Extending Care for Vulnerable Youth (feat. Alina White, DFPS)

When people think of foster care, it’s typically assumed that it ends at age 18 when a child ages out of care. However, that is not the case in most states. Nearly every state offers federally funded programs to extend foster care beyond 18 years.

This is what is known as extended foster care, and it includes programs like continued care with foster parents and independent living situations. Our guest for this episode is deeply familiar with these programs as she oversees them for Texas.

Alina White is the State Office Extended Foster Care and Supervised Independent Living (SIL) Program Lead at the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Since joining the department in 2012, she has served in multiple roles supporting youth and young adults transitioning out of foster care. Alina is passionate about improving services and programs that help young people successfully navigate adulthood.

In this episode, Alina shares the importance of youth being informed about extended foster care options, ways we can support those in extended foster care even if we aren’t foster parents ourselves, common misconceptions about individuals who are involved in extended foster care, and much more.

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Key Takeaways

1. Extended foster care acts as a safety net. There’s still a lot of learning and support needed after a child turns 18 years old. While this milestone marks an increase in independence, extended foster care gives children the opportunity for continued support and supervision before tackling the world on their own. In the same way that some kids will take a “gap year” between high school and college, many children can benefit from this extra time before living on their own.
2. The key to success is community involvement. With any program—no matter the mission—one of the first questions we need to ask is this: How can we bring the community alongside us to better serve this population? When community members are invited in, they bring support, resources, and creative solutions. When we truly empower them to take part in the work, they often uncover pathways and ideas we couldn’t have discovered on our own.
3. Ideas come out of facing issues. Often, we view obstacles as mere inconveniences to be overcome. But these actually point to something in a program or system that needs to be repaired. If we pay attention to these issues, we can overcome pain points and have a greater level of success in the future. Issues aren’t roadblocks—they’re a vital part of our roadmap. As we work to serve youth in extended foster care, overcoming obstacles can help us ensure that we understand their needs, that they are aware of resources that exist, and that we are creating easy routes to help them move forward and enjoy a smoother transition into adulthood.

Resources

• Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) Program
• Texas Alliance of Children and Family Services
• Thanks for listening! Use code “TBRIpodcast” to get $5 off when you sign up for an Introduction to TBRI session. If you work personally or professionally with children who have experienced adversity, learn more about TBRI on our Trauma Training page.

Meet the Guest

Alina White is the State Office Extended Forster Care and Supervised Independent Living (SIL) Program Lead at the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Since joining the department in 2012, she has served in multiple roles supporting youth and young adults transitioning out of foster care. Alina is passionate about improving services and programs that help young people successfully navigate adulthood.