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Employers, educators, training and service providers all can play a supportive role in creating opportunities for young people leaving foster care. These youth need better access to education, job training, internships, job shadowing, and part-time jobs. Many will need assistance with financial aid paperwork and may require extra assistance transitioning into
the workforce.
Below, you will find some helpful dialogue from AGING OUT, as well as some questions to guide discussions, and a list of specific ways that you or your organization can help.
NARRATOR: Daniella's family is in financial trouble. Veasna's part-time job doesn't cover their expenses, and their savings have been completely exhausted. When the family could no longer pay for food or rent, Daniella and Veasna decided to turn to public assistance. DANIELLA: I felt like it was important for us to make the decision to go the Department of Social Services and ask them for help.
RISA: To me getting an education is the only way out and it's the only way you're going to succeed. . . No one in my family has ever graduated from high school, so it meant more than just me graduating. It made me really proud of myself.
DAVID: I'm going to start a new life. I'm going to Alaska. People don't know who I am. It's an opportunity and it's desperation on my part. What I see happening to me in the future is either being on the streets or going to jail, because I'm wanted in the city and because all the people I know out here are just stoners and drug users. That's exactly what I am and I don't want to be that. I'm not going up there with any money because I don't have any money. I want to make a life that I can be at least a little bit proud of. The only thing I'm proud about now is my defiance that I've held on to for so many years, but that gets old. The only way that I'm going to make it is if I do it on my own.
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FOSTER CARE RESOURCES
AGING OUT on PBS.org
Read foster care stories and watch video clips from the film
Learn more about the film, filmmakers and funders
Explore extensive print and online foster care information for youth and
communities
Order the film
Download a viewer's guide or brief (PDF)
JIM CASEY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES INITIATIVE
What you can do to help youth transitioning from care
Links to foster
care and youth development organizations
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