Overview
The Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Opportunities Initiative (MAYOI) works to create better outcomes for youth transitioning out of foster care in metro Atlanta. MAYOI’s goal has been to collaborate with service providers in the areas of education, employment, healthcare and housing and to identify service gaps and ultimately help these agencies better serve youth transitioning out of foster care into adulthood.
There are well over 500,000 children in foster care in the United States. In Georgia, there are 14,000 youth in custody and nearly 4,000 between the ages of 14-21. Each year in the U.S. approximately 20,000 youth in foster care reach the age of 18 and emancipate from the foster care system. In Georgia approximately 400 youth age out, many without the basic support, family network, community connections, jobs, housing, health insurance and other resources needed to become self-sufficient responsible adults. Research shows that nationally approximately 46% of emancipating youth lack a high school diploma, 25% have been homeless, 35% have been diagnosed with emotional problems and 42% have become teen parents.
Process
After five successful years, MAYOI is taking its philosophy and program components to a larger scale by transitioning strategies to other community partners and expanding services to serve a greater number of foster youth throughout the state of Georgia.
Engaging and listening to the youth affected by the foster care system has been a key strategy for MAYOI. As a result, the Youth Leadership Board was established in 2002 to improve access to resources and opportunities for those young people transitioning out of foster care or who have left the system. A Community Partnership Board of business, nonprofit, donor and governmental representatives supports the Youth Board made up of 20-25 current and former foster youth. This active and dynamic group is taking charge and becoming active participants in directing their own futures as well as gaining self-advocacy skills to navigate the adult world.
MAYOI has also focused on financial literacy for foster youth through The Opportunity Passport. The Opportunity Passport provides training; an Individual Savings Account (IDA) that provides a one-to-one match for all money saved by youth to purchase specific assets; a debit card; and “door openers” for youth in the areas of employment, education, health and housing.
Through the Making My Way Home Program, MAYOI has worked with foster youth at risk of homelessness. The program provides youth with a place to live coupled with strong counseling and service coordination leading to self-sufficiency and ultimately home ownership. MAYOI is sharing the program model with other partners so they can better understand housing and related needs for youth in transition.
Leadership
MAYOI is led by a Community Partnership Board that brings foster youth, public agencies, nonprofits and businesses together to provide leadership in supporting transitioning youth. The Board is made up of individuals representing important outcome areas such as employment, education, housing, health, business and civic/community engagement and three transitioning youth are members as well.
Partners
Since 2002, MAYOI has been a partnership between The Community Foundation and the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. MAYOI is currently transitioning successful program components to appropriate organizations to sustain the community’s support of transitioning youth:
- The Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR) (child welfare agency) has assumed administrative and financial responsibility for the matched IDA savings program. DHR selected Catalyst for Care, a nonprofit organization working to identify and fill service gaps of needed resources for youth in foster care, to administer and expand the program statewide.
- The Multi-Agency Alliance for Children (MAAC) continues to build on the success of MAYOI’s Youth Leadership Board in establishing a statewide, sustainable youth leadership group to advocate for improvement in the foster care system. The EmpowerMEnt Group currently has a statewide board and regional “tribes” that total more than 40 young people in seven out of 16 regions.
- MAYOI is currently exploring options for continuing and expanding a Community Partnership Advisory Group based in metro Atlanta with a statewide purview.
The services provided above are closely aligned with and coordinated in partnership with The Chafee Independent Living Program in Georgia.
http://www.dhr.state.ga.us/.
Contact
For more information about the Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Opportunities Initiative, please contact, Tyronda Minter, director of Regional Impact, at 404-588-3209.
Recent Success
- In 2006 EmpowerMEnt brought together more than 300 current and former foster youth in Georgia to develop priorities for helping ease the transition for foster youth into adulthood. Representing a wide mix of age, race, sex, parental status, geography and foster care placements, the program participants shared ideas to come up with six priorities. Two years later, the EmpowerMEnt group achieved one of these key priorities by advocating to the state legislature until they approved the passing of statewide legislation of Medicaid extended to age 21. Click here to download the EmpowerMent document outlining the six priority areas created by and for foster youth.
- One of MAYOI’s youth advocates, Anthony L. Reeves, 25, Youth Coordinator for MAAC and a graduate of Georgia’s foster care system, has been appointed by Governor Perdue to serve on the Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism.