In this issue:
1. HEY, What’s Going On?!
2. HEY’s Emancipated Youth Advocacy Board Corner
3. POLICY UPDATE
4. “United Women’s Leadership Council helps people with social services”
5. “Oakland Youth program receives grant from state”
6. “'National Birthday Party' for More Than 500,000 Children in Foster Care Highlights Urgent Need for Foster Care Financing Reform”
7. "Ex-foster kids need more help”
8. “Foster care system to get youth review”
9. “New scholarship honors struggle to succeed”
10. “On their own at 18”
11. “No Refuge” San Francisco Chronicle ongoing coverage
12. Foster Care Month Sacramento Celebration, May 1, 2007
13. Transition Age Youth Collaboration, April 17, 2007
14. Music Day at UC Santa Cruz, April 21, 2007
15. First Place for Youth Fundraiser, Friday April 27
16. Studio 333 Art Reception, April 28, 2007
17. Second Annual Building Bridges: Keeping Youth Connected, May 8, 2007
18. Opportunity: Chafee Grant Application
19. Resource of the Month: Bust N Out
20. HEY Membership |
1. HEY, What’s Going On?!
Here is an update of some of HEY’s activities since the last month.
HEY has been busy updating our communication tools, including the look of our e-Newsletter, e-Bulletin, and of course our website. We hope you are enjoying our new look and if you have not already, please be sure to visit our new and improved website, www.heysf.org
On Friday, March 30 HEY held our quarterly Northern California Council of Colleges meeting. We had great representation from local 2- and 4-year colleges as well as community based agencies supporting them. Notes and next steps from the convening will be available soon. If you would like to receive information about HEY’s work in support of higher education and foster youth, let us know and we’ll be sure to send you the notes and information for Northern California Council of Colleges members.
HEY’s Education WG members will provide a resource training workshop at DCYF Children’s Summit on Thursday, April 19th. We are in the morning session and are looking forward to raising more public awareness about foster youth in the local San Francisco youth community.
Over the last six months HEY has been busy continuing our work in the community while going through a large strategic planning process. Our board and staff have worked very hard to recognize our values, our strengths, our past accomplishments, and ultimately how we can best support the foster care community. Through our strategic planning process we now have our direction for the next 3 years and we can now begin to look for staff to help support this vision and make it a reality. Please keep you eye out for more information as HEY begins our recruitment for our next Executive Director in the coming weeks.
National Foster Care Month in May is right around the corner and you will soon receive more information on each of the following events, but in the meantime please be sure to mark your calendars for the following HEY organized events:
*2nd Annual Youth Leadership Awards Night
Thursday, April 26
170 Otis, Born Auditorium, San Francisco
4:30-6:30 Awards
6:30-8 Food and Mingle
*4th Annual HEY Foster Youth Connections Breakfast
(previously known as HEY Job Shadow Day)
Download
flyer
Tuesday, May 1
Palace Hotel, San Francisco
7:30-8 Registration
8-9:30 Breakfast and Program
*4th Annual Voices of Youth: Success Through Empowerment (see
Download
flyer
(a free community carnival for foster youth and their families)
Saturday, May 12
Justin Herman Plaza, Embarcadero San Francisco
12-4 p.m.
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2. HEY’s Emancipated Youth Advocacy Board (EYAB) Corner
This section of the newsletter is written by EYAB members
By Dylan Ruggles
While conducting my research on the transitional housing portion for the Foster Youth Housing manual it became increasingly evident to me the reasons why it is importance for such a manual to exist. Although there is a lot of helpful information published by foster youth and their advocates I couldn't find one piece of material that compiles all the necessary information that a youth would need to obtain and keep transitional housing. I found a number of resources specific to service providers that were useful, unfortunately, none of them were very youth-user-friendly. It is my hope that through the work of this manual that foster youth (and potentially any youth in the bay area) will have a one stop body of work that can both empower and guide them into getting transitional housing regardless of their specific situation. Another barrier that I found was the various standards for transitional housing programs, particularly around what is considered homelessness, not only did I find little uniformity, but I also found a lot of definitions that aren’t conducive to homeless youth’s experience. As a foster youth advocate who has a number of resources at my finger tips I found it alarming that even still I had a hard time getting my questions answered.
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3. Policy Report
The John Burton Foundation requests your support for Assembly Bill 845. AB 845, introduced by Majority Leader Karen Bass and Assemblymembers Bill Maze and Sharon Runner, would formally authorize the Governor's proposed $10.6 million mid-year THP-Plus allocation, an investment that significantly increases the state's only housing program for former foster and probation youth.
Letters of support should be faxed to Majority Leader Karen Bass at (916) 319-2147. The bill will be heard by the Assembly Human Services Committee on April 24. Letters should be received by April 17.
Click here to download a sample letter of support. We appreciate your support for this important legislation. For more information, contact Michele Byrnes at (415) 693-1323 or michele@johnburtonfoundation.org
Please download the flyer encouraging your participation in the Higher Education Committee Hearing on AB 1578 (AB 1578)—Foster Youth Higher Education Preparation and Support—Tuesday, April 17, 1:30 pm at the Capitol. Alex Smith, member of the San Francisco 49ers and founder of the Alex Smith Foundation, will join former foster youth to provide testimony on the importance of ensuring that all youth have an opportunity to pursue higher education and be supported to succeed and reach their goals. Join us for this exciting event and please distribute this flyer throughout your networks!
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ARTICLES
4. “United Women’s Leadership Council helps people with social services” by Michelle Knight, The Acorn, April 12, 2007The year Raquel Montes turned 8, her life took a turn for the worse. Her mother died, and it wasn't long afterward that her father, an alcoholic, remarried. Their home had always been a violent one, but after her father married again, the abuse intensified.
Life for Raquel became unbearable. She was 12 the first time she ran away from home, and the occasion marked her first encounter with the Ventura County juvenile justice system. She was arrested and returned to her father. Two years later, however, she was removed from her father's home and he relinquished his parental rights. She was sent to live in a group home. more>
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5. “Oakland Youth program receives grant from state” by Michele R. Marcucci, The Daily Review, April 5, 2007Youth Employment Partnership Inc.'s storefront on International Boulevard was abuzz with activity Wednesday morning: Charter school kids talked in a small classroom and computer lab, youths learning construction trades glued reclaimed wood planks to the floor. And California's labor and workforce development secretary, Victoria Bradshaw, toured the school, which has just earned a $300,000 state grant. The grant will help the 34-year-old Oakland nonprofit bolster a program to train disadvantaged young women to work in the construction trades. more>
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6. “'National Birthday Party' for More Than 500,000 Children in Foster Care Highlights Urgent Need for Foster Care Financing Reform” By staff writer, Earthtimes.org, March 28, 2007Thirty young people, including current and former foster youth from across the nation, joined child welfare advocates, policymakers and others at a Capitol Hill event today to celebrate and recognize the birthdays of the more than 500,000 children in foster care. more>
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7. “Ex-foster kids need more help” by Ryan Sabalow, Redding.com, March 22, 2007At 20, Jennifer Tignor has already struggled more than most people will during their entire adult lives.At an age when most little girls were playing with dolls and imaginary friends, she remembers her mother's boyfriend beating her. At age 6, she was pulled away from the abuse and put into foster care. For the next 11 years, she moved from foster family to foster family in a journey that took her from Kentucky to Redding. more>
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8. “Foster care system to get youth review” by Michele R. Marcucci, The Daily Review, March 22, 2007During the five years he spent in the foster care system as a teenager, Zairon Frazier felt he lacked a court advocate. Courts make major life decisions for youths in the system, including whether they go home to their parents or go to live with a foster family or into a group home. But Frazier, 20, now a college student living in San Leandro, said he couldn't get any of his rotating cast of court-appointed attorneys to adequately prepare him for his hearings or even explain what was going on. more>
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9. “New scholarship honors struggle to succeed” by Denize Springer,SF State News, March 22, 2007During the five years he spent in the foster care system as a teenager, Zairon Frazier felt he lacked a court advocate. Courts make major life decisions for youths in the system, including whether they go home to their parents or go to live with a foster family or into a group home. But Frazier, 20, now a college student living in San Leandro, said he couldn't get any of his rotating cast of court-appointed attorneys to adequately prepare him for his hearings or even explain what was going on. more>
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10. “On their own at 18” by Jane Clifford, San Diego Union Tribune, March 14, 2007At 19, Marie Brandes is working two jobs and attending trade school for a health-care career. At one point, she was working three jobs, just trying to survive.
“I've had no help,” she says, “no one to turn to.” Unlike many her age, there is no one for Marie to fall back on, no family to provide emotional or financial support. Marie says, if she's going to make it, she'll have to do it all by herself. Marie is one of 300 foster youth in San Diego who, at 18, “age out” of the system annually, according to studies by San Diego Youth and Community Services, an agency that serves at-risk youth. And they are part of more than 4,000 in the state who are emancipated every year, according to the Children's Advocacy Institute, based at the University of San Diego Law School. more>
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11. “No Refuge” San Francisco Chronicle ongoing coverage of foster care systemThe San Francisco Chronicle continues to devote significant coverage to foster youth. Below are links to the coverage since our last newsletter.
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EVENTS:
12. Foster Care Month Sacramento Celebration, May 1, 2007
Nearly 80,000 children are in foster care in California today-all of whom need a lifelong connection with family and supportive adults, a quality education and preparation for living wage employments and careers.
Please join us for the 3rd Annual California Capitol Event honoring individuals, programs and partnerships that are changing the lifetime of foster youth in California today. Your participation will help bring attention and support to the critical needs of our foster youth. This year, our California kick-off is extended to include additional events in Sacramento the week of May 1st–5th, 2007.
Please visit www.fostercaremonth.org or click here to download the flyer.
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13. Transition Age Youth Collaboration, April 17, 2007
TRANSITION AGE YOUTH COLLABORATION: TAKING IT HOME, MAKING IT HAPPEN
April 17, 2007, Doubletree Hotel, Modesto, CA
Keynote: Michael Pritchard
Youth: Meribe Gonzales, Youth Advocate - CA Youth Connection
Creating and sustaining successful Transition Age Youth (TAY) programs takes hard work and ongoing, conscious communication. This conference will explore the nuts and bolts ways various systems of care can come together and collaborate to better serve youth ages 16 to 25. The mindset needed to collaborate, how to set up collaboratives in our own communities, and shifting our view of youth as “the problem” to create meaningful systems change will all be reviewed.
Register Online • Download Agenda
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14. Music Day at UC Santa Cruz, April 21, 2007
Click here for a flyer for the 4th Annual Music Day on Saturday April 21st at UC Santa Cruz. The deadline to sign up is Friday April 13th. The organizers need to know how many youth and chaperones will be attending so they can order enough t-shirts and food for everyone. The event schedule as well as detailed directions to the event will be emailed to participants after they rsvp.
This is a FREE event open to all youth in the juvenile welfare system or youth simply at risk. Social workers, ILSP coordinators, CASAs, foster parents, and advocacy groups are all welcome. The more the merrier! If transportation is an issue, please contact the organizers directly and they will try their best to accommodate.
If you have any questions at all, please call (831) 325-4759 or email musicday2007@yahoo.com
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15. First Place for Youth Fundraiser, Friday April 27
There’s No Place Like Home, An Evening to Benefit First Place for Youth, will be held Friday, April 27th, from 6:30 to 10:00 pm. at The Rotunda, 300 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. This event is the only fundraising event First Place holds to raise needed funds for housing and support services for former foster youth.
- Hear inspirational stories from former foster youth
- Enjoy the music of Ever, silent and live auction bargains, delicious food and good company
- Honor the recipient of the 2007 Community Hero Award: the Editorial Board of the San Francisco Chronicle.
To donate an item for the auction or to sponsor a table or purchase tickets, click here.
Click here for more details.
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16. Studio 333 Art Reception, April 28, 2007
Studio 333 of Sausalito presents ‘The Art of Transformation: Collaborative Youth Exhibition’, Saturday April 28, 6-11pm. All of the participants are from community organizations. The $20 donation given at the door will be split among the participants. The show runs from April 17-29, 2007 at 333a Caledonia in Sausalito. Please call 415-331-8272 with questions.
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17. Second Annual Building Bridges: Keeping Youth Connected, May 8, 2007
Overcoming barriers to engaging youth in the policy, planning and implementation of youth serving programs: What works?
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Pauley Ballroom, University of California, Berkeley
2475 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA
Hosted by the UC Berkeley Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Committee on Youth Policy, this "policy in practice" roundtable discussion will offer participants an opportunity to engage in an energizing exchange of ideas and best practices for engaging youth in policy. "Building Bridges: Keeping Youth Connected" is made possible through the sponsorship and generous contributions, both financial and in-kind, of the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy and the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly.
For more information click here.
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18. Opportunity: Chafee Grant Application
The California Student Aid Commission has released the 2007-08 electronic and paper Chafee Grant Applications. This is a great opportunity to help your students or prospective students get their applications in earlier for the next academic year.
Click here to view Grant Operations Memo GOM 2007-03, regarding the California Chafee Foster Youth Grant Program 2007-2008 Application Availability.
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19. Resource of the Month: Bust N Out
Bust N Out web site is dedicated to helping youth find their way in life. This web site was designed to act as an information resource for youth in foster care and emancipated youth in Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Shasta, Tehama, Lassen, Plumas, Del Norte, Humboldt, Modoc, Siskiyou, Trinity, Lake, Sutter, and Yuba counties so that they can obtain important information regarding many of lifestyle changes they will face once on their own.
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20. HEY Membership
HEY Membership and Membership Renewal drive will be soon. Please look forward to our mailing early next month!
For more information or to submit an announcement for May, please contact Sara Razavi at 415-808-4435 or srazavi@uwba.org.
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