Last Update: September 23rd, 2011
Dear Save Our Children Coalition supporters,
Please take the time to contact members of the House Committee on Families, Children and Seniors as well as your our House Representative asking for their support of House Bills 0435-0440, "The Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Act" which would extend foster services to youth until age 21. For information about this package of bills click here.
We ask that you cut and paste the letter at the bottom of this email, inserting your the name of the representative you are contacting, as well as your own name, then let us know that you did so. Feel free to write your own letter or to add any information about why you personally support The Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Act. If you wish, you may also print the letter below and send it via snail mail to the committee members and your representative at the address listed below:
House Committee on Families, Children and Seniors Members:
Kenneth Kurtz (R) kennethkurtz@house.mi.gov , Committee Chair, 58th District
Margaret E. O'Brien (R) MargaretOBrien@house.mi.gov , Majority Vice-Chair, 61st District
Gail Haines (R) GailHaines@house.mi.gov , 43rd District
Kurt Heise (R) KurtHeise@house.mi.gov, 20th District
Thomas B. Hooker (R) ThomasHooker@house.mi.gov, 77th District
Bruce R. Rendon (R) BruceRendon@house.mi.gov 103rd District
Dian Slavens (D) dianslavens@house.mi.gov Minority Vice-Chair, 21st District
Marilyn Lane (D) marilynlane@house.mi.gov 31st District
Maureen L. Stapleton (D) maureenstapleton@house.mi.gov 4th District
Find the Representative from your District here
Mailing Address:
Representative's Name
P.O. Box 30014
Lansing, MI 48909-7514
Dear ______________________________
I urge your support of Senate Bills 0435-0440, the package of bills known as the "Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Act". The Michigan Senate passed the package of bills on June 30, 2011 and they are currently in the House Committee on Families, Children and Seniors.
This package of bills would allow youth who face transition out of Foster Care at age 18 to extend participation in services until the proposed age of 21. In 2009, 1118 youth "aged out" of foster care in Michigan, approximately 11 percent of the total foster care population. FosteringConnections.org, a website dedicated to serving as a resource to help states in their efforts to implement the Federal Fostering Connections and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, states the following: "Studies of youth who leave foster care without a safe, permanent family reveal consistently negative outcomes. One found that 25 percent of foster care alumni who aged out did not have a high school diploma or GED. Another study found that less than 2 percent finished college compared with 23 percent of youth in the general population. Over half of youth who aged out of foster care experienced one or more episodes of homelessness, and nearly 30 percent were incarcerated at some point—many times the rate for other young adults. Youth who aged out of foster care were less likely to be employed or to have health insurance than were their peers who had not been in foster care. These negative experiences compromise these young adults’ abilities to lead independent, fulfilling and productive lives and create substantial costs for government."
A 2009 study by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago entitled “Extending Foster Care to Age 21: Weighing the Costs to Government against the Benefits to Youth,” showed that states which have routinely allowed youth to remain in care until age 21 have seen significant cost benefits. This study shows increases in attainment of post-secondary education, which in turn result in "significantly higher lifetime earnings", and decreased dependence on public assistance for youth able to remain in foster care until age 21. The study concludes that increasing the likelihood of long-term financial stability and other positive social benefits for foster youth and society "will more than offset the costs to government."
Most youth have families to support their transition into full adulthood and beyond, both financially and emotionally. Youth placed in out of home care due to the neglect or abuse by a parent must face this normally exciting time with little to no support from a family. Michigan's youth in foster care deserve greater support from the very communities that intervened on their behalf for safety and protection. Please join me in promoting this effort to give these youth extended support and opportunities for a more successful adulthood.
Sincerely,
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