Location: 485 Ninth Street in Oakland (The Ross House, conference room of the Casey Family Programs) near the 12th Street Bart Station.

Time: 12:00 until 2:00

Topics and Dates:

• Managing Employees: Labor Law - Thursday, September 8, 2005
• Leadership Skills - Thursday, November 10, 2005
• Team Building Skills for Managers - Thursday, January 5, 2006
• Supervision Skills - Thursday, March 2, 2006
• Conducting Effective Evaluations Thursday, May 4, 2006
• Termination Best Practices - Thursday, July 6, 2006

For more information contact Amy Freeman at 510 444-4025 ext 235 or afreeman@fosteryouthalliance.org

Trainings are open FYA Members and Staff from organizations and agencies serving foster youth.

Martha Shirk, author of “On Their Own: What Happens to Kids When They Age Out of the Foster Care System?” wrote a wonderful article for Youth Today, entitled “New Homes for Foster Care’s Old Folks”, about Housing for Emancipating Foster Youth in California. The article highlights The Campaign for Safe Transitions and The First Place Fund for Youth.

Click the link to read the article: http://www.youthtoday.org/youthtoday/July05/story2_7_05.html

Congressman Jefferson Leads Effort to Promote Adoption

Washington, DC - Today, U.S. Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) introduced the "Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement" Act, along with Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL), Vic Snyder (D-AR) and Charles Boustany (R-LA). The bipartisan legislation seeks to promote teenage adoptions by changing the federal financial aid eligibility rules for older children who are adopted out of foster care.

"Those youth who graduate high school, while still in foster care, are afforded every opportunity to attend college and receive full federal financial aid benefits," Jefferson said. "Currently, however, those same kids tend to lose out on those benefits if they are adopted and leave foster care before entering college. Because of their new status, they aren't given the same financial aid consideration as foster kids. And, in some cases, parents who adopt foster teenagers could use the financial help to pay for their new child's education."

Specifically, the bill would amend the current definition of "independent student" to include foster children who are adopted out of the system after their 13th birthdays. Accordingly, when the adopted children apply for federal financial aid, they will not be penalized because eligibility would be determined by the adopted student's ability to pay, not the ability of his or her parents to do so.

Statistics show that children who are adopted out of foster care are more likely to attend college, and live stable lives with permanent families. On the contrary, a study of foster care kids who "aged-out" of the foster care system over three years found that only 14.5% had graduated from a four-year college and between 25-44% had experienced homelessness.

"If given the same opportunity and access, kids who are adopted from foster care can succeed," Jefferson said. "We hope this will be an incentive to families who want to adopt a child, but question whether they can handle the financial demands of a college education.

Contact: Melanie N. Roussell 202-225-6636 Melanie.roussell@mail.house.gov

The Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at Cal State East Bay has an EOP Counselor position available. Please feel free to forward the following job announcement to other networks or persons that may be interested in this type of position.

Closing date for applications is Friday, August 5, 2005 and must be submitted online to https://www.aba.csueastbay.edu/HR/hrapps/empOppDesc.cfm?recnumb=001390

or forwarded to:
California State University, East Bay
Human Resources
Warren Administration Building, Room 615
25800 Carlos Bee Boulevard
Hayward, CA 94542-3026

Please click here to download the Job Announcement

Please click here to download the schedule

Register online at www.senecacenter.org or If you do not have access to a computer, please call us at 510-317-1446 ext 411