Eighteen is often an uncertain age for teens, and it can be an exceptionally frightening time for youth in foster care.

As these teens become adults they can suddenly be left with nothing. The case is closed on paper, the court is no longer tracking their general wellbeing, but still there remains a person left navigating an unforgiving world – often alone.

Jamie Campbell, executive director of CASA for Kids Flathead County, explained the nonprofit organization has been longing to create a program that would specifically address the needs of teens approaching the end of their time in the foster care system and beyond.

“We just haven’t been able to do a targeted effort and it’s so desperately needed,” she said. “We want to be able to see our kids succeeding and beating the statistics.”

CASA for Kids is a nationwide network of programs that gives children who have experienced abuse or neglect a voice by providing a court appointed special advocate volunteer to work with the child. The advocate becomes a safe space and companion for foster care youth facing the court alone.

Recently the Flathead CASA group, led by Campbell, successfully applied for a grant to fund a new innovative program providing peer-to-peer support to young adults with backgrounds in foster care. The Whitefish Community Foundation recognized that older foster children are among the most vulnerable residents in the Flathead Valley and awarded CASA for Kids $50,000 as part of its “Kids Fund” grant program.

The foundation created this grant program in order to address child homelessness locally, with a goal to fund new, creative ideas aimed at improving the lives of at-risk children.

“It’s a real generous thing that they’re doing, and pretty visionary for our community,” Campbell said regarding the Whitefish Community Foundation grant.

Flathead CASA for Kids’ new program fits the bill for this grant because it is designed around creating resources to aid in the prevention of homelessness specifically among teens approaching adulthood, and continuing to cultivate relationships with those who recently aged out of the foster-care system.

Although the name is still under construction, the program will be called FOCUS, potentially standing for Fostering Opportunities Connecting Youth to Success.

“The big statistic is that when kids age out of foster care, if they have not been adopted, the chance of them becoming homeless just skyrockets over what is the normal population,” Campbell said.

According to the press release provided by the Whitefish Community Foundation, many foster care teens are displaced the day they age out of the system, with 20% to 30% of them becoming homeless by age 26.

To combat this statistic, Campbell explained this program will first of all continue the volunteer advocacy that these foster youth already have past the point of becoming an adult. Currently after a child turns 18 they technically lose this supporter, but this new curriculum will keep the communication bridge open between the youth and advocates.

“The fact that acting foster children have an advocate, that gives us a connection with that child that a lot of other programs don’t already have,” Campbell said. “We already have somebody who has a relationship with the child and that relationship is so key to moving forward with individuals, and especially with teenagers.”

In addition to continuing advocacy, the FOCUS project’s main goal is to connect struggling teens and young adults with peer support. The team at CASA will do this by leading peer-to-peer groups, for which they will gather youth together who are having similar struggles, to help them connect and find normalcy in their situations.

In order to actually pinpoint the specific needs of foster teens in the Flathead Valley, practicum graduate student Hunter Mena, who is working on his master’s degree in social work, will be with CASA for Kids researching the different risks these youth are facing. He will also conduct what is essentially a study of the FOCUS program’s successes and failures in order to collect real data that will influence the evolution of the program.

The nonprofit plans to provide a “near peer” support system. This involves forming a youth leadership council comprised of successful young people emerging from foster-care backgrounds.

The CASA for Kids Flathead Youth Program Manager Shyanne Clark is an admirable example of a “near peer” support person and will also be heading up this council. Clark has first-hand experience in the foster-care system. She lived through six different placements, two of which were non-relative and in one home the foster father was extremely abusive.

She has a past filled with trauma, yet she is successful today. After all those situations, in her final placement Clark found a real home with her grandparents. She said now she is going to college, has two kids, and owns her own house and car. She hopes other foster kids struggling can hear her story and have hope for their own futures.

“I just have a passion to help and I am one of the success stories,” Clark said. “My role is to help make a difference supporting the advocates, building bridges, connecting the resources… basically making sure the kids’ needs are met before they go out on their own.”

Just having hope can make a world of difference for some of these kids, and the CASA team would like to show them that it is possible to have success even with a traumatic history, Clark said. That is achieved not only by connecting struggling teens with successful peers, but by their advocate showing them the possibility of a promising future.

“That’s one of the key pieces of that role, helping them just know that there is hope,” Campbell said. “Then helping them have and build a vision. A lot of the times the kids are just in survival mode, and often come from families, maybe even generations of people, in survival mode. Well, if you’re in survival mode you’re not dreaming about big things.”

As the program develops over the next few years, the CASA team will be developing more ideas for constructive, enjoyable learning opportunities to teach in the peer-to-peer groups. Campbell said one of the many things she would like to provide in the groups is an opportunity to serve others.

“One thing that we can do is put service to others into this picture, because you get kind of egocentric when you’re just trying to survive,” Campbell said. “Helping people get beyond that... discovering that, gosh, there’s things that I can do, I have value.”

There are numerous components to FOCUS that will be beneficial to young adults coming out of the system, and Clark explained all of these elements could compound on one another to form a brighter future for all.

“Just like there’s the cycle of abuse and neglect that goes on generation to generation,” Clark said. “As a CASA [advocate] they give you hope, and as you get older that hope turns into inspiration. You are driven to also make a difference. That hope just turns into something way bigger.

“Instead of it being that neglect and abuse that gets passed on, it’s going to be that hope and inspiration that gets passed on,” she added.

“You just can’t be on your own in this world and the world doesn’t do a great job of throwing supports at you,” Campbell said.

Reporter Whitney England may be reached at 758-4419 or wengland@dailyinterlake.com