Exposes what happens to foster children once they are discharged from the state's custody and serves as a call for action to improve their chances for success. Each year, as many as 25,000 teenagers "age out" of foster care, usually when they turn eighteen. For years, a government agency had made every important decision for them. Suddenly, they are on their own, with no one to count on. What does it mean to be eighteen and on your own, without the family support and personal connections that most young people rely on? For many youth raised in foster care, it means largely unhappy endings, including sudden homelessness, unemployment, dead-end jobs, loneliness, and despair. On Their Own tells the compelling stories of ten young people whose lives are full of promise, but who face economic and social barriers stemming from the disruptions of foster care. This book calls for action to provide youth in foster care the same opportunities on the road to adulthood that most of our youth take for granted-access to higher education, vocational training, medical care, housing, and relationships within their communities. On Their Own is meant to serve as a clarion call not only to policymaker
- ISBN10 1322435855
- ISBN13 9781322435855
- Publish Date 1 January 2006 (first published 17 August 2004)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 4 March 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Basic Books (AZ)
- Edition Revised ed.
- Format eBook
- Language English