Articles

For children in foster care, money management is not just a practical life skill. It is a stability skill. Many youth who experience foster care move frequently, have limited control over personal decisions and age into adulthood with fewer financial safety nets. National data consistently show that young adults who move out of the foster […]

During the summer of 2025, the Foster Youth Initiative (FYI) of Santa Clarita, CA, rallied community resources to address a need. Carolyn Olsen, FYI’s executive director, explained, “Sadly, food insecurity is a common challenge for Santa Clarita’s foster youth who live below the poverty level and must stretch their limited resources to pay for housing, […]

Youth in foster care often do not get the chance to learn essential life skills. Yet, as they become independent of the child welfare system, they need to have some of these skills to fare well in life. We asked resource parents which skills they try to teach the kids they welcome home. “My children […]

Independent living skills, such as lifelong learning, work ethic, self-care and household management, are important for any young adult to learn. However, for those in foster care, these skills are vital. Young people leaving foster care often do not have adults they can fall back on when times get hard and money is tight. Most […]

Six years ago, when Zoë Jones-Walton was about to turn 18, she sat in a windowless Dallas-area conference room with dozens of other youth who were in foster care. A series of lectures on how to navigate adulthood covered the gamut: how to write a check, how to land a job, how to get an […]

If you are living independently for the first time, or soon will be, you need to know the basics of managing money wisely. If you are entering adulthood after being in out-of-home care, you may not have had caregivers who modeled or taught responsible financial decision-making. Luckily, you don’t need a degree or a lot […]

I was 15 years old in Mrs. Feldman’s home economics class, attempting to sew a T-shirt and growing more despondent by the minute. When she described the assignment, Mrs. Feldman gave one piece of advice: Do NOT purchase plaid fabric. I had been doodling instead of listening and purchased plaid fabric — in purple. Matching […]

In the bustling area of downtown Omaha, Nebraska, stands a unique, saucer-shaped structure. The single-story building houses Astute Coffee, a nonprofit social enterprise providing support and workforce development skills to youth impacted by foster care. Once hired by the coffee shop, the young adults choose from an array of programs, each designed to address the […]