{"id":111272,"date":"2025-12-28T14:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T14:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/111272\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T14:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T14:43:08","slug":"first-place-for-youth-helps-bay-area-foster-kids-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/111272\/","title":{"rendered":"First Place for Youth helps Bay Area foster kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Share<\/a>By the time Stevie Steele turned 18, they had been kicked out of their family\u2019s home, had bounced in and out of children\u2019s group homes, had dealt with addiction and homelessness, and had no idea what to do next.<\/p>\n

Once a child turns 18, the assistance from California\u2019s foster care system changes dramatically for many young people exiting their foster homes.<\/p>\n

For those who meet eligibility requirements such as employment or education, there are still some services provided by California, but even those young people often struggle without the guidance of traditional foster care.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s sink or swim.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd of course, we see many, many of them sink,\u201d said Thomas Lee, chief executive officer of First Place for Youth<\/a>, an Oakland-based nonprofit that provides aged-out foster children with the resources they need to start life as an adult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout First Place, I\u2019d probably still be in the same spot I was,\u201d Steele said.<\/p>\n

The organization began in 1997, when Amy Lemley and Deanne Pearn, two graduate students at Berkeley, realized that young people transitioning out of foster care had little in the way of public support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were literally dropped off on a corner or at a homeless shelter with a garbage bag of belongings, and that was it,\u201d said Jayme Catalano, First Place for Youth\u2019s communications director.<\/p>\n

First Place began offering these young people financial literacy courses and a bit of money to help them pay rent. They later expanded to cover move-in costs and long-term subsidized housing. And by 2000, the organization had an eight-person staff and a full case-management system to help foster youth finish high school and prepare them for life as adults.<\/p>\n

Over the following 25 years, the organization raised millions of dollars and developed a statewide system supporting young people transitioning out of foster care. It has also advocated for legal changes like Assembly Bill 12, which created the extended foster care system that offers continued financial support and housing options until age 21, and helped educate the public about the importance of providing support to these young people.<\/p>\n

\"StevieStevie Steele bakes a cake at their new apartment in Antioch on Oct. 30, 2025. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard because [when] so many of our young people come to us, they\u2019ve been through, on average, six different homes,\u201d Catalano said. \u201cThey have a lot of traumatic experiences and have been without parental guidance. So coming into this program feels like a home to many of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steele was first kicked out of their family home at 12 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom struggled with alcoholism, and things were really bad,\u201d Steele said. \u201cI never felt stable in my living environment. At 16, I ended up calling Child Protective Services and asking to be placed somewhere. I put myself in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Placed in a children\u2019s group home, Steele felt like it was a lateral move, at best.<\/p>\n

\"LosLos Medanos College student Stevie Steele, 22, studies at their new apartment in Antioch, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. Steele was provided assistance by Oakland-based First Place for Youth, a nonprofit which helps transition-age foster youth. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0
\n \u201cIt was like leaving one traumatic situation and going into another,\u201d they said. \u201cIt was made clear: \u2018This isn\u2019t your home. This will never be your home. Don\u2019t get comfortable.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Three months later, the pandemic hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny sense of normalcy just got knocked out the window,\u201d Steele said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t allowed to go on walks. We weren\u2019t allowed to leave the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Steele ran away, \u201cjust to feel some type of independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

After couch-hopping for six months, Steele found a new group home, where they lived until they turned 18.<\/p>\n

At that point, they had no idea where to go.<\/p>\n

A social worker named Brian Coughlin helped Steele get back on their feet and connected them with First Place for Youth.<\/p>\n

First Place helped Steele find a home and get enrolled in classes at Los Medanos College, where they are now studying to get a master\u2019s degree in social work.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re most grateful for the emotional support and guidance of First Place for Youth mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it be taking me to the DMV to do my writing test or sitting and helping me do homework if I needed it, I\u2019m always texting them asking them a million questions,\u201d Steele said. \u201cI\u2019ve found a lot of peace now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee said providing these young people with safe and reliable support is the organization\u2019s primary goal.<\/p>\n

\"LosLos Medanos College student Stevie Steele, 22, at her their apartment in Antioch, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. Steele was provided assistance by Oakland-based First Place for Youth, a nonprofit which helps transition-age foster youth. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an opportunity to help young people in a very short amount of time,\u201d he said. \u201cAlmost 90% of all of our young people want to go to college. They want good jobs. They want to work, and they want to have their own homes, and they want to be able to start their own families one day. They just need support, mentorship and someone pulling for them to help them figure out the how.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who make it into First Place, their chances increase dramatically.<\/p>\n

Of the nearly 700 people who come through the program each year, 97% are able to get their own housing and become financially stable, Lee said. And 82% of them become enrolled to earn their high school diploma and get some form of secondary education.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor youth that don\u2019t go through programs like this, that number drops by almost half, to 43%,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd 85% of our youth get jobs while in our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StevieStevie Steele, 22, a self-taught artist, draws with pastels at their new apartment in Antioch, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. Steele was provided assistance by Oakland-based First Place for Youth, a nonprofit which helps transition-age foster youth. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Bay Area, First Place serves young people in five counties: Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco and Santa Clara.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently interviewed some of our young people, and so many of them feel like somebody\u2019s finally looking out for them,\u201d Catalano said. \u201cThey finally have someone to answer questions about credit scores, how to apply for a loan for a car and how to get financial aid for college. We step into that role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Steele:\u00a0\u201cThey really care. And that really means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Share<\/a>
ABOUT SHARE THE SPIRIT
Share the Spirit is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by the East Bay Times\/Bay Area News Group. Since 1989, Share the Spirit has been producing series of stories during the holiday season that highlight the wishes of those in need and invite readers to help fulfill them.<\/p>\n

HOW TO HELP
Donations to First Place for Youth<\/a> will help fund their programs that assist young people who grew up in foster care with safe, stable housing and support to succeed in work, school and life. Goal: $20,000<\/p>\n

HOW TO GIVE
Donate at sharethespiriteastbay.org\/donate <\/a>or by mail using this form.<\/a> Donations are tax deductible.<\/p>\n

ONLINE EXTRA
Read other Share the Spirit stories, view photos and video at sharethespiriteastbay.org.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time Stevie Steele turned 18, they had been kicked out of their family\u2019s home, had bounced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2647,184,2305,27362,972,2648,59605,101,103,102,104,106,105,49043],"class_list":["post-111272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-antioch","tag-bay-area","tag-children","tag-foster-care","tag-local","tag-martinez","tag-public-services","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-share-the-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}