Youth Permanency Summit
Rosey Higgs
Rosey Higgs, MSW
Program Officer, Omaha Foster Youth Initiative
Nebraska Children and Families Foundation
115 South 49th Avenue
Omaha, NE 68132
P: 402.618.8544
F: 402.476.9486
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From: Jessica Hilderbrand
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 12:19 PM
To: Pickens-White, Shirley; Alana Pearson; Ashley Gustafson; Cassandra
Blakely; Cindy Ryman Yost; Jennifer Skala; Rosey Higgs; YaMika O'Neal
Subject: FW: Deadline Extended: Youth Permanency Summit
THERE’S STILL TIME TO GET YOUR REGISTRATION IN!
Deadline extended until Friday, September 17th, 2010!
The Youth Permanency Summit is open to Nebraska youth 14 to 24 years old who are current state wards, aged out, guardian shipped, adopted, or have returned with their biological parents. The reason for this summit is to bring the youth voice in defining what permanency means to them.
A Stakeholder’s Summit will be conducted in the spring of 2011 where policymakers and practitioners from across the state will come together to hear the latest on permanence and hear stories from Nebraska youth with foster care experience. The best part is that Stakeholder’s will begin to develop a State Permanency Plan to ensure that all youth in care have the opportunity for personal permanency. Please invite the youth you work with to this event. The registration form is attached to this email. Parent/Guardian permission is mandatory, so if you could help them fill this out, and return by September 13th.
Transportation Provided, if needed.
Need:
As of March 2010, 6,397 children and youth were in the Nebraska foster care system, 40% of them between the ages 16 and 19. Although national overall rates of adoption and exits to other permanency outcomes for children in out-of-home placements have increased in recent years, the lower rates of permanency exits for older youth remain a source of concern. Exiting the system as an older adolescent by “aging out” without a permanent family relationship is correlated with a range of harmful outcomes for a young adult- dropping out of high school, early pregnancy or parenthood, and an inability to be self-supporting. *