In 2022, there were 5,600 youth aged 14-17 in foster care in Texas, facing difficult questions about their transition to adulthood. Of those youth, 1,087 aged out of care with no network available, leaving them vulnerable to homelessness, trafficking, and poor life prospects. Feedback from CASA programs indicate that while they desire to engage family for these children and youth, there are many barriers that may prevent the actual Collaborative Family Engagement (CFE) work from occurring. Those barriers include, but are not limited to, the difficulty of finding family members who are willing to engage with CASA or the child’s caseworker, challenges in knowing how to work with youth who have experienced severe trauma, and general challenges because the system is difficult to navigate. The challenges are further compounded when youth are in unlicensed placements.
This portal site will re-introduce the resources Texas CASA already has, to help support local CASA programs to focus on a trauma-informed, effective way to build connections for youth in PMC. While this site is broken into resources and tasks by age groups, the information can be used at any time and for any older youth in foster care, particularly those in PMC.
