Foster Care Awareness Month: Supporting Young People as They Build Stability

May is Foster Care Awareness Month, a time to recognize the experiences, strengths, and needs of young people who have been involved in the foster care system.

For many youth and young adults, the transition out of foster care can come with significant challenges. Young people may be navigating housing instability, employment, education, transportation, financial decisions, and relationships with limited support. At A Place 4 Me, we see this connection every day. Last fiscal year, 30% of young people served through Youth Navigation had foster care experience, underscoring the importance of targeted support for young people as they move toward stability and independence.

Our Foster Care Youth Navigator works specifically with young people who have foster care experience, helping them identify their goals, connect to resources, and address barriers to stability. This support may include help with housing navigation, transportation, education, employment, benefits, vital documents, emergency assistance, and connections to trusted community partners.

The role of the Foster Care Youth Navigator is not simply to provide referrals. It is to walk alongside young people as they make decisions, solve problems, and move toward the future they want for themselves.

A Place 4 Me also provides Opportunity Passport®, a financial empowerment program for young people with foster care experience. Opportunity Passport® helps participants build financial knowledge, open bank accounts, set savings goals, and access matched savings for approved assets that support long-term stability. These assets can include housing, education, transportation, medical needs, debt reduction, and other essentials that help young people move forward.

Through Opportunity Passport®, young people do more than learn about budgeting or credit. They gain practical tools to make financial decisions, build assets, and invest in their own goals. The program also creates opportunities for continued learning through participant-informed workshops and financial education sessions, helping young people strengthen their confidence and independence over time.

Foster Care Awareness Month is also an opportunity to listen to young people directly. Young people with lived experience are the experts in what they need, what systems get wrong, and what real support should look like. Through the REACH Youth Action Board, young people help shape programs, advocacy, and systems change work across our community.

Stay tuned on A Place 4 Me’s social media pages throughout Foster Care Awareness Month to hear directly from young people about what this month means to them and what they want the community to know about youth and young adults with foster care experience.

Ending youth homelessness requires more than one program or one organization. It requires a community-wide commitment to ensuring that young people leaving foster care have access to safe housing, financial tools, supportive relationships, and opportunities to thrive.

This month, and every month, A Place 4 Me remains committed to supporting young people with foster care experience as they build stability, self-sufficiency, and a future that feels possible.