Did you know roughly 100 young people age out of the foster care system in Chattanooga every year? We didn’t either. “Aging out” means turning 18 in state’s custody. It means you did not have a home safe enough to return to and that no one wanted to (or was fit to) adopt you. Due to this, these young folks can struggle with homelessness, mental illness, involvement with the criminal justice system, unplanned pregnancy and loneliness. Enter Chambliss Center for Children, who provides housing and case management for these very same young adults 18-24.
Chambliss recently had a group of aged out residents speak on a panel to a room full of prospective foster parents- telling the group candidly about how to best make a foster child feel welcome in their home. The young folks described this experience as empowering and therapeutic and have been asking for more opportunities to use their lived experience to make a difference. But just as we would pay consultants (handsomely) for their insights in developing some new project, they need to justly compensate the young people who know intimately the ins and outs of the foster care system for the value and expertise they bring.
Our $3,000 grant will be used exclusively to pay young adults with lived experience to organize and plan the quarterly aging out panel. Chambliss will holds funds, review time sheets, and issue payments and our grant will help them kickstart this panel, prove their concept, and establish a basis to ask for ongoing funding from other sources in the future. 5 young adults for the organizing team/panel. 10 hours of meetings per month. $20/hour pay rate. That comes out to $1000/month in reimbursement (5 people X 10 hours X $20). This provides enough investment for 3-4 months of organizing with our team. #wefundcoolideas