Program staff plans graduation celebrations for youth graduating from High School, Junior High School, GED, and other vocational programs. The Getting Beyond the System (GBS) “On Your Own” Self-Advocacy Seminar®, developed by the Youth Advocacy Center, is a twelve-week seminar that aims to educate our youth (ages 16-21) in the practice and theory of self-advocacy. The Foundling is currently replicating this seminar in order to provide youth with an understanding of self-advocacy and teach them how to establish and achieve long-term goals, take control of their lives, explore the career path of their choice, and utilize self-advocacy skills in making their dreams a reality.
A quarterly bulletin that gives our youth a voice and a creative outlet for their ideas, thoughts, and experiences, as well as a place to acknowledge and congratulate them on their accomplishments as they prepare for adulthood. All youth who are 14 years of age and older are encouraged to submit their articles, poems, artwork, and stories to the central Youth Development office in order to be included in the “YD Snapshots” bulletin. 
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