THE NEED​

50% of the United States’ homeless population spent time in foster care. (National Foster Youth Institute, 2024). Youth in foster care end up with lower employment rates and college graduation rates than children who have not been in foster care. (National CASA Association, 2019). In Oregon, 49% of foster teens earn a high school diploma or GED. (Annie Casey Foundation, 2023). 

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CASA KNOWS HOW TO HELP FOSTER TEENS THRIVE

CASA volunteers and staff can help teens build confidence and develop healthy boundaries. To effectively serve foster teens, CASA volunteers and staff must acquire specialized knowledge and training to help teens get a driver’s license, apply for college or a vocational school, get a car, find a job, and find stable housing after they age out of foster care. This is why CASA of Marion County launched its Fostering Futures Initiative. The Fostering Futures provides specialized training for staff and volunteers to meet teens' specific needs. We also created checkpoints to ensure that teens are on track to graduate on time, enroll in post-secondary education or find full-time employment, and more.

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PROGRAM DESIGN 

CASA of Marion County devotes a full-time position to managing teen cases, thereby creating a new mechanism to secure additional volunteers and funding, while providing scalability and specialization to support CASAs advocating for this vulnerable population. A role tailored to serve teens (about 33% of CASA’s caseload) enhances coordination, promote more in-depth knowledge of resources and best practices, ultimately leading to better outcomes. 

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TEEN RESOURCE GUIDE & INTERACTIVE WORKBOOK

To facilitate resource navigation and empower our youth, CASA of Marion County created a Teen Resource Guide & Workbook. CASA is pleased to offer this workbook free of charge to any visitor to this website, because every teen deserves access to the resources they need to thrive. This workbook is designed to create checkpoints for teens to learn how to develop life skills and reach key developmental milestones.  Topics include finding a job, financial literacy, healthy living, safety, housing, education, nutrition, and more. 

 

CASA’s Fostering Futures initiative is culturally-specific, trauma-informed, and teen-centered.

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The Fostering Futures Initiative is led by a full-time Advocate Coordinator who has completed National CASA's Fostering Futures curriculum. This Advocate Coordinator is our office's in-house subject matter expert on community resources for teens, supervises volunteers assigned to teen case, and conducts specialized training of volunteers who want to be assigned to teen cases. This position continuously researches and updates the Teen Resource Guide, identifies teen-specific child advocacy training opportunities and resources, and collaborates with staff to create performance metrics.

 

The Advocate Coordinator is a full-time position paid between $25.00 and $30.00 per hour plus benefits. CASA’s Executive Director, other Advocate Coordinators, Community Health Worker, and Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator all play supporting roles in the Fostering Futures Initiative.  

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CASA of Marion County has served thousands of foster teens since 2002. We help teens graduate, apply for college, find their first jobs, and more. The Fostering Futures Initiative builds our capacity to provide customized case plans for every teen we work with.

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