By Sharon Abercrombie
Staff writer

Jamall Crowder and Sam Shields hate to think where they might be today if they hadn’t met Tehuley Banks, but they suspect it could have been on the streets.

Last year, Banks arranged for the two young men to move into one of Catholic Charities of the East Bay’s residences for foster care youths who have reached the age of 18. Banks is the co-director of CARE, a two-year joint housing and educational safety net for emancipated teens sponsored by Catholic Charities of the East Bay with funding from Alameda County Social Services and Contra Costa Family & Children’s Services.

Before CARE, Crowder says that he “had no direction and was living on handouts from friends.” Both his and Shields’ childhoods had been chaotic. They were moved from one foster home to another. On their 18th birthdays, California’s foster care system emancipated them. They were among the 4,000 youths who each year suddenly find themselves without homes, financial support and the life skills to make it on their own.
Today, Crowder has a car, works the night shift at a Safeway store, attends college and in his own words, “has the steps to succeed in life.”

Shields, 20, also a Safeway employee, recently graduated from the Job Corps and is looking for construction work. Like Crowder, he attended CCEB’s financial literacy class for foster youths, which provided him with good advice and support for coping on his own. “Everything is cool now,” he said.

Crowder and Shields are two of the young people who are living in CCEB CARE residences. Seven are located in Alameda County and one is in Contra Costa County, Banks said.

Funding allows additional housing
Thanks to the continuation of funding from Alameda and Contra Costa counties plus a grant from the California Wellness Foundation, CCEB will be able to continue its program and add five more housing slots in Alameda County, bringing the total to 18 clients, said Solomon Belette, Catholic Charities CEO.

For a time, Belette and the CARE coordinators had feared that funding would be cut off. “It has been a real struggle securing some of these funds and it is important to know that what we have is just adequate to maintain a stable program from one year to the next,” Belette said.

The funding supports costs for housing, one of the most important pieces of CARE’s programming. “Our clients are extremely vulnerable and housing stability is critical for their ongoing development and well-being,” explained Belette.

The CARE program began in 2002. It grew out of an initiative by the Social Justice Alliance of the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County to secure family housing for homeless families at the soon-to-be closed Concord Naval Weapons Station.

Recalls Gwen Watson, a member of Christ the King Parish in Pleasant Hill: “During public comment when we would get on the microphone and ask for housing for homeless families, Supervisor Mark de Saulnier, now a state senator, would interject, ‘and don’t forget the emancipated foster youth, many who become homeless within a few years of turning 18.’” His pleas touched Social Justice Alliance members. As a result, “we decided to add these youth to our appeal,” said Watson.

De Saulnier’s idea also made a positive impression on the Contra Costa Family and Children’s Services. They suggested partnering with a faith group to provide housing and services to emancipated youth while they pursued higher education or began a career that would lead to their independence, said Watson.

At a follow-up meeting, Catholic Charities of the East Bay agreed to take a serious look at the proposal. A short time later, CCEB and the county program opened the CARE program. They acquired their first housing when the owner of a ranch-style home in Pittsburg offered to rent it as a place for the young clients to live and receive guidance.

Training and savings accounts
The CARE program helps the youth complete high school or obtain their GED, and offers them job preparation skills, and financial literacy classes. It also offers a matched savings account. When each young person leaves the CARE program he or she has up to $1200 in savings.

Tehuley Banks said CARE clients are encouraged to work and to attend community college or vocational trainings that provide financial aid without loans. Emancipated foster youth can get Pell and CAL grants, in addition to $5,000 a year from a Chaffy grant, he said.

“If a client enrolls in secondary education, school or training, and works part time, he or she is much more successful,” said Banks. At present, because of the economic downturn, only five CARE participants are working. Three are job searching and one is working at a paid apprenticeship that will provide him with employment when he completes the program. Three of the young women are mothers and receive aid from Cal Works.

Since its inception, more than 25 young people have graduated from the CARE program.

Gwen Watson lauded CARE as “my idea of what a government and faith organization partnership should be. When you visit CARE’s home in Pittsburg, you know the kids are a family. Teh (Banks) is a top-level professional. Yet the kids think of him as an older brother, whom they confide in and look up to as their role model.”

Watson added that CARE is “a tax payer’s dream, because it goes beyond case management, counseling and services. It has a spirit of caring that helps the young people grow into mature compassionate adults.”

home