Stay
positive: The three great
essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are; first, hard work, second,
stick-to-it-iveness, and third, common sense. -- Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) American Inventor
Career Fair for Teens in Foster Care
Career Fair for Teens in Foster Care
Essex County CASA Executive Director Karen Burns, Division
of Youth and Family Services Essex County Area Director David Sims, Rutgers
Child Advocacy Clinic Director Randi Mandelbaum, Rutgers Child Advocacy Center
Attorney Nana Wilson, JLMN member Patricia Devine Harms, Superior Court
Assistant Family Division Manager Karen Smith, the Honorable Sallyanne Floria,
JLOSH member Sara Agress, and the Honorable David B. Katz. [From left to right]
The Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills Inc., JLOSH,
along with other local organizations, hosted an education and career fair for
teens in foster care, who are about to come out of the child welfare system.
The event took place at Rutgers University Law School in
Newark where 145 students and 100 caseworkers, foster parents and Essex County
Court Appointed Special Advocates, CASA, attended on May 17 .
Forty-two exhibitors were involved, including
representatives from area colleges and universities, as well as health and
social service agencies, to provide practical information related to education,
career planning, health topics and self-advocacy.
JLOSH hosted the event with CASA, the Junior League of
Montclair-Newark Inc. , JLMN, in partnership with the Child Advocacy Clinic at
the Rutgers School of Law and the Essex County Family Court
The Education & Career Fair was part of a full-day
conference for foster youth ages 14-21 entitled “Step Up to Grow Up.” The
conference featured an “edutainment” session hosted by Curtis Sherrod from the
Hip Hop Culture Center of Harlem, which incorporated hip hop music into a
conversation about youths’ rights and options, and how to begin to plan for the
future.
During the day, youth also attended several breakout
sessions of their choice, which covered topics such as safe dating, making a
living, finding housing, and the basics of banking and budgeting. The
conference also featured special sessions for Division of Youth and Family
Services case managers.
Essex County has an alarming number of children in
out-of-home/foster care placement – over 1,200, amounting to 16% of all foster
children in New Jersey, according to statistics provided by Advocates for
Children in New Jersey. Many of these children are unaware of the various
resources available to them as they get closer to “aging out” of the foster
care system. The purpose of the Education & Career Fair, and of the
conference more broadly, was to put these teens into contact with a variety of
materials and people who can help them.