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Employment Needs of Foster Youth in Illinois: Findings from the Midwest Study
About
Examines the employment levels and earnings of foster youth transitioning to adulthood since the passage of the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999.
Drawing from interviews with 474 Illinois foster youth ages 17 to 21, the authors analyzed the youth’s experiences in out-of-home care, labor market experiences, and receipt of employment and vocational supportive services during their transition to adulthood. The research findings indicated that far too many young people who age out of care in Illinois fare poorly in the labor market during their transition to adulthood. (p.12, 35) (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)
Major Findings and Recommendations
• “Far too many young people who aged out of [foster] care in Illinois fared poorly in the labor market during their transition to adulthood” (p.35).
• “Despite an increase over time in the mean hourly wage, [the young people in the study] were only earning, on average, $8.53 per hour at age 21. Their weekly paycheck before taxes and other deductions would be just $341, or less than $18,000 annually” (p.35).
• “Only 43 percent [of the young people in the study] reported receiving any employment-related services or supports between their baseline interview [at age 17-18] and their interview at 19, and only 30 percent reported receiving any employment-related services or supports between their interviews at age 19 and age 21” (p.36).
• “Although they were less likely to be working than their peers from counties outside of Cook, young people from Cook County were significantly more likely to report receiving at least one employment-related service or support” (p.36).
• ”Foster youth in group care were the most likely to have received employment and vocational support services and tended to receive more of those support services, on average, than foster youth in other placement settings” (p.37). (Abstractor: Author)
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- Created:
- Resource Publication Date: 2010
- Author(s): Dworsky, Amy; Havlicek, Judy
- Organizational Author(s): Chapin Hall, University of Chicago
- Funding Source: Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Iowa Department of Human Services, Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, William T. Grant Foundation
- Resource Availability: Publicly available
- Posted by: Wesley Peterson
- Posted in: Workforce System Strategies