One area in foster care ministry that we saw a great need is in serving teenage foster youth, specifically those preparing to age out of foster care (emancipation) or who have recently aged out. A lot of study has been done on this population and the results are not good. The research shows that foster youth who are emancipated struggle to find success as adults. As a result there is a high number of homelessness, substance abuse, incarceration, and early pregnancy. Emancipated foster youth tend to have low levels of education and almost never go to college. Given these other circumstances it is no wonder that many sex trafficking victims were former foster youth.
As a foster care ministry, we wanted to see this change. When we purchased our Katie’s Kloset building at the end of 2019, one of the things that sold us on the building was the wing on the backside of the building. When Sharon first visited the building and saw the wing for the first time, she almost began to cry because she immediately knew it was God answering a prayer for a space that we could convert into transitional living apartments for foster youth facing emancipation. The idea is to create a temporary living space that is safe and allows for foster youth and former foster youth to be trained and equipped with the skills necessary to be self-sufficient adults.
We have begun work to renovate this space but have hit some hiccups along the way. To date we have already replaced the entire roof, all the air conditioner units, and began reworking the space to make each unit an individual apartment. We are currently waiting on our architect and various committees to approve the rest of our work so we can finish. Some things we have to get done before we can open is make sure everything is handicap accessible which includes adding a 132′ ramp from our parking lot to the main entrance. We also have to bring our fire suppression system up to code. The apartments themselves are so close; we simply have to finish up the bathrooms and a few small things before the apartments are ready. We will also be adding a laundry room, computer lab, living/dining room, and kitchenette. Once we get the green light we will knock out the rest of the work as soon as possible, furnish the rooms, and welcome our first residents!
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We believe we have a real opportunity to affect great change in this population. On our Workmanship Initiative page, we highlighted the purpose of this program and provide more detail about what we hope to accomplish. Please go read through that so you can see our vision for this program. We are praying that renovations for the apartments will resume soon so we can open the apartments in early 2022.
There are several ways to get involved in this aspect of our ministry. If you are proficient at teaching a particular life skill or skills, please let us know! The more people we have investing in the lives of these young people the better they will do. Once the apartments are open, we will be looking for mentors who will commit to discipling our residents. One focus area for us will be job training and placement. If you own a company or business and have an interest in training young people in a position, please contact us soon. There will be many other needs along the way that we will announce so please stay tuned. More than anything, pray for this population of young people. They desperately need to know and experience the love of Christ. We have a unique opportunity to see lives transformed and are hopeful that the Lord is going to do great things through the Workmanship Initiative at Raleigh’s Place.