Testimony Before the Senate Finance Committee

Advocates for Children and Youth is a statewide non-profit focused on improving the lives and experiences of Maryland’s children through policy change and program improvement. We champion solutions to child welfare, education, health, and juvenile justice issues, positioning us to influence the full spectrum of youth experiences. This multi-issue platform helps us to improve the entirety of children’s worlds—the systems they touch, the people they interact with, and the environment where they live.

Testimony before the Senate Finance Committee

In SUPPORTof

Senate Bill 308- Foster Care Recipients and Unaccompanied Homeless Youth-Employment Program (Fostering Employment Act of 2018)

Rachel White, Child Welfare Director, Advocates for Children and Youth

February 15, 2018

Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony Senate Bill 308- Foster Care Recipients and Unaccompanied Homeless Youth-Employment Program (Fostering Employment Act of 2018). Advocates for Children and Youth (ACY) supports this bill.

SB 308establishes the Fostering Employment Program, to provide employment opportunities through apprenticeships and job readiness training for foster and unaccompanied homeless youth who are not utilizing the tuition waiver.

The creation of this program is imperative to begin tackling the bleak outcomes of foster youth once they transition out of the system into adulthood. According to The MidwestStudy, which surveyed over 700 former foster youth at the age of 26, only 46% were employed compared to their non-foster care involved counterparts who were employed at a rate of 80%.[1] Apprenticeships and job readiness trainings may help mitigate these outcomes. Unemployment often leads to homelessness, which continues to be an epidemic for former foster youth. According to 2017 Maryland Youth Reach, of the 1,830 homeless youth survey, 20% indicated their former involvement in the foster care system.[2]

Maryland currently provides free college and trade school tuition for certain categories of foster and unaccompanied homeless youth. In 2016, 217 youth utilized the tuition waiver.[3] The hundreds of foster youth who do not pursue college, could benefit from the opportunity to enroll in job readiness or an apprenticeship to develop a trade and gain employment. Not everyone is interested in pursuing higher education and for that reason, Maryland should take the lead on providing alternative ways to create job opportunities for foster youth to help develop the skills necessary to become productive, contributing members of society, which will improve their outcomes.

We urge this Committee to issue a favorable report on SB 308 to ensure that foster and unaccompanied homeless youth have access to job opportunities through apprenticeship and job readiness training to improve their outcomes as they transition out of the foster care system into adulthood.

One North Charles Street, Suite 2400, Baltimore, MD 21201 / / 410.547.9200 /

[1] “Midwest evaluation of the adult functioning of former foster youth: Outcomes at age 26”. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, p. 28

[2] Maryland Youth Count 2017: A report on the findings from Youth Reach Md’s second survey of unaccompanied youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, November 2017, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, University of Maryland School of Social Work, p. 13

[3] Child Welfare Performance Indicators Report Maryland Department of Human Resources Social Services Administration, December 2016, University of Maryland School of Social Work, Ruth Young Center for Families and Children, p. 231