This brief examines Opportunity Passport™ participant data to reveal the education and employment barriers that young people often face when leaving foster care. Readers will also learn how to design effective policies and practices to help these young people successfully transition into adulthood.
The Jim Casey Initiative’s Opportunity Passport program is a matched-savings intervention that aims to improve young people’s financial capability as they transition from foster care into adulthood.
The statistics reveal that Opportunity Passport participants have stronger economic progression compared to other young people with foster care experience and their peers in the general population. Yet, the data also indicate an imbalance in employment progression for certain young people aging out of foster care. Two specific groups — young parents and youth with group placement experience — are especially in need of effective policies, programs and support that can help them gain work experience.
