National Foster Care Month recognizes the important role that people from all parts of child welfare play in supporting children, youth, and families. The 2025 theme, “Engaging Youth. Building Supports. Strengthening Opportunities.” highlights the need to create a support system that authentically engages and prepares young people who are leaving foster care. In 2021, 77 percent of eligible youth in foster care, ages 14–21 years old, exited care without receiving the federally funded services necessary to prepare them for adulthood and independent living. Our hosts, Mark Boorse and Brianna Amantia, are joined by Ursula Yao, our Director of Foster Care, John Crawley, a young adult who has aged out of foster care, and Juli Apple, our Provider Recruiter and long-time advocate for children and families who have adopted through the foster care system. Together, they discuss the foster care system, the challenges that young adults face as they exit the foster care system, the support foster families and children need and how the community can come alongside the child welfare system to help build strong supports.

Resources mentioned in episode: Valley Youth House Mentoring Program https://valleyyouthhouse.org/programs/life-skills-independent-living/mentoring/

The Kindness Project https://mykindnessproject.org/ 

Foster Love https://fosterlove.com/ 

Access Services Foster Care Foster Care & Foster Homes | Access Services

Become a Foster family Providers - Access Services

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Since its inception in 1949, Mental Health Awareness Month has been a cornerstone of addressing the challenges faced by millions of Americans living with mental health conditions. One of the less talked about topics is the intersection of incarceration and mental illness. According to NAMI National Alliance on Mental Illness, “About two in five people who are incarcerated have a history of mental illness (37% in state and federal prisons and 44% held in local jails). This is twice the prevalence of mental illness within the overall adult population. Given these rates, America’s jails and prisons have become de-facto mental health providers, at great cost to the well-being of people with mental health conditions” Our JRS program collaborates to help adults with mental health challenges navigate the forensic system, whether currently incarcerated or navigating re-entry into the local community. There are many barriers to re-entry. A big one is having a criminal record. Shuja Moore joins our podcast to talk about his lived experience with reentry and his campaign to help people understand the pardon system in PA.

Follow Shuja's work:

https://www.instagram.com/shujamoore/

https://www.pardonsnow.org/

https://www.domooregood.org/

Learn more about Justice Related Services:

https://www.accessservices.org/services/justice-related-services/

Introducing Strengthening Communities, a podcast where we will discuss a variety of topics in the human services fields and how our communities can be strengthened as we all work together.

Introducing Strengthening Communities, a podcast where we will discuss a variety of topics in the human services fields and how our communities can be strengthened as we all work together.

Mark your calendars, first episode will premiere on May 6, 2025!