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News

Group supports foster students

UEP program reaches out to students who were in foster care

by SAMMER NAGRA
The Daily Cougar

The Fostering Support Advocacy Group, created by the Urban Experience Program, is a new program at UH for young adults who have aged out of the foster care system.

FSAG was created in conjunction with the Houston Alumni Youth Center and the Preparation for Adult Living Program.

FSAG and the Urban Experience Program recruit former foster children now attending college. The students can no longer be supported by the government's foster care program.

The program welcomes students from all area colleges and universities. 

FSAG assists students dealing with problems ranging from guidance into the university environment to advocacy for their rights. 

The new program will provide students who were once part of the foster care system with role models to help them through school and their careers.

"No man is an island, as they say," program facilitator R. Joyce said. "I am trying to start connections, a network." 

Joyce said the program is an outlet for people to recognize the importance of the nurturing foster care students and alumni require. 

Joyce added that the program is a chance to create awareness in the UH community and gain financial support, because many young people fall through the cracks while attending college.

Once the children in foster care age out of government foster care programs, it is not as simple as being booted out of a home, Joyce said. 

She said there are many help and assistance programs like FSAG already in place for the young adults that prepare them to settle into the real world environment of life. 

"There is support out there right now," Joyce said.

Joyce said she experienced the hardships of former foster care youths when she aged out of the foster care system. She went on to attend San Diego State University. 

Along with her two jobs and 48 hours of internship work, Joyce is currently in her last semester of the master's program in social work. 

Joyce has also been successful in obtaining a position as a social worker in London for next year.

"I have always been driven, because I realize that no one will push me. If I fall, no one will be there to catch me," she said. 

She said the most common obstacle foster alumni face is the burden of being labeled as a statistic; people in the foster care system are thought of as failures even before their lives start. 

"Not being able to love, to have a family, to have kids -- I never wanted to become that statistic," Joyce said.
 

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