INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Through his work in the child welfare system, Nathan Ross noticed that foster kids lose all their support upon turning 18 and aging out of the system.
He knows from experience how the system and having it suddenly taken away can affect a person's well-being.
"We wanted to have a program that was no-eject," Ross said. "You can be in the service as long as you want, as often as you want. We're never going to kick you out."
Ross helped develop the Community Connections Youth Project at FosterAdopt Connect three years ago for people ages 17 to 26.
Since then, the program has helped more than 200 young adults with everyday life issues — from getting a license to filling out a job application. They've also helped around 50 young adults escape homelessness.
Every year, 23,000 young adults age out of the foster care system, including 20% who instantly become homeless.
Ross said Community Connections started with the recognition that many aged-out foster kids needed access to Medicare. If the program can help them learn to navigate becoming adults, they're more likely to get their health care needs met among other things.
According to the National Foster Youth Institute, only half of kids who age out of the system without a permanent home end up employed by age 24 and less than 3% earn a college degree.
Roughly one in four young adults from the foster care system suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and around 70% or women become pregnant before age 21.
The Community Connections program is staffed by people who have been through similar circumstances themselves, like Kandice Jackson.
"I get excited, because some of my clients I previously had, I helped them from being literally homeless — living in an abandoned house — to getting job, having a baby, getting a car and having an apartment," Jackson, who has worked two years in the Community Connections program, said.
Ross also has endured the horrors or abuse and the uncertainty of foster care.
"I originally came into foster care after two of my brothers died from abuse and neglect from my birth mom," he said.
Ross, formerly Ronald Bass, and his five siblings endured one of the worst child abuse cases in Kansas City, Missouri, history in 1999. He uses his experiences to connect with the young people he serves and to fix the broken system.
"I want people to know about the entirety of child welfare and through the lens of a person who lived through it, survived it and then worked in it professionally," Ross said.
That's why he started writing his book, "Mourning After the Storm," nearly a decade ago. It's recently was published and is available for sale.
finished and on sale.
"I hope that resonates with young people who have similar experiences," Ross said. "So it's just letting them know it doesn't have to be the end."
He said the biggest problem with the system right now is that the human service aspect was taken out of the human service organization.
Ross believes the protocols and procedures are too bureaucratic and involve too much red tape. If someone can type something into a computer, they're following procedure. Ross says that needs to change.
"I really want people who read this to start asking the questions, start looking at the system," Ross said.
