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An Unlikely Community
A group of six Southern California businessmen and friends began meeting in the fall of 1998 in an attempt to utilize their resources and expertise to make a difference in the community. They established what is now known as Rising Tide Communities, a part of the Orangewood Children’s Foundation. This group determined there exists a real service need for abused and neglected children who are leaving the foster care system. Many of these youth leave the system with no job, no place to live, a small amount of money in their pocket, and an inadequate support system for making the transition to a self-supporting, productive adulthood. Coming together, these men created a business plan that used their own resources, as well as those of the community, to create a self-sufficient group of apartments. Ten years later, there are two Rising Tide communities that have served approximately 250 youth.
The C4 Group has entered a partnership with Rising Tide to replicate this sustainable model within the My Turn Independent Living Program.
Program Description
My Turn Independent living is a program that provides a physical location for youth who have aged out of foster care to live, as well as providing on-going guidance and mentorship by developing their independent living skills. The purpose of this program is to give these youth a stable and affordable place to live as well as to teach them skills that they may have not had the opportunity to learn.
Unlike A Home for the Holidays, My Chance Internship Experience, and It’s Your Day Recognition, the set up of this program requires two separate processes – acquiring the housing and developing the independent living skills program. Upon setting up housing and putting in place resident assistants to serve the youth and oversee the independent living skills program, you will have the makings of a community! According to leadership of the Rising Tide Foundation, “the program itself can be seen as an intermediary step between dependency on the foster care system and [complete] independent living.”
For more information and to obtain the resources to help you set up My Turn Independent Living, please email us. |
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