First Lady Kicks Off Effort For Maine Youth In Foster Care
May 25, 2007
AUGUSTA –On Tuesday, May 29, First Lady Karen M. Baldacci, who serves as Chair of the Maine Children’s Cabinet, will host a tea from 4:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. at the Blaine House welcoming members of the Maine Youth Transition Collaborative, Maine youth with personal experience in the foster care system, as well as special invited guests to celebrate an exciting new program supporting youth in care, as they transition out of the foster system.
“The work of the Collaborative is consistent with one of the three major priorities of the Maine Children’s Cabinet -- youth in transition -- and is a project in which I have taken a special interest,” says Mrs. Baldacci.
The Maine Youth Transition Collaborative is being piloted in the Bangor area and is off to a successful start with two projects that link multiple providers in the network to respond to two of foster youth advisors’ highest priorities:
*Assisting 16-18 year olds with the driving time with adults to get their licenses
*Matching former foster care youth in their first year of school at UMO or Thomas College with mentors who are juniors or seniors in college
The Maine Youth Transition Collaborative is a partnership between Common Good Ventures, Four Square Foundation, Good Will-Hinckley, Jobs for Maine’s Graduates, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Bangor Savings Bank, the Unity Foundation and the Muskie School of Public Service.
The key goals of the Maine Youth Transition Collaborative are to:
*Continue and expand Opportunity Passport™, a program funded by the Jim Casey Foundation to assist foster youth in saving money for major purchases;
*Expand youth leadership opportunities for youth in foster care and tribal youth;
*Broaden and develop Friends of Youth Networks around Maine to engage the community in supporting youth as they transition out of foster care.
Joel Russ, spokesperson for the Collaborative says, “There are endless benefits to the concept of Friends of Youth Networks. We’re creating a formal structure of existing service providers and community resources without creating new programs. There are many successful, effective programs in Maine working to serve this population. We are simply providing a vehicle for all of those organizations to be more readily accessible to the people who need them.”
According to one participating youth, “It’s easy to give up when you are trying to deal with all kinds of different agencies individually and none of them are communicating with each other. Having access to many resources through one person will help a lot of people like me who might be intimidated by having to jump through too many hoops.”
Foster Youth will be on-hand for comment and photos.
