Essay Example on Aging Out: The Process of Leaving Foster Care

Introduction

According to popular American culture, aging out is a term used to describe a situation whereby a youth leaves a formal settlement or system of care created to provide protection as well as care services to those youths below a particular age level. About foster care, aging out is referred to as a certain process whereby a youth move from the formal control system of care to live independently. Generally, it is used to explain a situation where a foster youth leaves formal systems such as financial, school, and home systems (Simms et al., 2000). Additionally, foster care is defined as a system where a minor is formally placed into a group home, ward, and certified private home under the care of a family member or foster parent approved by the government. This process of placing minors into foster care is normally arranged through social service or government agencies. The foster parent, institution, or group home is normally compensated for the expenses incurred unless with a member of the family.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Minors can be put under foster care because of various reasons such as removal from home by social or government agencies as a result of maltreatment from the family members or the community at large. Foster care was purposefully intended to be a temporary program for children under the age of 18 years (Courtney, & Heuring, 2005). However, many children, especially in the United States, approximately twenty-five to thirty percent are entering foster care and will remain there until attaining the age of 18 years. In 2005, about 500,000 minors in the United States were under foster care, and out of these, approximately 24,000 foster youths usually age out of the system every year, and they tend to live independently. This is according to the United States' Census Bureau.

Implementation of Housing

Across regional studies, research suggests that about eleven and thirty-seven percent of minors who aged out of foster care systems have over the years experienced homelessness and precarious housing arrangements. Other research findings estimate that between twenty-five and fifty percent of young youths exiting foster care units have challenges in paying rent and are likely to face serious evictions. A growing concern of literature highlights the significance of stable housing in the transition process to adulthood (Simms et al., 2000). Because housing stability is inter-connected with much self-sufficiency, many young adults having stable housing can maintain employment and stay in school. Besides, they have easier access to time on needed mental and physical health care as well as social services. On the other hand, unstable housing can result in downward and compromised mental and physical health care, which may limit employment opportunities and, as a result, can worsen housing stability.

Over the past decades, state and federal governments have taken a significant responsibility to prepare foster youths to transition into adulthood in providing housing support and independent living on their exit. Some of the measures that the federal and state governments, as well as other interested parties, have taken into consideration to provide stable housing to foster youths include; state and federal governments have extended care to foster youths of 21 years to use funds for this particular group (Courtney, & Heuring, 2005). Other states have provided a financial incentive meant for stable housing for extended care. For instance, the District of Columbia and other states used federal finances for the extended care up to 21 years old. Also, federal and states governments have expanded reimbursable dwelling places to include managed and supervised independent living systems such as college dormitories and host homes.

Moreover, foster care independence programs such as Chafee provide financing for independent living programs for youths under foster care systems, and it enables states and federal governments to use a certain percentage of these funds on measures such as transitional housing, housing subsidies, as well as other related housing costs. Other initiatives in the United States such as transitional living programs provide funding to state and local governments, tribal entities, and community-based organizations to provide supportive services and long term housing programs to homeless, foster youths of between 16 and 21 years old who in one way or the other cannot return to their homes (Simms et al., 2000). Training and education voucher program provide additional funding to foster youths eligible for these services and attending post-secondary institutions. The stipend paid to them may be used to cater for housing expenses and other costs.

Nonetheless, other programs provide supportive services and rental subsidy to help these foster youths gain skills required for independent living such as budgeting and employment counseling. Continuum of Care (CoC) involves a consortium of local agencies and providers that work together to address issues of homelessness of foster youths through a controlled and coordinated community-based programs to identify the needs and establish a program to address these needs. Annually, the CoC gets funding to support different services and housing programs, which include the Shelter Plus Care Program, Single Room Occupancy Program, and Supportive Housing Program (Courtney, & Heuring, 2005). Through CoC, recipients of these funding can choose to develop their programs and systems in such a way that it would enable them to address and focus on homes foster youths.

Paying foster parents

Foster parent is referred to a person who acts as a guardian or parent for a minor placed in a ward, group of homes, or any other place recommended and approved by the state and federal governments. Foster parenting is a rewarding and unique experience that any adult person can participate to make a lasting impression on the life of a child and to grow as an individual and a parent. Foster parents play very critical roles in taking care of these foster youths, and they deserve better payments to keep them longer as they foster minors to move into real-life experiences. In this regard, foster parents receive payments to cover the costs of raising children under foster care systems. These payments are in the form of reimbursements and not income (Simms et al., 2000). The payments help foster parents to meet the daily needs of the youth under their care. To keep these foster parents longer, state and federal governments, as well as other agencies, provide additional payments to foster care providers or simply foster parents for their use as a service payment or an incentive. These incentives, together with other reimbursements, motivate foster parents to continue parenting foster youths to prepare them to transition into the real world. On the same note, social security benefits are provided to foster parents as additional incentives from foster care service. These payments will keep foster parents in place to foster parenting and help youths transition to real-life situations.

Furthermore, foster parents can be recognized by the state or local governments for every year worked. This is an incentive that does not cost much money and can make foster parents feel appreciated and motivated. Federal and state governments need to reward foster parents for each year they have worked in parenting foster youths (Courtney, & Heuring, 2005). This promotes a sense of motivation and belonging and can provide long term foster parents with a pat on their back and gives these foster parents something to feel motivated, thus preparing foster youths to face real-life situations. Also, pay raises to keep foster parents longer in fostering youths to transition into the real world. States and federal governments should take into consideration the pay rise for these individuals to motivate them; hence they can help minors transition to face real-life situations.

Increasing resources through family grants and connections to foster parents help youths to stay safely with their parents or guardians and aged out of foster care systems and safely return to their parents or live independently. In making foster parenting a profession, the Department of Human Services in the United States is offering incentives and reimbursement rates four times more than the normal rate along with other special and intensive training support services to foster parents who take care of foster youths (Simms et al., 2000). In essence, this intensive training will keep them longer in the process of fostering youths to move to real-world situations. In effect, through specialized training and enhanced support they receive, it eases severe shortage of parenting to minors who cannot live on their homes of biological parents.

Conclusion

In conclusion, fostering provides a life-changing experience to foster youths. It welcomed youths into loving and warm homes, and they will meet with a stable and safe environment to thrive and grow successfully. On the other hand, fostering provides parents with an opportunity to give children a support system and haven for such youths who require it most (Courtney, & Heuring, 2005). Foster parents can be able to give youths a consistent and clean living environment conditions that will provide them with an opportunity to work through challenges and to overcome them. Helping during this transitional and trying period can be fulfilling and rewarding in the lives of foster parents involved in the process.

References

Courtney, M. E., & Heuring, D. H. (2005). The transition to adulthood for youth "aging out" of the foster care system. On your own without a net: The transition to adulthood for vulnerable populations, 27-67.

Simms, M. D., Dubowitz, H., & Szilagyi, M. A. (2000). Health care needs of children in the foster care system. Pediatrics, 106(Supplement 3), 909-918.