By Justin Slaughter on June 22, 2010
[From Elizabeth Larson, Lake County News, June 15, 2010]
LAKE COUNTY – With the governor seeking to slash social services programs because of the state’s serious budget problems, advocates are concerned about the future of programs that aid young adults making the transition from foster care to independent adulthood.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to cut $80 million from the state’s child welfare services, which local advocates reported would result in the loss of another $53.5 million.
Those kinds of cuts could hurt the Transitional Housing Program for Emancipated Foster/Probation Youth (THP-Plus). Several years ago the California Department of Social Services conducted a state survey on youth housing issues for emancipated foster youth. The agency’s research found that 65 percent of the 4,355 youth who emancipated from foster care during the 2000-01 fiscal years were in need of safe and affordable housing.
Posted in State Foster Care Policy Updates | Tagged advocacy, aging out, budget, budget cuts, california, child welfare, foster youth, funding, housing, policy, youth
By Justin Slaughter on June 22, 2010
by Justin Slaughter, AmeriCorps VISTA Intern
In its reduction of the average time that a foster child stays in state custody, its increase in the number of timely and loving adoptions, and its funding for kin-GAP legal guardianships, the California government has been able to greatly reduce the number of children in our foster care system over the last ten years. Though this accomplishment warrants a ‘congrats’ to the foster care system, this phenomenon could not have been possible without the preventative services for troubled families (substance abuse treatments, mental health services, parental support, etc.) that helped the government avoid removing so many children from the custody of their family in the first place.
Given the proposed budget shortfalls from city hall to Sacramento this coming fiscal year, such substance abuse and mental health services, included in a long list of lost funds to health and social services, will inevitably take a substantial blow. For example, though the new city budget funds the baseline of children services at the required level, it does not comply with the Treatment on Demand initiative, which requires that the City not reduce funding or substance abuse treatment slots as long as there is unmet need (which there undoubtedly is).
Youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood who rely on these health services, and especially the youth who will have to enter foster care because her family could not get the necessary substance abuse treatments, will be hurt this year. To continue the progress we’ve made in the reduction of Californian children in foster care over the last decade, and in the face of never ending city and state deficits, we need to find new and creative ways to continue funding the services that have worked best for California youth in the past and have the most promise for the youth of the future. California has done so much for its current and former foster youthp; now’s not the time to start cutting corners.
Posted in Trends To Watch | Tagged advocacy, bay area, budget, budget cuts, california, child welfare, foster care, funding, health, mental health, san francisco, support, transitional age youth, youth
By Justin Slaughter on June 21, 2010
[From Alameda County Foster Youth Alliance, June 16, 2010]
On June 10th, the California Fostering Connections to Success Act (AB 12) cleared the Senate Human Services Committee. The bill passed out of Human Services by a vote of 3-0, with Senators Liu, Runner, and Yee voting for the bill. AB12 will next be heard in the Judiciary Committee on June 22nd.
AB 12 is a state version of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, which was signed into law in 2008, and opens up federal resources for states to extend foster care to specified individuals up to 21 years of age. Additionally, AB 12 will mandate California to seek federal finances for kinship guardianship assistance payments. For continued updates on AB12, click here.
Posted in State Foster Care Policy Updates | Tagged bay area, budget, california, child welfare, foster care, foster youth, funding, policy
By Josefina on May 18, 2010
Mental Health Services Funding in California: How you can help
Friday May 21st 11:30-12:30
SFGH CARR AUDITORIUM. Presentation topics include:
1.State and federal funding process
2.Politics and issues involved
3.Medi-Cal waiver
4.Role of mental health professionals in advancing mental health legislation
Posted in Federal Foster Care Policy Updates, State Foster Care Policy Updates, Upcoming Events | Tagged california, funding, medi-cal, mental health, mental health legislation, presentation
By Josefina on April 14, 2010
In 2000, the California State Legislature passed what is now known as the Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA). This effort was designed to provide a stable funding source to counties for juvenile programs that have been proven effective in curbing crime among juvenile probationers and young at-risk offenders.
Posted in Foster Care Library, State Foster Care Policy Updates | Tagged arrests, california state, crime prevention act, funding, incarceration, juvenile justice, juvenile programs, probation, restitution, violation
By Josefina on April 7, 2010
April 28th is the opportunity to come out to City Hall and testify– but is ALSO an opportunity to tell Mayor Gavin Newsom, who will have control of the budget until June 1st, that we need him to step up and preserve funding for critical programs for children, youth and families! More details to come soon about the schedule and logistics for the April 28th press conference & hearing.
Posted in Foster Care Updates, Local Foster Care Policy Updates | Tagged budget, budget cuts, child welfare, funding, san francisco, youth
By admin on January 21, 2010
[from Reuters.com By Steve Gorman 1/12/10]
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The latest budget plan from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would force 200,000 children off low-cost medical insurance, end in-home care for 350,000 infirm and elderly citizens and slash income assistance to hundreds of thousands more.
And that’s the best-case scenario under Schwarzenegger’s prescription for filling the state’s $19.9 billion deficit.
HEY comment: HEY specifically advocates for transitional age current and former foster youth, and is working with partners against these and other cuts. The depth of how many foster care and transitional age youth services is not fully expressed in this article. There are multiple cuts to foster care services, group homes, country funded social workers, and to former foster youth housing programs. However, this article helps to express the breadth of the affect of these budget cuts by showing the many populations hurt by these cuts.
[from Reuters.com By Steve Gorman 1/12/10]
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The latest budget plan from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would force 200,000 children off low-cost medical insurance, end in-home care for 350,000 infirm and elderly citizens and slash income assistance to hundreds of thousands more.
And that’s the best-case scenario under Schwarzenegger’s prescription for filling the state’s $19.9 billion deficit.
Refusing to consider broad tax hikes, he is relying mostly on $8.5 billion in reduced expenditures including drastic cuts to health and social spending that has long made California one of the leading U.S. states in providing help to the needy.
Posted in State Foster Care Policy Updates | Tagged budget, california, foster care, funding, medicaid, medicare, welfare cuts
By admin on November 9, 2009
[from SF Gate 9/29/09]
Elise was placed in foster care at the age of 13, after being raped in her home by a man her mother knew. Just days later, Elise had to testify in her mother’s presence about the rape and her mother’s prostitution and drug addiction. The most resilient adult would struggle to cope with such trauma. Yet, Elise was unable to get any therapy or counseling for several months. Why? Because she was placed in a foster home outside the county where she lived. Elise is one of California’s more than 15,000 “out-of-county” foster children – children who enter foster care in one county (home county), but are living in another county (host county). Almost one-fifth of California’s foster children are placed across county lines, either due to a shortage of local foster or group homes, or because a relative’s home has been found in another county. Out-of-county youths routinely face problems getting mental health care, often waiting months or even years for appropriate treatment. These children have suffered great psychological harm due to the trauma of abuse and neglect, followed by separation from their parents and siblings. Yet, California’s foster care and mental health systems deny them essential, sometimes life-saving, mental health care, in violation of state and federal law. [more]
Posted in State Foster Care Policy Updates | Tagged california, foster youth, funding, mental health
