Finally a long-term study is being done on
“aging-out” and the effects or abilities of transitional programs to ease the
dangers and problems associated with aging-out or being left on one’s own.
The study is being performed by the
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation and the University of Chicago with
the help of Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation. The study will follow “1,300
Tennessee kids and young adults who are either aging out of foster care or
leaving juvenile justice facilities” (Walters).
The goal is to determine just how
effective intensive transitional living programs are. The goal is of these programs is to reduce
the likelihood of youth experiencing “mental health problems, substance abuse,
criminal justice involvement, unemployment, poverty, housing instability, and
homelessness” (Walters). The control
group will be naturally occurring as youth are left to find their own social
services throughout the rest of the country already. The study also apparently has a very diverse
group of participants (males, females, many cultures/races, and many different
educational backgrounds).
This study should produce a great deal of
much needed data for all states and local programs. However, an interim study will not be
available until 2013, with a final report coming in 2015. This data will help organizations like ours
better understand the aging-out process and learn what transitional programs
work. This will then allow us to adjust
our own programs or create new ones to better serve the youth and the
community. Hopefully this study will
also prompt larger, more involved studies from the federal government and/or
the Department of Human Services.
Read the full article by
By Jonathan Walters
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