Throughout foster care, especially at age out, most youth have opened a door that allows us to pursue a higher education, as well as providing stability in our living arrangements. Since I have experienced aging out of care, going into extended care, and jumping right into a university for higher education. My personal experience in care is fairly new and is from Reno, Nevada. So some things may differ from your situation depending on where you are from and personal experience.
One of the resources I have access to is called ILP. In Reno, Nevada, our ILP workers are called our cabinet workers. They work at the Children’s Cabinet in the middle of downtown. These people are there to help with resources, as well as, different necessary things to help one start their independent living journey. Over the years, I have gotten help filling out several different types of application, getting transportation to different events, and even got connected to the right people to get all the resources I need at any time.
Filling out applications can be a difficult time in anyone’s journey to becoming a successful adult. One needs to fill out applications for anything from school to jobs and careers. My cabinet workers helped me out time and time again with college applications. For me applying for college isn’t just finding the school one wants to go to, applying, and then hoping that one gets into their top pick for school. It also includes scholarship forms, loan forms, and budgeting forms. In any state, I’m sure if you asked your ILP for help about anything that they would at the very least connect you to someone else that can help you with any particular situation. If one, that resides in Nevada, doesn’t really jive with their ILP provider / cabinet worker there are other people that may be able to help.
These particular people are called ombudsman. The term ombudsman is a fancy term for an official that investigates against people's disagreements about rules that have been placed with particular emphasis on public authority issues and people. Personally, I didn’t know that Nevada was one of the states that are lucky enough to have an ombudsman. In my case, I would ask my social worker for more information about how to contact this individual. Lucky for you all, I did a little digging and found a document on how to contact Nevada’s ombudsman. The link is: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/division/research/publications/directory/Omb... This is a PDF with contact information to all of the different types of ombudsmens. There are different ombudsmans for different categories. Business and industry, Health and Human Services, and Utilities are just a few of the different categories. The one that I would call if I had an issue with my personal well being would probably call any of the onbudsmens that deal with Health and Human Services. Below I have written some helpful tools for foster care.
When I first got put into care, I strenuously strived for aging out, also known as an independent living plan, rather than getting reunited with my parents. I was already living by myself so that wasn’t as hard to take action as I thought it was going to be. Almost instantly, I got told about all of the opportunities that were available to me upon aging out of care. One of the things that I would be granted with would be extended care. In Nevada you can stay in extended care until you turn the age of 21. It is really helpful for youth that are going through college because one doesn’t have to work and they can gain extra credits to avoid working during most of college.
There are also more resources out there for you such as ETV and the Otto Huth scholarship that allow you to go to school full time and not worry about a job and not having to pay for college. One could come out of their undergrad debt free, and that is not something that every college graduate gets the opportunity to say. If you want more information about either the Otto Huth scholarship, for Nevada residents only, or ETV please feel free to email me at [email protected] or comment below and I can add it to this very blog. Thank you for your time and consideration while reading my blog. Bye!!
(Hello everyone!! Even though this blog primarily pertains to the Nevada community doesn't mean that you cant read it over and find out if there are similar resources in your states. Thanks for your time! :-D)