Helping Youth At Risk of Homelessness or Aging Out of Foster Care
Every year about 4,000 youth are aging out of foster care in California. Not only do they face the heartbreak of being in the system, but they face exceptional challenges to survive on their own with the affordable housing crisis.
Los Angeles County is home to the largest foster care system in the nation and the largest unsheltered homeless population. About 1,000 young adults from foster care sleep on the streets of Los Angeles on any given night. There’s not enough help. That’s why we formed Finally Family Homes here, to prevent youth homelessness, especially among youth aging out of foster care.
Finally Family Homes partners with young adults to help them achieve lasting success.
We build security, belonging, and empowerment to succeed by coming alongside these young people to:
· provide for their basic needs including housing and food
· empower them to build an economic foundation for self-sufficiency
· create healthy relationships in a safe and caring community
We aren’t interested in just helping them to barely survive, We invest in the potential of our youth to achieve an extraordinary life. We empower our youth to break cycles and make a brighter future for themselves and their children.
Our Services
Family Care is our program to show our youth that they are valued members of our family community. We invite them to have dinner together, give gifts, and celebrate their birthdays and accomplishments together.
Host Homes is a proven successful intervention for youth homelessness. We recruit, screen, and train local families who wish to provide an open room and compassionate care to a youth in need.
Life Launch is our life skills coaching program to educate, connect, and equip youth with life skills. We partner with an evidence-informed microlearning program.
Oasis Resource Center offers a place to drop in, get connected and safely stay during our open hours. We offer workshops, games, food, and case management.
Alumni Support is available to our program graduates. We offer an open door to come back to celebrate the holidays, have someone to talk to, and a place to call in hard times. Permanency and sustainability are important to us.
Finally Family Homes offers yound adults a place to call home and people to call family.
Final Thoughts on How to Help Young Adults
We truly believe that it’s important to take a holistic approach to helping young people. These aren’t problems, they’re people. The systems and brokenness of the world are the problems. We’ve met so many fantastic high potential youth who just need some basic needs help and equipping, yes, but even more so, need connection.
And this issue needs recognition! Help get the word out about the struggles these young adults face and the opportunities to help support them.
If you know a youth aging out of foster care or struggling with homelessness offer a listening ear. Or maybe you can sponsor a youth birthday, graduation, or Christmas gift. You can do it with our family care program.
Maybe you have an extra bedroom. Consider becoming a Host Home! We only take applications from the Santa Clarita area, but Host Homes programs are growing all over the country.
Maybe you have a skill or talent to help – maybe teaching a life skills class or helping us build the tiny homes. Learn more ways to volunteer with Finally Family Homes.
And one of the easiest ways how to help a young adult is to invest in their success through giving. Support the youth of Finally Family Homes.