The Struggles of Foster Youth Emancipation
What happens when a young person leaves the foster care system without preparation or support? To address this topic, Just in Time for Foster Youth (JIT), a nonprofit organization that engages a caring community to help transition age foster youth achieve self-sufficiency and well-being, hosted a showing of the film, “Friday’s Child,” at the Mission Valley UltraStar Cinemas on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, in partnership with the Ticket to Dream Foundation.
The JIT community gathered for the exclusive showing of “Friday’s Child,” which follows the story of a young man leaving the foster care system at age 18 without any support and the decisions he makes to survive in the world on his own. The film paints a picture of what can happen to transition age foster youth when they don’t have a supportive community, adding to the negative statistics that foster youth too often fall into. Topics focused on in the film include peer pressure, instability, decision-making and survival.
“It is an exceptional movie that illustrates the struggles of leaving foster care and trying to survive,” said Isaac Gunn, who is a current JIT participant and former foster youth. “I’ve been in a lot of the situations in the movie. The reality is stressful. Even a small influence can have a profound impact when you lack a support system, and feeling so isolated and alone can make it so much easier to accept any kind of connection, even negative and toxic ones.”
JIT offers young people the chance to transition out of the foster care system with a better foundation through its services and supportive community. This provides transition age foster youth with critical resources to help build essential relationships to become confident, capable and connected adults.
“Being disconnected creates a perilous gap for transition age youth. With this film, Ticket to Dream Foundation is emphasizing how quickly a downward spiral begins from seemingly small obstacles that can have truly tragic consequences,” said Don Wells, Executive Director of Just in Time for Foster Youth. “That’s why our primary focus at Just in Time is to offer a community of support that creates a different story, one that ends in a life filled with purpose and promise.”
The Ticket to Dream Foundation and OnBuzz have partnered with nonprofits across the nation, including JIT, to help transform the lives of foster youth and positively impact future generations. Proceeds from screenings of “Friday’s Child” benefit the Ticket to Dream Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating hope and opportunity for foster children across the nation to help them just be kids.
To learn more about Just in Time for Foster Youth and the organization’s services that support transitioning foster youth, please visit www.jitfosteryouth.org.
Category: Featured Articles, Local News
