The Connected for Life Mission Page

The Connected For Life organization brings together non-foster families and older foster youth (ages 10 to 18) with the intended purpose of developing a life long relationship. Families in this program would ideally begin their association with an older foster youth several years before emancipation. Youth are emancipated (government stops paying for their foster care support) at the age of 18 years old. The youth remains a foster child and does not live with the family. However, when the youth is emancipated, he/she knows they have a family who cares about them, a family with whom to spend holidays, to help guide decisions about education, job, etc., to call and say “hi”. This relationship will provide the youth with a nurturing foundation upon which to transition successfully into adulthood.

In 1999 my wife and I became foster parents to an 11-year-old girl. Our intention was to adopt her. But the dream of our foster daughter to someday be re-united with her biological mother and siblings was stronger than her desire to be adopted. She was eventually relocated with another foster family closer to her birth family. That was five years ago. But we continued to include her as part of our family. She vacations with us every summer, last year visiting Disneyland for the first time. She spends many holidays with us, and the result is a relationship that has grown to become loving, trusting, and committed for life. Our prior foster daughter has experienced tremendous trauma in her life. But, today at age sixteen, she has made real progress in overcoming her “demons”. She is enjoying her teen years knowing she belongs to a family that will be there for the long haul.

The motivation for approaching the issue of building life long connections for older foster youth is a result of our five-year relationship with our prior foster daughter. Her therapist recently wrote, “She feels that she is part of a family, something she had not previously experienced. She can now enjoy the process of becoming an adult and not have the anxiety about who will be there for her when she is no longer connected to the agencies and services that come with being a foster child. She now has that important family connection as well as positive role models who can continue to encourage her to grow emotionally and academically . . . she has been able to make more progress in all areas of her life as she has a real sense of belonging”.