CHSVA strongly supports this bill. Virginia has a significant number of youth who have aged out of foster care and need supports as they navigate the transition to adulthood. As an organization that provides services to youth who have aged out of foster care, we have worked with many youth who need some services beyond age 21 to ensure they thrive in adulthood. Many youth who have aged out of foster care have suffered from significant trauma and a lack of resources and tools that would typically help a youth that age navigate early adulthood. Youth who have aged out of foster care deserve a support system just as much as any other youth and this bill will help provide that to them.

In 2011, I was the DSS social worker for a young woman in foster care who turned 18. At that time, there was no extended foster care so the only option for her was a boarding house. On her 18th birthday, she officially exited foster care after never being adopted and was dropped at this boarding house. Over the next 10 years, she experienced homelessness, was trafficked to one of the largest sex trafficking hubs in our country, was incarcerated and was hospitalized. 10 years after she was dropped at the boarding house on her birthday, she was killed and then buried as an indigent person far from her hometown because they couldn’t find her next of kin. Today, her biological sister is still fighting to be considered next of kin so that she can finally have her sister cremated instead of in an unmarked grave at a cemetery without an address. The statistics tell us this kind of story and outcome is sadly more common than what we would like to believe. The more support we can provide to worthy youth aging out of foster care when we can make a sustainable difference in their lives, the better outcomes we will have. While I would like to see a higher level of accountability placed on the Independent Living programs that taxpayers fund for kids in extended foster care and increased resources to fund more child welfare social work positions, any opportunity to support a youth in foster care is one that I stand by.

We have been fortunate to have had our 17 year old foster son with us since he was 14. We were only told that he was nonverbal and suffered from neglect. He was underweight and failing at school. It took several weeks for him to make eye contact or give more than a grunt response. He has come so far in 3 short years- from not knowing how to use silverware, button his pants, tie his shoes or read a clock to having a job and completing his first college course. He is finally beginning to open up emotionally and starting to consider possibilities for his future. Our largest fear is that he will not have constant family support to help him become a stable adult. Ny living with 2 parents, 2 older brothers, a younger sister and younger brother, he is learning how a family works together. He sees how his brothers handle working while going to school. He sees his younger sister and brother play sports and socialize with their friends. He has learned how to cook and contribute to making family meals. These are skills that cannot be memorized; they must be experienced. Like other foster parents, we are trying to squeeze 18 years of parenting and life experiences into 4 short years. We are trying to undo damage that was done and build up a functioning adult who can not only support himself, but contribute to society. He just needs a little more time. There are so many things we have yet to help him with- buy his first car, graduate school, start a career, move into his own home. Please allow him a little more time to continue growing.