A nonprofit will help kids getting too old for Oklahoma’s foster care system.
About 300 foster kids each year turn 18 without being adopted or reunited with their families, and the Department of Human Services doesn’t have the resources to help them transition to life as adults.
DHS will contribute almost $13 million over the next five years to help nonprofit Youth Villages offer a life-skills program statewide. Private funding, including nearly $5 million from the Arnall Family Foundation, is making up 36 percent of the cost for YVLifeSet.
YVLifeSet is already being offered in Oklahoma City.
"The program will be expanded to Tulsa in January, and then to Enid and to Lawton in 2018," said Katelynn Burns with DHS.
Jessica Moore with Youth Villages said they help young adults find affordable housing, get and keep jobs, and receive mental health treatment, if necessary.
"Also, a lot of our young people already have children, and so we focus on parenting skills," Moore said.
Moore said more than 80 percent of the young people they work with make it as adults, "measured basically by follow-up with our young people, our adults, at six months, 12 months, 24 months post-discharge to make sure that they're not involved with the law, that they have stable housing, that they're still employed and those types of things."
By the fifth year, YVLifeSet should be helping 192 youths statewide per day.
