A Message from Renee S. Fillette, founder
When I began working in child welfare I was struck by the alarming statistic that 70% of children leaving the NYS child welfare system would end up homeless, incarcerated, or dead within their first five years of discharge. Shockingly, this number has recently increased to 80%.
I wanted to see how we compared to the state average. I collected data from our case files and cross referenced that list with data held in our Finance Department.
I am confident that this information includes every child we have ever discharged from the agency, no matter the length of their stay with us. Here is what I found:
We have discharged 57 youth from our program between 2003-2009.
· 40% of our youth are currently living in a family environment (either birth family or adoptive)
· 28% of our youth were discharged to a higher level of care
· 14% of our youth experienced homelessness, incarceration or death
· 10% are currently living independently with no known incarceration, or periods of homelessness
· 7% are AWOL (of the four residents who permanently AWOL’d from our program, 2 are known to be living with their families)
We have far exceeded the state average for successful discharges. What is not represented here are the number of youth who maintain regular contact with us, and those who return to our homes after working hard in a higher level of care.
By remaining focused on the mission, goal and vision of this agency, I am confident we can continue to serve our children in this outstanding manner in the years ahead.
Updated December 2009
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