17 Oct
2026
Most young adults have someone to call when the rent is due, the car breaks down or they need advice about a job. Many young people leaving foster care do not. When they reach adulthood without a permanent family, they may suddenly be on their own, often with little money and few people to lean on. Communities can make a real difference in this transition.
If a child is in immediate danger, call 911. In the U.S., the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline is 1-800-422-4453.
In the United States, foster care is meant to be temporary. Most children leave care by returning home, being adopted or living with relatives or a guardian. But some young people reach adulthood while still in care. When they leave the system as adults without a permanent family, it is called aging out.
The age at which this happens depends on the state. Many states now allow young people to stay in care or receive extra support past 18, often up to 21, especially if they are in school or working. Each state also offers some independent living services, though what is available varies widely.
Turning 18 does not make anyone ready to handle adult life alone. Young people aging out of care may need to find housing, manage money, keep a job, continue school and handle health care, all at once. Many have moved between homes and schools, which can interrupt their education and friendships.
They may also carry the effects of the trauma that brought them into care. Without a safety net, one setback, such as a lost job or a missed rent payment, can lead to homelessness. That is why caring adults outside the system matter so much.
Jonathan Anthony Burkett was not in foster care, but his memoir, Neglected But Undefeated, shows what it means to reach adulthood without family support. At seventeen, after years of abuse and neglect, his mother signed him over to a homeless shelter and gave up being his guardian. Two weeks before he turned eighteen, he left the shelter and went to see his little brothers, only to find his mother had changed all the locks.
He began sleeping in a friend's car at night. Then, he writes, "luckily someone helped me out with a job right away." While he worked during the day, a friend helped him find a room to rent. A job lead and a room: two simple acts from people in his community helped him take his first steps as an adult.
You do not need to be a foster parent to support a young person leaving care. Here are ways individuals, churches, businesses and community groups can help:
Contact your state or county child welfare agency, a local foster care agency or a mentoring organization to ask how volunteers can support young people leaving care. Churches and community groups can also partner with agencies to organize donations or host life-skills workshops.
Above all, be consistent. Young people who have been let down many times may be slow to trust. Showing up again and again, without strings attached, can be the most powerful thing you offer.
Listen to young people about what they actually need instead of assuming. One may need a ride to work, another help understanding a lease and another simply someone to call after a bad day. If you own or manage a business, consider whether you could offer a first job, flexible hours or on-the-job training to a young person leaving care.
“Give more, so that we can build more, put interest in understanding another more in whatever actions one might carry out in life. Because we all are fighting for survival against adversaries and are sometimes falling, but if we stand together and help shield and strengthen one another, imagine the world that we will live in together, having more happiness with one another, at one another’s side.”
— Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated
To read Jonathan's full story of surviving neglect and building a life, find Neglected But Undefeated on the Books page.
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