Foster a Dream renewed for another year

January 23, 2020

More local youth in foster care are graduating high school and heading to college – and the Kathryn A. Basile Foster a Dream Foundation is helping to make those academic dreams come true.

The foundation – established in 2010 to help meet the unfunded needs of youth aging out of foster care – awarded Communities Connected for Kids $10,000 late last year to help youth pay for high-school graduation expenses, college campus visits and other costs associated with making the transition into independence.

A record 30 youth in foster care attended college last year, said Christina Kaiser, community relations director for CCKids.

The number of foster youth who graduated high school last year, though not as robust as college entry levels, also was strong at 14. That number holds steady from 2018 but represents a slight decreased from 2017, which was an all-time high for local teens graduating high school.

“It’s a small number, but important,” Kaiser said. “It’s a barometer of our system’s overall health and a credit to partners like the Foster a Dream Foundation that help create a stable environment for young people transitioning out of foster care.”

The foundation helps them meet expenses that ordinarily would be handled by family. That helps normalize the foster-care experience, she said.

Since it was created in 2010 in memory of child advocate Kathryn A. Basile, Foster a Dream has contributed more than $70,000 and helped 134 teenagers and young adults in foster care.

Pictured above is the late Kathryn A. Basile, a local child advocate who served as the executive director of the St. Lucie County Children's Services Council for 10 years.