Loring Paul Jones: Life After Foster Care: Improving Outcomes for Former Foster Youth

Excerpt

Loring Paul Jones’ Life After Foster Care: Improving Outcomes for Former Foster Youth attempts to connect the dots between decades of fragmented and incomplete studies on the foster care system and evaluate ways in which the system has both benefited and hindered the development of foster youth. This text is meant to be a survey of the system and its effects on youth, adolescents, and emerging adults which provides practitioners, policymakers, and students a broad picture of the state of American youth following discharge from foster care. Jones’ goals are to provide readers with knowledge of the current conditions and experiences of former and emancipated foster youth, to provide the best evidence-based practices for improving outcomes for foster youth as they transition into adulthood, and to inform practitioners and policy makers about strategies that may better prepare youth for life after foster care. This book meets Jones’ goals and highlights how reform is complicated but necessary to improve outcomes for former foster youth. …