Aged out, put out, homeless and jobless. Welcome to adulthood 

Thank for taking the tome to listen to my story

When I aged out at 18 back in “09 catholic charities had a transitional living program that paid for my apartment including utilities, gave me a biweekly food stipend and clothing allowance, paid for school and a transportation card. I was set until I was 23, was a blessing for sure and they need more programs like it, I was allowed to make so many mistakes and try so many jobs to find what I wanted to do and not have to worry about rent.

When I aged out, I enlisted in the Army. May not work for everyone, but it did for me.

The last thing these young people need is to become a parent

When I aged out of foster care I was dropped off at a shelter my kin wasn't there for me so I totally understand what they went through I pray that they succeed in life.

If the state is their parent why are they being tossed around from foster home to foster home? Children need stability.

I aged out in Allen County Indiana. In 5 weeks, I am graduating from one of the most prestigious universities in the nation. My advice is to keep going and pushing even when you’re struggling. It’s hard but it’s going to be worth the fight.

im still suffering from being a foster child i was adopted and i still feel robbed of my childhood i spent most of it depressed and alone i had no one to trust to vent to and i still feel like i dont .....my foster mother did nothing but further the abuse mentally and physically but im left with healing myself and its really unfair

As I read the statistic about aged-foster girls becoming pregnant before the age of 19, it made me think of several young women that I personally know. They were in the foster care system and they aged out. Some were kicked out of their foster homes because the paychecks stopped. Some were removed from their group homes. They all ended up being used for sex. They ended up being sheltered by men, who knew that they were at a disadvantaged. As long as they were willing to do so, they were allowed to stay in those environments.

The 'system' should have mandatory life skills programs: cooking, self-care, job-skills (resumes/interviewing). They act like they think fostering family will teach the stuff-we know a lot do not, so the kids do not have the necessary skills when they move out. They also should have dinners for holidays and at least once a month. (and everyone says the church should do it, the birth family, the foster family, the gov't, , the foster system....and so no one does it and the kids suffer)...

Every needs a friend like Heather.

at 17 and a half the state of oregon dropped me off at a park in downtown eugene with what little possession's I had. My PO asked me where I wanted to get dropped off, and I'll always remember me telling him where would I go, Ive been kicked from home to home for 14 years, and he said "i don't care, but im not taking you to juvenile hall". He dropped me off under that bridge and Ill always remember sitting on a bench with my few possessions and seeing a family in a ford explore laughing and have a good time. I never wanted to die more in my life. I'm 41 now and still don't have a family, and at this point I figure I never will. I just focus on the world around me and try not to let the depression eat me up. I was lucky and decided that jail wasnt for me and once I got off probation at 27 ive never been back. I dug myself quite the hole but im chipping at it day by day.

I'm so glad dc had Keys for life and independent living because I was able to learn a trade, get a job, and an apartment before aging out of foster care. I aged out with enough money in my bank account to live off for six months. DC also referred us to a neighborhood collaborative to help us with rental assistance and furniture.

This was a touching story. It is sad to see that kids are being thrown to the wolves without real support. Give them a place, give them a job, give them hope!

I don’t foster that age group but I know it’s not always simple to keep a foster child after 18. Especially if you’re fostering other kids also, in my state they now are a adult and can’t share a room with the other kids. So now if you do want to keep housing them, you need to figure out a room as well as have them go through the screening process. Just saying it’s not always as simple as let them stay. But in every state they should make it to where they help them go from living in a foster home to living independently.

🙏🙏🙏🙏 I pray divine protection over your lives and your futures.

Thank you for telling our story! When they tell their testimony it’s mine as well

The system needs to teach life and how to get a job to those foster 16 year olds

When I was in foster care and lived in a group home. We were forced to be independent. We took the bus everywhere had to cook meals and be self sufficient. They had the community housing assistance program where you rented an apartment the state paid the rent and gave you money to live on you had to go to school full time and have a job part time you had a caseworker who helped you balance your checkbook and assist you with finances, paying bills etc. so when you turned 21 you had a job, school diploma and you could be self sufficient. This was in CT 1993-1998

Its really pulling my heart strings

Thanks for sharing. I got apartment at 16 due to a great foster mother with a good plan.

Rest in heaven, Mr. Chenoweth.❤

Aren't foster parents supposed to be teaching life skills? If I were a foster parent, I would invest the money the state would give me each month, and then use it to send the kid to college.

So although I can’t say I’ve been through the system... I lived with bio parents or just mother mostly but poverty or poor financial management and mother having mental challenges sure the hell made my childhood similar to the system. I had a roof, crap for available food but still got fed, at least a mattress if not a bed to lay down and no threat of physical violence or harm but the family was consistently unstable moving ~ every year (at one point 3 moves in a year) but ping ponged back n forth between 3 states and causing me to switch schools more times then # of places moved. Also, me and siblings didn’t get prior warning.... ability to choose what we liked or wanted to keep and lived in chaos of no discipline, no communication, no concern for well being... and eventually abandoned by parent @ age 16. I view education the same damn way. It was the only way up! I started college when I was 22 and had a 1 yr old daughter as well as a job... worked my fucking ass off, graduated with a transfer degree to a university and worked towards my bachelors until Having to deal with my daughter being sexually abused from her dad.... between the court system and the trauma memories flooding back into my awareness I flunked my term, had developed PTSD, lost my job and within a year We BOTH became homeless. I want nothing more then to finish my degree but seeing as I owe money before allowed to reenroll in classes... I have to find a job and hope to high hell it’s enough to budget a payment for my debt that’s holding me back from a legit degree in community health education..... The odds are always stacked against the people that have faced chronic adversity and the only support system is through the state.

Im a former foster kid i graduated high school and attended college

Terrible ....breaks my heart ....can't the foster families let children stay ? I could not put a child out

Why don't all 50 states pass a law that makes foster parents put some of the money they get for raising their foster children in a trust fund or 529 college plan. I feel that many foster parents just want the money which they spend frivelously.

Hes right people have a passion about shelter animals dont gove 2 fs about foster kids its sad no humanity 6:17

Here in nj what one youth did is went to mental helath program got on ssi for disability then got into a group home just.before his 21st.bday lotterally days before becomming homeless cause its the only option he had to avoid homeless ness

Foster Care is not about those poor children. Social workers have to make money too to pay their bills. Government agencies are not very efficient and make a lot of mistakes.

But to be honest Not just in foster care kids have to teach themselves how to pay bills etc Its the same for some kids that even have parents Its the same concept Because some parents don't teach their kids either So i feel this

I'm still trying to find myself.

Omg they get assistance and grants and money, . I grew up in foster care before they passed all the assistance laws.

6:15 - he's talking about me. I do have outrage for shelter animals, cruelty to animals, animals in general because animals are innocent and it's humans who normally put them in these situations. I love animals and care for them deeply.

The young lady @7:00 is absolutely right. There are scores of yt chanels devoted to squawking about "the homeless problem." Where do you think all of these homeless people come from? A broken system where the foster parents heap even worse abuse on the kids than their parents did. Then they live on the street rather than put up with the abuse. On the street, they learn all kinds of ways to survive. It's only natural.

People can blame the system. They can blame the foster parents and everyone and everthing else. But let's be honest here, the real blame goes to the parents that are reckless bringing a life into the world and not living up to his/her responsibility to begin with. The solution isn't so much with the foster system. It should be gear toward educating people to be more respectful of their body and making wiser choices. I personally wouldn't bring a life into this world if I know I couldn't take care of it. This world is harsh. Even some people with biological parents can still be abused if they are unfortunate enough to be born to bad crazy parents. 😢

Expect more in foster care thanks to the supreme court and we will have to take care of them...which isn't fair. I say drop them all of at the judges'mansions and let them live there and give them a livable salary or stipend per month to make it.

I wanted to Foster so bad as an RN and we had space. Our daughter is GROWN and gone. I guess we aged out although I work 2 days a week and still run 5 days a week.

Only proves that the foster parents didn't fully do their job knowing that they're not going to adopt them before they age out their job is to prepare them for the real world especially before they finish school not just take them in for the money.

I want to be a foster parent but am so scared. You get a chuld with all these issues that makes it so hard for you, it only makes sense to send the child back to where they feel like they want to be at right? But then its not good for the children because they feel like all this moving around is not good for their development but what can the foster parent do? What is the best way forward?

It's a shame.

Natalie Zarato! I love u and u look such a happy person Are you on the Plunders?

Bc, Me.. personally.. I have always had to have my own 💰. My daddy taught me that. He went to work EVERYDAY!! I had or was taught life skills in Jr. High and then after a graduated.we had programs in our city that to make children into thri ing productive Independent citizens!

When aging out of foster care, people need direction as to what to do now in the future. When people have no direction, no family backup and no future, they become jobless, homeless, grifters and engage in criminal activities. They would also become involved in drugs, alcohol plus sex trafficking, prostitutes, pimps, predictors and pushers. After awhile people get tired of being less than period😮

bellevue dental has medicaid dental, 1st ave nyc w 27 st

oh come on natalie!! u left heaps of leaves 🤣

People nedd to think twice before having unprotected sex and having kids that land in fostet care cause they cannot care for them

I lived it everyone fails u!

Where is the life skills...that would teach these young people..just like when I was living in my parents home 🏡..it was understood that: I take my social security card and gomy birth certificate and go apply to get me an ID if I didn't have 1. Then go get me a job. I ended up living w/ my boyfriend..got a job..got my own ace..got married 👰. ( Divorced now) I mean.not just a job..if these young people want to better themselves they can seek out going to school. Some work and go to s hool. What's the motivation , what's the an?

i have equal amount of feeling for shelter animals as well as shelter kids.

i'm aged out but I'm living in a Foster home because its better then living at a staffed apartment, staff are Unprofessional, Toxic, Ridiculous, i was my guardians 51st guardianship at Once to himself, he's Never given me a shot at life to live in a staffless apartment ! next month is his 71st month !

Why don't they just give life sentences for the parents who made the children and use the money fron their labor in prison to help the child with lifelong services?

Burden to tax payers

These are adults. They chose themselves not to prepare for adulthood.

Vote Yang2020. Let's make this Freedom Dividend of $1000/month for life a foundation for every adult American citizen a reality. Homeless people can vote too. Register to vote now. Right now. We can't afford to wait. Register as a Democrat. Vote Andrew Yang as the Democratic President Nominee in your state. And vote again for Andrew Yang to be our President of the United States.

But thank God they can still afford a smart phone and service.

Nothing funny about home less. I was home less 32 years ago.i have an.apt now Taking.meds. vat

my handle is skkrrrttt{ bbblll} I go in now. 10.05 should be in lobby xact