| dc.description.abstract | Bethany Children's Home in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania, is a congregate care facility providing shelter and care to youth who have been removed from their primary home. Bethany residents, as foster youth, face extraordinary challenges in their transition to adulthood compared to their peers: they are more likely to live below the poverty level, are less likely to enroll in or complete college, and are disproportionately affected by substance abuse, homelessness, and mental health disorders. This quality improvement project seeks to improve life outcomes for Bethany residents by examining the conditions that lead to success for youth aging out of care and recommending aftercare programming and interventions that ease transitions to adulthood. We used a mixed-method approach, interviewing current and former Bethany residents, administrators, and staff to understand residents’ experiences in six areas: education, social connection, finances, housing, health, and justice involvement. We aligned interviewee responses with dimensions of positive identity development and triangulated our findings with records Bethany keeps on residents’ time in care and outcomes at departure. We found that while residents receive tangible supports in the forms of housing, education, financial support, and work experience, they often lack intangible supports that promote self-esteem, sense of purpose, and social inclusion. Residents expressed feelings of stigmatization in the community, a desire for consistency and continuity in their housing and support network, and a lack of understanding of what healthy relationships look like. Many endured abusive relationships and faced housing instability after leaving care. Feelings of being a number in the system and having little control over their lives were common. We recommend several measures to develop youths’ sense of agency and provide a supportive network for those leaving care: (1) evaluating and modifying housing and transportation practices that may be stigmatizing; (2) engaging youth in planning their care and transition to adulthood; (3) adopting mentoring programs or activities that build healthy relationships; (4) hiring a transition coordinator to guide youth and serve as a source of ongoing support; (5) increasing access to mental health care and performing mental health assessments; and (6) implementing intensive life skills training to raise youths’ self-efficacy. | |
