Academic Success of Students who live in a Group Home Comparing to those who come out of a Transitional Living Program

Academic Success of Students who live in a Group Home Comparing to those who come out of a Transitional Living Program

Transitional living programs

In terms of how to best target reentry services, the quantitative data in this study show that accounting for TLP participation, younger youth and those with more prior arrests were at higher risk of recidivism. While this finding is not surprising, it does indicate that youth with these specific risk factors may need even more supervision and/or supports upon their reentry into the community. For dual status youth, their risks for poor outcomes may be even higher due to instability in family structure and living situation. It is important that child welfare researchers and practitioners maintain awareness of the possibly unique transition challenges of the dual status population (Conger & Ross, 2001).

More research is needed in regard to dual status youth in general including how many dual status youth exist, their specific needs, and their outcomes in relation to corrections-only youth. Moreover, the qualitative portion of this study found that both youth and staff attributed increased transition stress and disruption to the absence of a stable adult. This variable should be explored for both its independent and interaction effects with dependency status. Finally, providing insight into the needs of youth who transition in and out of any public system of care, these study findings reinforce the vulnerability of these youths to negative outcomes and to disappointments and challenges that impede their progress toward independence.

The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) recognize that many homeless and runaway youth are the victims of neglect, abandonment, or severe family conflict. They can't return to their families, but they are not yet equipped to live on their own. They have to work to support themselves, often without having even a high school degree. If they want to go to college, they have no one to help them pay for it or to fill out financial aid forms for them. They have to learn to cook for themselves instead of eating at home or in the university cafeteria. They have to seek their own role models, rather than leaning on their parents.

Without someone to guide them on their path to self-sufficient adulthood, homeless youth risk becoming involved in dangerous lifestyles. Many use drugs or alcohol, or participate in survival sex and prostitution to stay fed and alive. Protecting young people from such fates and helping them thrive are the goals of FYSB's Transitional Living Program for Older Homeless Youth. Every year, more than 5,000 runaway and homeless youth receive housing, life skills training, counseling, and education and employment support from organizations such as Mendocino County Youth Program, in Ukiah, California, which runs the transitional living program Catherine and Dillon entered (Altschuler & Armstrong, 2001).

Congress created the Transitional Living Program for Older Homeless Youth as part of the 1988 Amendments to the ...