Genesis Hopeful Haven

We are applying for this prize because the state of our foster care system is in crisis. Once foster youth turn 18, they are left to figure out life alone. By reducing homelessness amongst foster youth; increasing education and employment opportunities; and helping them build social capital, we offer them a greater chance to live independent, fulfilling lives as happy and productive citizens of society.

The Elevate Prize leadership development workshops and the opportunity to coalesce with like-minded people, growing our organization with the goal of impacting and changing lives will become vital to our community.

Funding will go towards building capacity for our Life Skills Camp (Camp Independence), after school programming, and travel program (The Explorer Program). These opportunities expose our youth to career pathways and inspire goals for their future.

We want to have a transformational impact that goes beyond the youth we serve directly and inspires other foster youth to follow in their footsteps. The Elevate Prize mission aligns with our work. Funding will help us elevate our program and foster new beginnings, providing youth with opportunities to overcome social and racial inequities through activities fostering educational and vocational success, independent living, healthy relationships, and financial stability.

Our founder and Executive Director is Fritzie Saintoiry, a Haitian-American Black woman, who lived at her aunt’s orphanage in Haiti from the age of 1 to 5, returning each summer throughout her adolescent years. The orphanage provided a supportive and nurturing family atmosphere that enabled children to succeed - this special place became the inspiration for her vision: to create a nurturing family space for children without a biological family.

Fritzie went on to pursue a career in social work, and her mission was solidified shortly after the passing away of her son, Genesis. The pain of that loss became a driving force for her, turning her pain into purpose – the impetus for creating Genesis Hopeful Haven (GHH). 

At GHH, we prepare youth to transition from the foster care system to adulthood, providing a haven that promotes hope, healing and community. We seek to address disparities amongst foster youth, including marginalization due to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and immigration status. 

Our future goal is to create a community center exclusively for foster and former foster youth, where they can access basic needs but also the nurturing community vital to their future success.

Do you remember who taught you how to drive? At age 18, who would you call if you had an emergency? Did you get to spend holidays with family? 

For foster youth, aging out means trying to navigate life’s journey alone – no one to celebrate your birthday, come to your graduation or have Christmas dinner with. 22,000 foster youth age out of the system every year in the United states, with 86% still in high school.

Research states that due to lack of a support system, youth who age out of the foster care system are 48% more likely to become homeless; 50% will not graduate from high school; fewer than 3% will earn a college degree; 50% struggle with substance abuse; 38% will remain unemployed; 50% will experience child pregnancy; and 61% are incarcerated by the age of 19. 

GHH aims to reduce the risk of negative lifelong consequences for foster youth through the implementation of programs that are evidence-based and facilitate the development and mastery of needed life skills. We address these issues and go further by also providing supportive housing and a community of caring adults that youth can build family-like, long-term relationships with.

The foundation of our program is family. All of our programs model that. We start working with some of our youth as early as age 10, aiming to provide them with housing at age 18, along with the support needed to transition into adulthood in a way that’s similar to their peers who have family supporting them.

Our approach involves providing opportunities for enrichment and long-term inspiration. Our Camp Independence is catered to foster youth and provides both fun activities like regular camps and comprehensive life skills training. Furthermore, our vocational training provides exposure to a diverse range of career pathways and entrepreneurship programming. The Camp is led by youth who have successfully transitioned out of foster care - they serve as camp counselors and near-peer role models.

Another unique offering of our program is that we meet the individual needs of each participant. They meet one-on-one with our Care Coordinator, who develops a transition plan for each one of them, providing short-term goals and accountability to help them succeed. We care about each individual and make it our mission to give them hope, love and a safe haven and plan to do this even at scale.

We develop a holistic, client-centered understanding of each participant and their needs through several sources: one-on-ones; observation and assessment; talking with those who work in the local foster care system (e.g., foster parents, case workers, other professionals); and reading relevant reports and research. Based on this gathering of information, we design, implement, and continually look to improve our programs.

Information at both the local and national levels paint a similar picture of the needs that must be addressed. Transitioning out of care is a complex and daunting process that requires significant planning.

The overarching goal of our program is to ensure that each youth is prepared to successfully transition out of foster care into a healthy, independent adulthood. For our purposes, a healthy adulthood includes:

• Sustained employment and/or post-secondary education completion

• Housing stability

• Maintenance of physical and mental health (overall well-being)

• A strong social support system

• Financial stability 

•  Engagement in the community

Our program is based on current research and designed to ensure that youth develop assets in five key areas essential to adulthood (Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, 2018): 

• Independent living skills

• Material resources

• Human capital

• Psychosocial skills

• Social connections (Urban Institute, 2007)