Our Work
Health
Youth who have been in foster care or homeless face special health challenges, given their history of trauma, instability, and lack of access to consistent health care. JBAY works on multiple fronts to address these challenges.
There are over 1,000 youth in foster care who are custodial parents. JBAY advocates for policies to provide these young families with the support and resources they require, including increasing the monthly stipend that parenting foster youth receive, and establishing a housing supplement for transitional housing placements to enable them to provide larger housing accommodations to youth with children.
Like all youth, young people in foster care require information and support about their reproductive and sexual health. JBAY advocates for policies that ensure foster youth have access to the information and services they need, including the 2017 California Foster Youth Sexual Health Education Act.
An estimated 90% of children in foster care have experienced a traumatic event, with nearly half reporting exposure to four or more traumatic events. JBAY is working with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and local community colleges to develop strategies to provide better support for the mental health needs of foster youth attending college in Los Angeles.