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Beyond the Foster Care System
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press about Beyond the Foster Care System
“Getting Beyond the System is premised upon tapping into natural
strengths, resilience, coping skills and judgement which teens must
have to survive in foster care. The book shows how, along the way,
the authors learned many of the key lessons for GBS from the teens
themselves.”
-New York Nonprofit Press “The Foster Care
System and Beyond: The Future for Teens”
“Beyond the Foster Care System is a powerful tool to help
youths in foster care move to fully engaged lives in our society.
Through the stories of wonderful young people we learn how to build
on their strengths, abilities, and ambition to help them succeed.”
-Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder, Children’s
Defense Fund
“This book offers brilliant
insights into helping disadvantaged teenagers turn
their lives around. It is gripping to read, offering very engaging
stories of young people struggling to find a place in the
adult world.”
-Francine Cournos, professor of clinical psychiatry,
Columbia University
“Here is lively, knowing, socially alert scholarship—a
way for us to understand what our country’s youth need, want,
and desperately ought to have: the interested, compassionate attention
of their fellow citizens.”
-Dr. Robert Coles, Pulitzer Prize winning author
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  Beyond
the Foster CAre System: The Future for Teens
 “The
single most important moment of my life occurred with a remarkable
person. . . .” We knew the next moment would be ours, and Selina
would publicly acknowledge us for the role we had played in her success.
“. . . Al Ferugi.” We looked at each other thinking, who
is Al Ferugi? “He was my informational interviewer, and he took
the time to explain that I had what it takes to be a graphic designer
and told me how I should begin my career. If it wasn’t for Al
Ferugi, I wouldn’t be here today, and I wouldn’t be going
to college.”
Beyond the Foster Care System p. xi
Read more from Beyond
the Foster Care System
Each year tens of thousands of teenagers are
released from the foster care system in the United States without
high school degrees or strong family relationships. Two to four
years after discharge, half of these young people still do not have
either a high school diploma or equivalency degree, and fewer than
ten percent enter college. Nearly a third end up on public assistance
within fifteen months, and eventually more than a third will be
arrested or convicted of a crime.
Betsy and Paul argue that the existing structure sets kids up to
fail by inadequately preparing them for adult life. Foster care
programs traditionally emphasize goals of reuniting children with
family or placing children into adoptive homes. But neither of these
outcomes is likely for adolescents. They contend that the primary
goal of foster care for teenagers should be rigorous preparation
for a fully productive adult life and that the standard life skills
curriculum is woefully inadequate for this purpose.
The authors draw on their fifteen years of experience working with
teens and the foster care system to introduce new ways to teach
teens to be responsible for themselves and to identify and develop
their potential. They also explore what sorts of resources—legal,
financial, and human—will need to come from inside and outside
the system to more fully humanize the practice of foster care. Ultimately,
Betsy and Paul argue that change must involve the participation
of caring communities of volunteers (such as Youth Advocacy Center’s
informational interview network) who want to see disadvantaged youth
succeed as well as developing methods to empower teens to take control
of their lives.
Bringing together a series of inspiring, real-life accounts, Beyond
the Foster Care System introduces readers to a number of dynamic
young people who have participated in the Youth Advocacy Center’s
programs and who have gone on to apply these lessons to other areas
of life. Their stories demonstrate that more successful alternatives
to the standard way of providing foster care are not only imaginable,
but possible. With the practical improvements Betsy and Paul outline,
teens can learn the skills of effective self-advocacy, become better
prepared for the transition to full independence, and avoid becoming
the statistics that foster care has so often produced in the past.
Tell a friend about Beyond the Foster Care System.
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