Youth Speak Out

Thu, 05/14/2009 - 15:06 — Laura

Urgency: Tomorrow, another youth will age out of the system without any resources because they didn’t have a permanent life long connection with an adult. The Transition Center will help youth with getting lasting resources and help them to be more independent--we can’t wait another year.

 

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Youth Need Independence: Successful independence revolves around your life skills and the Transition Center would be a place that focused on life skills for youth who have emancipated or are about to emancipate from the system. From cooking to budget management, the YTC would address the life skills each individual youth would need to survive.   

 

 

The Statistics are Staggering: About 150 youth turn 21 and age out of the system each year. Many of these youth are aging out without the knowledge, skills and resources they need to be self-sufficient. In our interviews, we found out that this was true. Older youth said they receive few or none of the services they need to age out of the system, such as housing, family support, and skills training. The Transition Center will help each of these youth by providing them with services and trainings of their choice that will be beneficial to them.

 

Less Talk, More Action: We have testified four times in front of the city council, been told to set up meetings, write up reports, and create our own plan. We have done all that we were told and we aren’t seeing many results. Council Member Wells and Chairman Gray both told us they supported this center and older youth programming; now, however, we are feeling like this might not be true.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Read Recent Youth Testimony: Daniel, Ravon, and Sharita