concentrated poverty is low investment in local public schools for those of color, thereby higher dropout rates, increased disciplinary actions, systemic incarcerations – all resulting in disconnected youth. [3] Accordingly, there is a need to reform school funding systems and expand models like community schools and that can provide wrap-around services to support students’ health and mental health and other needs. We need to work toward supporting older youth in the skill building they need to graduate from high school ready for work and post-secondary education. FOCUS AREA TWO: Connecting Youth to Supportive Communities and Caring Adults Many youth also lack stable relationships with caring adults or communities in which they feel safe and supported. Without a foundation for nurture and protection, young people are increasingly jeopardized – both physically and emotionally – at a stage in life where they are incredibly vulnerable. The disconnection from their caregivers denies young people adequate emotional, financial, medical and other critical support. Family is often one’s initial source of care and guidance; so, without meaningful connections to adults and caregivers, youth are left without a foundation they can rely on to direct their futures. Moreover, given that 4.6 youth are young parents, the disconnection with their caregivers hampers their relationships with their own children. Therefore, establishing a strong connection to community and family is crucial in securing young people’s potential to thrive – and their ability to provide the same for future generations. A main priority is keeping youth in safe and secure homes. Given that so many young people have been removed from their homes and placed in the welfare system, reforming the foster care institution is a key need in order to keep young people connected to family. We must push for policies that prevent youth from being removed from their birth homes and prevent re-entry into foster care of youth who have been reunified or adopted. Much of these policies do exist, but they focus on young children while neglecting the needs of adolescents. Further, we know that young people often highlight that the support of extended family gives them a sense of security and belonging they may not feel otherwise in their ‘homes.’ In particular, low-income communities of color have long histories grounded in a culture of shared child-care, where kindship almost always extends past one’s parents or immediate guardians. Extended kin often provide young people their only safe and comfortable home, and ensure they have access to needed financial, health, housing and educational resources. They are often the only source of protection, nurture, and needed guidance that youth have. Recognizing this cultural context, there is a need to better empower extended kin in their ability to care for youth. Such empowerment can be pursued via modifications to existing safety net programs and clarification of legal rights. Extended kin who are caregivers need the legal capacity to make educational and medical decisions for the young people they care for. Specifically, with regard to the foster care system, there is need to support family-based placements for youth and provide adequate support to kin who care for youth. Another systemic barrier for young people, especially those of color, is involvement in the juvenile justice system. Disconnected from adequate caregivers and safe communities, young people of color are faced with increased interactions with law enforcement. Further, systematic injustices, such as the school to prison pipeline, continue to drive youth toward the juvenile justice system, rather than meaningful involvement in their communities. Thus, though disconnection from caregivers and families does push youth toward juvenile justice system involvements, this is greatly exacerbated by institutional biases which criminalize the very existence and behaviors of young people of color much more frequently. Rather than labeling disconnected young people as societal delinquents, there is a pressing need to pursue alternative models. These models should incorporate positive youth development principles and divert youth toward productive community engagements. Such alternatives could include explicitly prohibiting the use of probation in specific instances and allotting appropriate funds for youth serving models that promote connection and belonging.
13
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs