Bringing Foster Care Into the 21st Century

Since 1869, The New York Foundling has helped foster children and at-risk families. Established by the Sisters of Charity, the organization has expanded its programs and services to respond to the city’s greatest needs. It now serves more than 27,000 children, families and other individuals each year with educational and vocational programs as well as mental health and family support services.
But The New York Foundling’s newest initiatives tackle the digital divide. The Digital Inclusion Program, launched in 2015, provides basic tech education, free laptops and five years of internet service to foster kids between the ages of 12 and 19.  The Foundling’s Tech Workforce Development Program, for ages 18 and up, selects promising youth from among 15 area foster-care agencies and enrolls them in tech-training programs at Per Scholas, Year Up or General Assembly.
“These youth are very capable,” says Olivia Jones, the tech program coordinator for The New York Foundling. “They just need a chance to prove it.”
Check out the above video to learn about one foster youth’s journey toward a fulfilling career in software development.

Overcoming a Difficult Childhood, This Former Marine Is on a Mission to Help Others

After growing up near Chicago and bouncing around five different group homes and 13 foster families, Tina Thomas found the stability and sense of belonging that she lacked by enlisting in the Marines when she was 18 years old.
“Growing up in the foster care system left me feeling empty and incomplete,” she tells Rich Polt of Talking Good.
Thomas was inspired to serve after working as a peer mentor at a summer camp for children who’d been victims of abuse. Thomas, too, suffered physical and sexual abuse during her years in the foster care system, but she never lets it define her. “If I’m a victim of sexual trauma and foster care, the statistics say I’m supposed to be a certain way. But I’m me…I’m not a number,” she says.
Thomas mentored kids at the summer camp every year until its funding was eliminated, an experience that made her realize, “I wanted to make an impact on people’s lives.”
For four years, Thomas served in the Marines before struggling to find a civilian job. Finally, she landed in Washington, D.C., where she works for the Federal Aviation Administration as an administrative assistant.
The 34-year-old Thomas has never stopped serving others and is now a member of The Mission Continues’ DC 1st Service Platoon, a nonprofit that organizes veterans to solve problems and help others in their community. “All of this service work provides me with structure and growth. It keeps me motivated and gets me out there so that I can continue to make a difference,” she says.
Even though she had little support growing up, Thomas continues to be a shining example of the impact one individual can make through a commitment to service. She tells Polk she hopes her legacy will be “that even at my lowest points in life, I’ve still reached out to help others to lift them higher.”
MORE: Salute the Nonprofit that Helps Vets Continue to Serve When They Return Home

This ‘Backpack’ Holds the Key to a Brighter Future for Foster Kids

The life of a foster kid is anything from easy. Between the constant moving and inconsistency in familial relationships, growing up can be difficult. Often overlooked in all this bustle, though, is an important lifeline: their records, from medical to educational. That’s why states and counties across the country are equipping foster kids with a new accessory: an “electronic backpack.”
It’s not an actual bag, rather a digital repository where foster children’s records can be stored in one central location, accessible to all involved in the foster care system. Students’ health records will be the first to be included, and education and juvenile probation records will be gradually phased in, with 2015 as a target completion date. Just this month, Ventura, Calif. became the newest area to announce the adoption of this program. Ventura is well aware of the difficulties of foster children—the city has about 1,000 in the area.
This system is an important tool when considering all of the challenges that accompany foster children. Trends show that foster children are more susceptible to sickness such as asthma, tooth decay and malnutrition, as well drug use and mental disorders. And, since foster children move frequently, their medical records are sometimes lost, leaving gaps in their history that result in over-immunization, over-prescription of medication and misdiagnosis, according to national child advocacy group, First Focus.
All of this can be reversed, though, with the electronic backpack. With children’s records all stored in one location, doctors and other professionals will be able to easily access the information that’s pertinent to foster kids’ success. Not only will the backup benefit children health wise, but it’ll help them in the transition to adulthood: Centralized, complete records can assist adult foster children as they look for new jobs.
San Diego County was the first place to offer this kind of helping hand to foster children in 2006, when the Office of Education combined education, health and juvenile records, creating the first electronic backpack. The records are all stored at the Office of Education and the system is updated every week with new data on the kids from the schools, juvenile court, probation office and welfare agencies. Similar programs have already been introduced in Texas and Florida, under the encouragement of Congress in 2008. As a result, Texas has seen a reduction in the amount of psychiatric admissions and distribution of psychiatric medication and length of stays in psychiatric facilities among foster children. But while San Diego courts have the discretion to decide who is and isn’t allowed to view the records, Ventura is taking the backpack step further by making the documents accessible to anyone who works with kids within the foster care system.
Given all the changes that foster kids often juggle, this “electronic backpack” is sure to help them—and the people who work them—stay organized for a successful future.
MORE: Meet the Teen Who Spent a Year Sleeping Outdoors So Others Don’t Have To