Projects of the Foundation

Currently, the John Burton foundation for children without homes sponsors 8 projects to reduce participation in California's foster care system and improve the quality of resources and support for those children and youth currently and formerly in foster care.

Burton Scholar’s Backpack to Success Program
The John Burton Foundation created the Burton Scholars Backpack to Success Program in 2007 to directly assist former foster youth attending higher education. This program exists in support of the work of the California College Pathways Program. Often times, students entering the college world for the first time find themselves needing emergency supplies or last minute items to start the school semester. For many former foster youth, however, they do not have the financial means to purchase them. The Backpack Program helps to fill this gap by providing gift cards at the beginning of the new semester for students to purchase life necessities and school supplies as well as other items that other scholarships and grants do not cover.

In 2009, through the generous assistance from VISA, the Backpack Program has expanded to include an opportunity for former foster youth to enter an essay contest to win laptop computers to assist with their school assignments.

CA College Pathways
Sadly, statistics indicate that only 50% of foster youth graduate from high school and that an even lower percentage (2-3%) further their education in pursuing a college degree. There are many reasons why only a small group of former foster youth can continue their education but funding and a stable housing environment are major factors that are considered when a foster youth ages out of the foster care system.

That is why the Foundation has entered into a partnership with the CSU Office of the Chancellor to create an initiative to increase the number of foster youth in California who enter higher education. Currently, this program is primarily funded by the Stuart Foundation and the Walter S. Johnson Foundation.

The goal of the California College Pathways is to not only increase the number of foster youth in California who enter higher education but to also achieve an academic outcome by expanding access to campus support programs, such as the Guardian Scholars Program, the Renaissance Scholars Program and other successful approaches to supporting former foster youth on campus.

For more information on the California College Pathways project, please visit their website at www.cacollegepathways.org

Direct Grants Program
The JBF Direct Grant Program provides an opportunity for direct service nonprofit organizations residing in the State of California to apply for competitive funding. Nonprofit organizations serving homeless youth, foster youth and former foster youth are eligible to apply. Since 2005, an upward of $3 million has been distributed to worthy organizations.

Fostering Connections: Federal Extension–AB12
The John Burton Foundation is both a policy making and research entity as well as an organization that provides direct service. In each arena, we have witnessed various issues arise that affect the needs and services of homeless youth, foster youth and former foster youth. Thus, a portion of our staff time is dedicated to working on immediate, emergency issues as they take place. Recently, efforts have been targeted to restore cuts in the social services, particularly for the THP Plus Program. However, we have also been involved in sharing information with our elected officials in promoting foster care support until age 21; advocating for a more effective system to help former foster youth who have been diagnosed with a physical or mental disability and finding a way to provide more effective funding resources for former foster youth entering college.

General Advocacy
California Fostering Connections Coalition is a statewide effort to advocate for the passage of California State Assembly Bill 12 (AB 12), the California Fostering Connections to Success Act. If passed, this important legislation will significantly reform California’s foster care system by expanding support for foster youth until age 21 and ensure that relatives who take legal guardianship of a child from the foster care system receive the same level of support provided to non-family members.

Homeless Youth Capacity Building Program (HYCBP)
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), funding has been allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Strengthening Communities Fund to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations, whether secular or faith-based, to address the broad economic recovery issues present in their communities, including helping low-income individuals secure and retain employment, earn higher wages, obtain better-quality jobs, and gain greater access to state and Federal benefits and tax credits, including Recovery Act benefits.

The John Burton Foundation is a proud recipient of one of the ARRA grants that is administered by the Administration for Children and Families, Strengthening Communities Fund of the Department of Health and Human Services and has created the Homeless Youth Capacity Building Project.

This two year project provides nonprofit and faith based organizations located in seven economically distressed counties with the ability to receive technical assistance, training and individual grants of up to $15,000 to strengthen the capacity of their organization. Currently, 63 nonprofit organizations who provide direct services to homeless youth and youth at risk of being homeless have been selected as Network Members to receive this assistance. In addition, over 100 organizations have been selected as Affiliates to receive regional training and materials created by this project to further assist their organizations.

For more information, please visit the website at www.cahomelessyouth.org

SSI Transitions Project
The transition from foster care to independent living is a challenging, particularly for the up to 15% of youth exiting foster care annually who have been diagnosed with a physical or mental disability.

Despite their high level of need, youth with disabilities commonly exit foster care without any additional assistance. Most troubling, the foster care system currently does not ensure that youth with disabilities have applied to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a public benefit available to individuals with disabilities despite the fact that studies have shown that access to this valuable public assistance program significantly improves their transition.

In March 2006, the Foundation launched the SSI Transitions Project. The Project is an outgrowth of Assembly Bill 1331, which passed in 2005 and established a statewide task force to develop practice guidelines for counties regarding SSI applications for disabled youth exiting the foster care system.
Since this time, the Project has developed clear practice guidelines and training materials for social workers, outreach materials for youth and has documented barriers that prevent disabled youth from accessing SSI to be addressed through state and federal legislation.

Initially, several counties were selected around the state to serve as pilot counties for the launch guidelines. The lessons learned and practical training and working manuals from these counties have now been adopted and shared with the wider social service community for better access to these needed benefits to ensure that 75% of disabled foster youth exit foster care with SSI benefits in place.

For more information, please visit the website at www.ssitransitions.org

THP-Plus Statewide Implementation Project
Each year in California, over 4,000 youth exit the foster care system when they turn 18. These young people commonly leave the foster care system without a place to live, a job, a high school diploma or the consistent support of a caring adult. Without assistance during this difficult transition, former foster youth do not fare well, and experience rates of homelessness, unemployment and incarceration far above their peers.

In order to respond to the needs of these youth, the Foundation launched the THP-Plus Statewide Implementation Project in June 2006 to help former foster youth make a safe and successful transition into adult independence.

The Project seeks to reduce homelessness among former foster youth by expanding access to the Transitional Housing Placement Plus Program (THP-Plus). THP-Plus is administered by the California Department of Social Services, and has been found to help foster youth achieve stable housing, living wage employment and higher education. The Project will expand participation in this important program by providing training and technical assistance to counties and advocating for expanded public funding.

Over the past several years, we have had great success with this Program as there has been an increase statewide to house youth through THP-Plus from its former level of 135 youth to 1,000 youth. This is roughly a 700% increase in capacity. At this service level, approximately 1 in 4 youth in need will be able to access the program!

For more information, please visit the website at www.thpplus.org