According to the Children's Bureau's Child Welfare Outcomes Data, a child in foster care is subject to experience placement in a different foster home up to two times within twelve months of being in the system and this number only increases the longer the child is in the system. According to these statistics youth experience interrupted education leading to less than 60% of foster children graduating high school.
Furthermore, with Oklahoma's aging-out age set to 18, youth who age out with inadequate education, no life skills are subject to homelessness, drug abuse and prison time according to Youth.gov.
Knowing these statistics, Youth Empowered and Strong fostering group home will address the need of all youth in the foster care system, providing stability, life skills, education and career development support.
Meet our Founder
Michele Hill
Michele passion and purpose has always been involved around youth in the community, focusing on their well-being and education. Using her degrees in Early Childhood Education and Social Work she has worked at some of the leading childcare centers in Oklahoma spanning over 20+years. With a degree in Human development and Certification in Non-profit her focus, passion and purpose shifted to youth in foster care specifically youth aging out of foster care. She became a foster parent and founded Youth Empowered and Strong (Y.E.S) in hopes in making a difference in foster children and making a change and shift to the Child Welfare system.
Meet the Team
Our leadership team was carefully selected to represent different socioeconomic grounds with ethnic diversity. Each team member has educational and or years of experience in related fields and attributes to contribute to the success of Youth Empowered and Strong.
Deanna Saldivar
Mattece Mason
Marcia Keesee