Every year, approximately 20,000 young people turn 18 in child welfare systems without ever being reunited with their biological family. Ary, a young woman receiving help in Youth Villages Oklahoma’s LifeSet program experienced the ups and downs of that big birthday.
The Kentucky Department for Community Based Services (DCBS), an agency of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), is launching a new program this month to help young people who reach adulthood in foster care, one of the groups the most impacted by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
This year, a record number of 117 Middle Tennessee young men and women in Youth Villages’ LifeSet program graduated from either high school or college. This is a 30-graduate increase over last year! One shining example of the youth who have graduated is Hailey B.
Youth Villages is one of 130 local nonprofits to receive grants through Cummings Foundation’s $20 Million Grant Program. Located in Woburn, the organization was awarded a $500,000 grant and was chosen from a total of 738 applicants during a competitive review process.
Natasha Bonner, Clinical Supervisor for Youth Villages, discusses five best practices to protect your mental health while dealing with the global pandemic and racial injustices.
At Youth Villages, Family Intervention Specialists work closely with youth and families through our Intercept and LifeSet programs. And while no day at Youth Villages is ever the same, Katie Guajardo, a family intervention specialist in our Intercept program, walks us through her typical day.
With help from LifeSet specialists like Michelle Boyd, youth who age out of foster care have the opportunity to live successfully. Fox17 in Nashville spoke with Boyd and youth, Keion Wood, about their journey into her senior year at Middle Tennessee State University.
Tae’s freshman year in college didn’t go as planned. He was in the middle of the second semester at Johnson & Wales University, studying culinary science, when the COVID-19 crisis began.