COA - Council On Accreditation

	Youth Independent Living Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

Definition

Youth Independent Living Services are designed for older adolescents who have been separated from their homes, may have been disconnected from long-term family relationships, and may have assumed parenting responsibilities. These youth need skills and support to lead self-sufficient, healthy, productive, and stable adult lives. Youth receiving these services may be in state custody, living in a foster care or kinship care home, or in a residential treatment or group home setting and typically face numerous challenges due to multiple, changing living arrangements. These challenges include a lack of: connection to effective support for educational achievement and school continuity, access to employment preparation and jobs, personal financial education, competency and security, and sources of encouragement to save and start to accumulate assets.

Interpretation: The YIL Services Purpose Standard addresses the attainment of foundational, short-term, achievable outcomes that lay groundwork for longer-term positive outcomes. Depending on age, time in program, and other factors, outcomes such as school graduation or training completion can either be immediate or can begin with improving on test scores or reading at or above grade level. Steps toward economic self-sufficiency can include achieving financial growth goals such as completing a financial education program, understanding and obtaining a good credit rating, or building a savings account. The YIL standards are inclusive of Independent Living Services (ILS), the literature base that informs the YIL standards significantly.

Note: An organization that provides Counseling, Support and Education Services; Mental Health Services; Case Management Services; Workforce Development Services; Vocational Services; Foster Care; Kinship Care; Immigration and Refugee Resettlement Services; Pregnancy Support Services; and Volunteer Mentoring Services, will complete additional, complimentary service sections.

Note: Please see Self-Paced_Training: Youth Independent Living Services (YIL) in the Tools Index for additional assistance with this standard.

Research Note: With passage of the Chaffee Foster Care Independence Program (1999) legislation, DHHS funding became available to help youth transition from foster care to self-sufficiency by offering education, daily living skills, vocational and employment training, substance abuse and pregnancy prevention, preventive health activities, and connections to dedicated adults. Support for youth leaving foster care was extended to include youth age 14 through 21 years old. In 2000, new legislation took effect that added the Chafee Housing Subsidy. The program offers states increased flexibility and accountability for service provision and requires coordination of funds with other funding sources for similar services. The states’ application of the legislation varies. In some states, for example, a statutory change would be required to extend out of home care benefits to children through age 21.

Research Note: Young adults who are not engaged in some combination of school and work, the major activities that increase their ability to support themselves, often are referred to as idle or disconnected. Literature is beginning to accumulate that better defines “disconnected” youth in practical terms, as is research on the cost to youth, in lack of education attainment, income and earnings, and receipt of public assistance later in life.


	PURPOSE: Young adults who receive Independent Living Services obtain safe and stable housing, develop life skills and competencies including work readiness, achieve educational and financial growth goals, and establish healthy, supportive adult and peer relationships.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	CUSTODY The care, control, and maintenance of a child. The court legally can award custody to an agency in abuse and neglect cases or to parents in divorce, separation, or adoption proceedings. Child welfare departments retain legal custody and control of major decisions for a child in foster care; foster parents do not have legal custody of the children for which they provide care.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organization for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child's family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.


	REFUGEE Those who flee their home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion and are unable or unwilling to return to, or avail themselves of, their home country.


	VOLUNTEER An individual who performs services for an organization for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation, or receipt of compensation for services rendered. Such service must be offered freely and without pressure or coercion, direct or implied, from an employer. If the individual is otherwise employed by the same employer for which s/he volunteers, the individual cannot volunteer to perform the same type of services that s/he is paid to perform as an employee.


	SUBSTANCE ABUSE The misuse of a chemical substance in a manner that is detrimental to an individual's physical or mental health.


	PREVENTION Actions taken to minimize and/or eliminate social, psychological, or other conditions. Prevention can occur at the individual, group, community, and societal levels and enhances opportunities to achieve positive fulfillment.


	MANAGEMENT See ADMINISTRATION


	ACCOUNTABILITY The extent to which an organization is answerable for its processes and outcomes to a variety of relevant stakeholders including: consumers, community representatives, governing bodies, and governmental regulators.


	RESEARCH For purposes of COA accreditation, all forms of internal or external research involving persons served except internal program evaluation and outcomes research, or educational projects performed by students and interns that are part of their professional training.