IL Program Overview
Independent Living Programs (ILP) provide services meant to equip youth and young people who experience foster care at age 14 -21 with the tools, resources, and supports needed for a successful transition from foster care to adulthood. In accordance with Section 477 [42 U.S.C. 677] of the Social Security Act, the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee) program aims to reduce risks such as homelessness, poverty, and criminal behavior while promoting high school graduation, postsecondary education or training, employment readiness, and long-term
self-sufficiency.
Independent living services are provided to youth and young people using a combination of federal (Chafee), state and local funds provided to CCYA’s through an IL Grant. CCYAs are required to identify youth who experienced foster care at age 14 or older and are likely to remain in foster care through age 18 and:
- Support youth to transition to self-sufficiency by providing services such as assistance in obtaining a high school diploma, career exploration, vocational training, job placement and retention, training in daily living skills, training in budgeting and financial management, substance abuse prevention and preventative health activities (including smoking avoidance, nutrition education and pregnancy prevention);
- Support youth to obtain the education, training and services necessary to obtain employment;
- Support youth to prepare for and enter post-secondary education and training institutions;
- Provide personal and emotional support to youth aging out of foster care, through mentors and the promotion of interactions with dedicated adults;
- Provide financial, housing, counseling, employment, education and other appropriate support services to former foster care recipients to complement a youth’s own efforts to achieve self-sufficiency and to ensure that program participants recognize and accept their personal responsibility for preparing for and successfully transitioning to adulthood;
- Inform youth about the Chafee Education and Training Grant (ETG) program and the Fostering Independence Waiver (FosterEd) Program;
- Provide services to youth who, after attaining 16 years of age, have left foster care for kinship care, guardianship or adoption; and
- Ensure children who are likely to remain in foster care until 18 years of age are afforded opportunities to engage in age and developmentally appropriate extracurricular, enrichment, cultural or social activities and experiences.
To be eligible for Independent Living services in PA, a youth must:
- Be in, or have been in, out-of-home placement on or after age 14;
- Be adjudicated dependent; or
- Be dually adjudicated dependent AND delinquent; or
- Be a qualified alien youth*; or
- Be adjudicated delinquent with shared case management responsibility between the CCYA and the Juvenile Probation Office.
*An alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence and include LRR’s, asylees, refugees, parolees, granted withholding of deportation, conditional entrants, Cuban or Haitian entrants, battered aliens, and victims of a severe form of trafficking. NOTE: The term ‘qualified alien’ is not an immigration status but includes a collection of statuses.
CCYAs may provide IL services to youth in the following categories with state and local dollars:
- Youth receiving in-home services (e.g. GPS cases, youth not adjudicated, not in out of home placement)
- Youth in the general population (youth not involved with CCYA, but identified as at risk by the community, schools, or partner agencies)
- Youth who have been adjudicated delinquent (not SCR or dually adjudicated)
The IL Bulletin guidelines specify, in broad terms, the requirements of Pennsylvania’s IL Programs, including necessary documentation, fiscal responsibilities, and reporting requirements. In collaboration with OCYF, individual IL Programs are monitored by the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center’s Independent Living Project through an annual site visit review conducted by Practice Improvement Specialists who specialize in older youth.
For more in-depth information about the Independent Living Program visit: