The Riverside Project Podcast

When people think of foster care, it’s typically assumed that it ends at age 18 when a child ages out of care. However, that is not the case in most states. Nearly every state offers federally funded programs to extend foster care beyond 18 years. This is what is known as extended foster care, and it includes programs like continued care with foster parents and independent living situations. Our guest for this episode is deeply familiar with these programs as she oversees them for Texas. Alin...

“When it comes to kids and families in our community, we don’t have to settle for not enough.” National estimates show that, in recent years, roughly 300,000–400,000 children have been involved in the child welfare system at any given time. Statistics like this, while helpful, can sometimes cause us to slip into a scarcity mentality. We may worry that we don’t have enough resources to address such a large need. Or, we might assume that if we’re not able to take up the role of a foster parent,...

300,000. That is the estimated number of children in our city who sleep on the floor. That’s nearly 13% of Houston’s overall population. Having a soft place to lay your head at night is something many of us take for granted. But for the vulnerable children and families in our city, the gift of a bed can mean so much—providing dignity, worth, and security. Our guest for this conversation is passionate about imparting this dignity to the children of Houston by providing mattresses and other fur...

Neither foster care nor homelessness are isolated issues. They both intersect with numerous social issues—including each other. For example, homelessness is a contributing factor to why many children end up in the child welfare system, and it’s also a risk factor that can impact youth who are already involved in or aging out of foster care. Of the 173 youth and young adults currently on the Coalition for the Homeless’s list for Houston, approximately 25% of them have been involved in foster c...

It’s estimated that around 70% of all instances of kinship care are informal. This is significant because family members in these cases are caring for a child without official documentation. Caregivers providing informal kinship care do not receive assistance from the state, nor do they have official custody of the child. And in many cases, they cannot receive assistance from other organizations or local programs, as these resources often require official documentation of the placement. This ...