On Their Own: What Happens to Kids When They Age Out of the Foster Care System

by Martha Shirk and Gary Stangler

Book Overview

Each year, as many as 25,000 teenagers "age out" of foster care, usually when they turn eighteen. For years, a government agency had made every important decision for them. Suddenly, they are on their own, with no one to count on. What does it mean to be eighteen and on your own, without the family support and personal connections that most young people rely on? For many youth raised in foster care, it means largely unhappy endings, including sudden...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813341809
• ISBN13: 9780813341804
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Explains what really happens after foster care

The collection of stories here runs the gamut from terribly sad to uplifting. But, all in all, it is a really tough road for those aging out of the system. If you are involved in foster care, or advocacy for children in need of assistance, this is an eye-opening book, particularly for those not schooled in social services, or working in that field.

Author of Returnable Girl

We need to know what happens to the foster kids of America, and how they are being left behind. Ms. Shirk does a tremendous service by documenting this crisis. For a story about a foster teen and her journey to adoption which is uplifting, but realistic, you might want to check out Returnable Girl [...]

Good for novices to foster care system

The interworkings of social services and esp. that of foster care are complex and take much to understand. On Their Own is written at a basic level so the general public can understand what is going on. I have been a mentor and advocate for foster children for a year now and found the book helpful and inspiring. The back part of the book has detailed information on what can be done to help this problem. Some of the kids I mentor will soon be turning 18 and this has allowed me some insight on what to do. The book is amazing for someone who doesn't understand the foster care system. Even though I work with foster kids and understand some of the interworkings, it allowed me better understanding. I had my mom read the book as well. The forward by Jimmy Carter is amazing as well. Good read if you enjoy learning about social issues.

Please read this book!!!

I hope that you take time out to read this book. It focuses on the lives of youth who are in foster care and the challenges that we face when we emancipate from the foster care system. This book is great for people who work in the social services field, who work directly with foster youth, as well as the foster youth themselves. I am in it as well, please read my story... pg. 109

The Saddest Story

What happens when Social Services fail you? And even though you've turned eighteen, or so it says on your birth certificate, you're still not ready for adulthood? Children in foster care face this dilemma daily, for as soon as they're 18, they're dumped from wherever it is that was paying for them to stay. The Williams brothers, three small boys, grew up tough, and in their different ways, Jermaine, Lamar and Jeffrey all tried to cope with a foster system that alternately coddled them and abused them. I was moved to tears by reading the account of Jermaine's last days on earth, simply written by ace reporter Martha Shirk. Happily, the other members of Jermaine's family are living still. Then there's Giselle, a promising young girl who unfortunately becomes prey to anorexia. All too soon, adulthood is upon her, while she's still struggling with a common problem of teenage girls. Liberals worry about these issues, while those of a more conservative bent argue that 18 is certainly old enough to expect a young man or woman to get out on his own and stop depending on charity or handouts. But Shirk and her co-author Stabgler admit there are no easy answers. Anyone can read this book and identify with the ideas behind it, for in one way or another we are all affected by the problems of aging and by being forced by old Father Time into a realm we are really not prepared for. For these young people, it was turning 18. For some of us, it might be turning thirty. And for baby boomers, it will be the call of the retirement trumpet when, once so active, people born in the 1940s and 1950s will be put on the shelf in today's changing world, without sufficient preparation on how to live in that place of old age. Jimmy Carter contirbutes an elegant foreword that shows he has really thought about the problems of youth. That's the saddest story of all.