Ten Years of Development and Success
The Jim Casey Initiative brings a proven framework and an age-appropriate developmental approach to give states the support they need to effectively implement the federal legislation. Based on our decade of experience, we have identified policy and practice that must be in place for sustainable change. For example:
- Youth leave care with a permanent connection to an adult who will be there for them for the long term.
- Youth are placed with or near siblings and in their own communities.
- Youth have educational stability while they are in secondary school, and the guidance and support to plan their post-secondary education.
- Youth have the personal documents (such as birth certificates and Social Security cards) they need to secure employment and bank accounts.
- Foster care is available to age 21, and designed to prepare youth for adult living. Youth lead their own permanency and transition planning.
Our proven framework engages multiple sectors, organizations, and individuals – recognizing that a state’s child welfare system alone cannot meet all needs for youth transitioning out of care.
Over the past decade, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative has been working – with increasing success – to bring about positive change at both the national and state levels. We have raised the profile of this population and put it on the national radar through our work with national influencers. We played a large role in the Fostering Connections Act and the recent bipartisan Senate Caucus. We have increased public awareness through our book, On Their Own (2004), by Martha Shirk and Gary Stangler and a PBS documentary, Aging Out (2005), by Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth.
