{"id":282503,"date":"2026-04-23T19:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282503\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:46:09","slug":"empowering-former-foster-youth-with-walden-family-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/282503\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Former Foster Youth with Walden Family Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

For young adults transitioning out of foster care, housing instability is often among the greatest challenges they face. This, along with underemployment or unemployment and a sudden lack of support and resources, significantly increases the likelihood that they will ultimately slip through the cracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walden Family Services<\/a>, a 50-year-old nonprofit that helps find stable, supportive home environments for local youth in foster care, is addressing the problem head-on through transitional housing programs that integrate financial literacy, case management, and life-skills development to help young adults learn how to live independently<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty much a foster care to homelessness pipeline\u2014or prison,\u201d says Teresa Stivers, Walden Family Services CEO. In response, Walden Family Services launched an initiative called Independent Futures to help clients between 18 and 21 acclimate to their newfound independence. There\u2019s also an extended care program for those ages 22 to 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clients are provided furnished housing, food, and job training, and learn basic life skills, like how to cook and grocery shop, save money, pay bills, and budget. They pay rent that\u2019s deposited into a savings account and matched by Walden Family Services. Clients are also required to work, attend school, or do a combination of both for 40 hours a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Walden Family Services<\/p>\n

Roughly 90 percent of existing clients live in safe, sustainable housing<\/a>, 83 percent maintain stable employment, and 83 percent leave the program with significant savings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why every young person in this country can be on their parents\u2019 health benefits until 26. Research shows that\u2019s about how long it takes for someone to fully take off\u2014and that\u2019s for somebody who grew up with their parents and maybe went to college,\u201d says Stivers. \u201cAs you can imagine, it\u2019s more difficult for someone who went from family to family, school to school, exiting at 18 without a diploma.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s success stories exemplify its impact, Stivers says. Clients have gone on to become entrepreneurs, advocates, scholars, and loving parents who break the cycle of child abuse and neglect. Many also want to give back and help other kids in the foster care system<\/a>. Walden Family Services is working to develop an alumni program and build a mentoring component into its transitional program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done all kinds of peer mentoring, peer therapy, and have a lot of staff members who grew up in our program or have lived experience, and it\u2019s been really impactful. So now we want to formalize that program for our alumni and give our graduates an opportunity to help other folks,\u201d Stivers says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Walden Family Services<\/p>\n

Walden is also looking ahead, focusing on expanding housing partnerships, strengthening prevention efforts, and increasing community involvement to meet growing demand. However, rising housing costs<\/a> and funding constraints are taking their toll on nonprofits like Walden Family Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s challenging for all of us,\u201d Stivers says. \u201cWe are all still trying to provide the best care that we can with the limited dollars.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Those considering ways to help can make a monetary donation to the organization or attend a fundraising event like the Walden Family Services\u2019 \u201cThere\u2019s No Place Like Home\u201d gala<\/a> on April 30 at The Thursday Club. The organization is currently looking for volunteers to host activities or training sessions for clients, help out in the office, serve on the board, or participate in holiday drives. If you\u2019re a local property owner, they\u2019re also looking for partnerships with those willing to rent reasonably priced apartments to their clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many things that people can do to make an investment in their community,\u201d Stivers says. \u201cMany people don\u2019t realize that there are children in their own backyard who are going hungry, who are sad and scared and lonely, and that they can make a difference. We hope that people will do that so we can all benefit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For young adults transitioning out of foster care, housing instability is often among the greatest challenges they face.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[22572,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-282503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-charitable-sd","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282503","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=282503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}