'Shoulder To Cry On': NYC Foster Kids To Get Support From Coaches

NEW YORK — As a teenager in New York City's foster care system, Gabbie Rodriguez was among a lucky few to have a one-on-one "coach" who helped her to apply to college. When she dropped out of her first school, the coach stuck by her and encouraged her to try again — and now she's studying to be a teacher at the City College of New York.

But Rodriguez's relationship with her coach runs deeper than her education, the 22-year-old said.

"Every year she sends me cards on my birthday. She sent me care packages when I was away at school," Rodriguez said at a news conference. "... My coach made me feel like this was more than job to her, like she cared about me as a person and was invested in my success as a scholar."

A new first-in-the-nation city initiative will soon give thousands of foster kids coaches like Rodriguez's to help them navigate school, work and life's ups and downs, city officials announced Wednesday.

The $10 million program run by the city's Administration for Children's Services will provide coaching for some 3,300 11-to-21-year-olds in the foster system by the end of this year, agency Commissioner David Hansell said.

Coaches have been shown to help foster kids perform better in school and put them on a positive path as they grapple with the trauma they've experienced, according to officials and advocates.

"In the midst of profound instability, knowing that one trusted person will be there to guide them can be the difference between dropping out of high school and earning a college degree, chronic unemployment or earning a living wage job, a safe place to live or life on the streets," said Natasha Lifton, a senior program officer at the New York Community Trust.

The program makes New York the first city in the nation to provide coaching services like these for foster children, Hansell said.

Its planned launch marks a partial victory for the Fair Futures Coalition, a bloc of child welfare agencies, advocates and others who pressed Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration this spring to put $50 million in the city budget for foster coaches.

While it will not serve all of the roughly 8,300 children and young adults in the foster system, the initiative will ensure every kid in its designated age group gets support from a coach, Hansell said.

Each of the city's 27 foster care agencies will get a portion of the program's funding based on how many kids they serve with a target of providing one coach for every 15 children, according to officials. In addition to coaches, the agencies will be able to hire specialists who can help kids navigate education, employment and housing, Hansell said.

The foster agencies will submit plans for how to spend the money within three weeks and the coaching will start by the end of the year, according to Hansell.

"This is an important initiative not just for the thousands of young people in New York City’s foster care system who will benefit," Hansell said. "It’s an important initiative for New York City as a whole. And that’s because these young people are our next generational leaders, and we can’t afford to get this wrong."

City Council Member Stephen Levin, who pushed to fund the coaching program in this year's budget talks, said the $10 million investment is a starting point. Advocates plan to continue pressing city and state officials for the full $50 million, which would let the program expand.

"There are still going to be young people aging out of foster care, and we have a responsibility to give … a young person that type of relationship, with somebody they know they can trust, that has their interest at heart, and that they know that they can go to, that shoulder to cry on," Levin, a Brooklyn Democrat, said.