Our nation has much work to do to improve the foster care system in this nation. The 110th Congress has risen to the challenge and has made many strides toward improving the lives of foster children and working to re-unite families.

Many of our nation’s foster children become runaway or homeless youths. There is no single definition of the term “runaway youth” or “homeless youth.” However, both groups of youth share the risk of not having adequate shelter and other provisions, and may engage in harmful behaviors while away from a permanent home. These two groups also include “thrown-away” youth who are asked to leave their homes, and may include other vulnerable youth populations, such as current and former foster youth and youth with mental health or other issues.

Youth in foster care tend to run away from poor situations and are often lost within our accounting systems. A California study in Contra Costa County found that a third of children had been in foster care in the year before they took to the streets. More than one out of five youths who arrive at a shelter come directly from a foster or group home, with 38 percent nationally saying they had been in foster care at some time during the previous year. Once they run away, unless they find shelter and assistance, they become one of our nation’s approximately 1.3 million runaway, homeless, and thrown-away youth. Connecticut officials estimate 75 percent of youths in their state’s criminal justice system were once in foster care.  The constant movement from home to home or location to location creates gaps and breaks for foster care youth, which leads to educational and interpersonal challenges. These factors contribute to the opportunity for a youth to commit status offenses or crimes, both of which open the door to the juvenile justice system.  Our current system must be fixed, and I am confident we can do better.

Both youth aging out of the foster care system and youth exiting the juvenile justice system need support to integrate into society. These supports include counseling, life skills courses, employment training, transportation assistance, and others based on the individual’s background and life goals.

In order to successfully address these challenges, we must tear down the walls between existing federal programs to create a holistic approach to caring for our nation’s children. We must improve the education of all youth, but we cannot ignore the needs of the child outside of school walls. Children in foster care have a great need for stability in the home, positive adult relationships and safe places to go before and after school.

Currently, our systems are operating independently of each other and change is hard. We see pockets of change sprouting across the country where many children’s programs are working together, not against each other, to leverage dollars, energy and expertise to improve the care of our nation’s children.

As chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, I have taken a strong interest in improving the delivery of services for our nation’s vulnerable children. My subcommittee has held hearings on the plight of runaway and homeless youths, and will be working to reauthorize both the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. These two pieces of legislation work hand in hand, and together can improve the delivery of services for many of our nation’s most vulnerable children.

Foster and vulnerable children also benefit from participation in volunteer organizations. I have introduced H.R. 2857, the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act. The bill reauthorizes our national service laws, and brings a focus to disadvantaged youth. The GIVE Act defines disadvantaged youth, and includes youth who are in or aging out of foster care. Participation in national service programs has been shown to re-connect and re-integrate these youths in their community. Furthermore, participating youth experience increased self-esteem, a sense of achievement and academic improvement. Participation in national service programs can also teach youth in or aging out of foster care employment skills, financial planning skills and life skills, and can assist in the development of an educational plan and goals.

While we have made great improvements to the foster care system in this nation there is still much work to be done. As we begin the second session of the 110th Congress, I look forward to focusing on these issues both in my subcommittee and before the full House. If we work together, across party lines, we can truly make a difference for our nation’s youth.

McCarthy is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities.