Youth in foster care are among the most vulnerable in the city: Nearly half never graduate high school; 68% of former foster children will be on food stamps; seven out of ten homeless people in New York were once in foster care. Foster Pride helps youth in foster care develop their talents and build self-esteem through mentoring relationships and the arts.
Foster Pride’s programs help kids beat the odds to succeed. By helping youth in foster care develop necessary life skills to live independently, while offering a safe haven for individualized support, encouragement and stability.
JAR supports Foster Pride’s mission by funding the John A. Reisenbach Financial Literacy Workshops, part of the HandMade program. The HandMade program provides the opportunity for teenage women in foster care to create a line of crocheted items which and to run a small business selling them. Through this creative experience teens develop life skills and a sense of entrepreneurship that helps them on their career paths. To safeguard them from poverty, it is critical that these young women also develop the skills they need to enhance their financial competence so that they can exercise control over their future. The John A. Reisenbach Financial Literacy Workshops help the young women in HandMade develop money management skills they need to prepare them for economic self-sufficiency. These workshops round-out the creative and job-preparedness skills taught in HandMade to help these vulnerable teens transition to a successful adulthood.
We are proud of our relationship with Foster Pride and how it has fostered lasting impact on the lives of foster care youth through HandMade and the Reisenbach Financial Literacy classes. If you would like to learn more about Foster Pride, please visit their website https://www.fosterpride.org/.
Please click here to support Foster Pride and our other grantee partners working in service of a Safer and Better NYC!