Foster Care as a Support System for Early Leavers

This chapter is based on findings from a research project entitled Risky Business. In the study, 92 street-involved participants in wave 1 (out of 189) had some kind of care experience, either temporary or permanent, and, of the 64 participants in all five waves, 38 had care experience. These youth left care early, prior to the transition to adulthood, in favor of independence, although foster care and related services often reappeared later. In this chapter, the authors describe the role that foster care homes and staff played in the transition out of care and as support systems for youth seeking jobs, education, and refuge from street life. These cases might be instructive for considering how to make the normative, legal transition out of care at older ages more responsive for marginalized youth.