Forestdale is committed to successful futures for young people
Youth aging out of foster care needs love, resources, and reassurance. Forestale has created this program to prevent our youth from following nationwide statistics that show about 50% end up homeless or in jail within three years. In addition, 66% of young women in foster care will give birth between their 18th and 22nd birthdays. Former foster children with no college degree earn less than $14,000 a year.
Forestdale’s Strong Futures Program (SF) supports young people to ease the transition out of foster care and into successful adulthood. Forestdale provides group workshops, referral services, career development, and events throughout the year that help young people to develop independent life skills and healthy habits. Examples include financial literacy courses, workshops on healthy relationships, trips to cultural events, and educational pre-college and college support.
Our dedicated specialists provide direct educational and college enrichment services to prepare youth for critical transition periods, such as high-school admissions and the college-application process. Individually customized assistance for more than 100 youth encompasses:
Educational group workshops, including SAT & ACT prep
Counseling
One-on-one tutoring helps students improve their grades in Math, English, ESL (English as a second language), Sciences, Economics, History, and Social Studies, as well as their scores for the NYS Regents.
Brand new, fully stocked backpacks for more than 750 elementary, middle, and H.S. students annually.
College tours both in-state and out-of-state at no charge for H.S. juniors & seniors.
College counseling for H.S. seniors, including assistance with college applications and financial aid.
Financial/material assistance for college students, including books, laptops, meal plans, and more.
We also continue to provide our Scholars with several levels of ancillary support, including workshops, recreational activities & cultural trips, one-on-one guidance, and referral to additional Forestdale programs (i.e., Life Coaching, Strong Futures Internship(SFI), Strong Futures Pregnancy Prevention, Evidence-based Mental Health interventions, Career Counseling, and Medical & Dental care), and Entitlement assistance, to ensure a robust, holistic, and worthwhile program experience.
In F.Y. 2023, 18 adolescents and young adults will participate in 3-6 months long paid internships with placements available in Administration, Culinary Arts, Information Technology (I.T.), Maintenance (Commercial), and Project-Based Learning activities. Graduates indicated an increase in self-confidence and job skills. In addition, supervisors reported that participants improved their capacity to perform job tasks and augmented communication skills with supervisors and co-workers. After completing SFI, our participants transition to industry-based training, unsubsidized employment, or back to full-time education.
Forestdale ensures that young people are financially empowered by providing individually tailored approaches to assess job readiness, sharpen interview skills, and find career-track employment.
For more information, contact Danielle Brown Fuller at dfuller@forestdaleinc.org.
Office locations
67-35 112th Street Forest Hills, NY
Hours
Monday–Friday
10 a.m.–5 p.m.
(718)263-0740
dfuller@forestdaleinc.org