Foster Youth and the Aging Out Age in Rhode Island

Foster care is a temporary placement of children and youth with others outside of their home due to child abuse or neglect. Since its 19th century origins, the foster care system has evolved to focus on three goals of providing safety, well-being, and permanency until the child leaves the system, either by reunification, adoption, or “aging out”. Because these youth often “age out” without a home, job, or support system, programs such as the Life Skills Program and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative are working toward providing this population with skills that will assist them in successfully aging out of the system. The Young Adults Establishing Self-Sufficiency (YESS) Program, a pilot program designed to help youth who have aged out to establish self-sufficiency was the focus of this exploratory, qualitative study, designed to examine what older foster youth know about YESS and how they believe it will help them. Focusing on their knowledge of YESS, 11 older foster youths were interviewed in groups. It was found that those who knew about YESS are already enrolled or have taken steps to apply. Because of the perceived helpfulness of YESS, it is necessary that the social work profession develop and promote YESS and similar programs