Profile: First Place for Youth

First Place for Youth is a Bay Area-based nonprofit organization founded in 1998 to remedy the lack of services available to youth who are making the difficult transition from foster care to independent living.

First Place works to ensure that all foster youth have the opportunity to experience a safe, supported transition from foster care.  Through a housing program, an academic enrichment program, counseling, youth community center, collaboration with other Bay Area agencies, and community education, we help youth to gain the skills to live independently and succeed on their own.

First Place targets its services to 16- to 23- year-olds who are preparing to age out of foster care or who have recently aged out of care. Once discharged from care, there are limited public or community-based services available for these young adults. Instead of receiving support and guidance during this critical transition, former foster youth are without housing, a source of income, adult encouragement, or community support.  Without these critical resources, youth are significantly more likely to experience homelessness, poverty, low educational attainment and poor health than other youth their age.

First Place for Youth has created innovative programs that proactively challenge the trends among former foster youth by building self-esteem, self-reliance and forging the skills necessary to live independently. Young people work in partnership with staff to develop individualized plans for a success.  Youth work on their education and employment goals, healthy relationships, effective communication and community building.  First Place engages former foster youth at a critical point in their lives, providing housing, case management, community resources and advocacy to help them in their natural transition from adolescence to adulthood.  Collectively, the programs provide: 

Expanded Housing Capacity for Transitioning Foster Youth: Founded in 1998, First Place was the first organization in Northern California to provide affordable housing and supportive services to former foster youth, and nine years later is considered a national model for providing permanent housing for high risk youth. Currently, First Place houses 130 youth from four bay area counties at any given time.

Housing Stability: Through participation in First Place, foster youth have a higher level of housing stability than the general population of foster youth. First Place provides youth with access to safe, affordable housing, along with practical tenancy training, comprehensive case management and housing advocacy.

Economic Security: An essential part of maintaining housing is economic security. From an employment perspective, that means securing and sustaining living wage employment. Our program increases the rate of living wage employment among its participants through a combination of educational and employment counseling, soft skill training, job development, and retention support. Participants also improve their ability to manage money through First Place’s Economic Literacy Training curriculum.

Educational Attainment: Financial success is based on more than earning a living wage.  Transitioning foster youth must have workforce skills and education if they plan to be successful in sustaining long-term independence.  For all of our youth this means earning their high school diploma or GED.  Without their diploma, youth are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested and 76 percent more likely to be unemployed. First Place provides foster youth with academic counseling, tutoring and system advocacy to help young people achieve this crucial and important goal.  Education beyond the secondary level is also strongly encouraged at First Place, and young people learn from first entry into our programs the important role education plays in their economic stability. Transitioning foster youth receive educational counseling, which includes help in applying for financial aide assistance, class enrollment, money for books and supplies, and ongoing counseling and tutoring. 

Improved Health:First Place addresses the specific health needs of transitioning foster youth through health-focused case management and education. At the core of these services is ensuring that youth have access to basic health care coverage, such as Medi-Cal benefits, and that they are proactive in selecting a primary care physician and seeking preventive care. In addition, First Place offers on-going health and wellness workshops that cover a range of topics such as nutrition and exercise, healthy relationships, and preventing domestic violence. Our services also support young women who are pregnant and/or parenting by ensuring regular visits to the doctor, access to comprehensive pre-natal care, and support groups for first-time mothers.  For new mothers we connect young women to pediatricians for ongoing well-baby check-ups and provide classes to help new mothers better care for and bond with their child.

Connection to the Community: In California, foster youth move an average of five times, which leads to repeated interruptions in school and in relationships with family and friends. These repeated interruptions cause foster youth to feel isolated from their peers and to have difficulty building supportive relationships. An explicit goal of Fir

st Place is to help youth develop supportive relationships with peers and caring adults. This is accomplished through a variety of strategies, such as First Place’s cohort model, in which groups of eight to ten youth enter the housing program together, and continue to meet weekly throughout the 24-month program duration. Another strategy is the utilization of community supporters, adults that youth participants select to serve as a resource and source of support throughout their program participation.  First Place’s most ambitious effort in this regard is our recently launched PATH (Permanent Avenues Towards Housing) program which pairs a youth with a permanent, caring adult of their choosing who provides housing in their home.