June is a month full of transitions. Graduation ceremonies are happening in high school gyms and stadiums all across North Carolina, with students in caps and gowns, families cheering, and photos being taken. For most graduates, this moment marks an exciting leap forward – maybe college, maybe a first job, maybe a gap year to figure out the next step. For many young adults, there’s usually a safety net underneath all of that excitement. A parent helping to move into a dorm, a relative who will answer the phone when things get hard, a family home to return to on holidy breaks. But for young people aging out of foster care, that moment often looks very different.
When the Safety Net Disappears
Each year in North Carolina, hundreds of young adults “age out” of the foster care system, meaning they reach adulthood without being reunified with a family or connected to a permanent home. These are young people who face adulthood largely on their own, often without the informal support most of us take for granted, like having a parent to call, a couch to crash on, someone who knows their story and is still showing up for them.
The outcomes for this group are sobering. Research from one of the most comprehensive nationwide datasets on foster youth, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Fostering Youth Transitions report, consistently finds that young adults transitioning out of foster care fall significantly behind their peers in completing high school, gaining employment, and securing stable housing. A significant percentage experience homelessness. Studies suggest that extending foster care support beyond age 18 can reduce homelessness by 18 to 30 percent and incarceration by 36 to 46 percent, which tells us how much difference the right support, offered at the right time, can make.
Here in North Carolina, over 10,000 children were in foster care in recent years, with hundreds aging out across our state each year, according to the Fostering Youth Transitions report. The need to extend foster care support is real and urgent, so we set out to close the gap between where these young adults find themselves and where they deserve to be.
Introducing Bridging Futures™
We are incredibly proud and excited to introduce Bridging Futures, a new Crossnore program designed specifically for young adults ages 17 to 21 who are in the custody of the Department of Social Services and expected to age out of state care. Bridging Futures is built on the foundation of our Bridging Families™ program, the model that’s been endorsed by the N.C. Department of Health & Human Services as the state model for professional foster parenting. We know what works and we know how to build consistent, caring, and trauma-informed teams around young people. And now, we’re applying that same approach to one of the most vulnerable and underserved populations we serve.
At its heart, Bridging Futures does three things:
It provides stable, supportive housing. Each Bridging Futures home has two full-time, live-in Bridge Parents, professional foster parents who are salaried Crossnore employees, not volunteers or part-time caregivers. They are dedicated, trained professionals whose entire focus is walking alongside young adults as they navigate early adulthood. Each home serves up to five young people, which means the relationships formed there are intentional and consistent.
It builds the skills and networks young people need to thrive. Participants work through the Empower Yourself life skills curriculum, developed by a North Carolinian with lived experience in foster care, covering topics such as financial literacy, communication skills, health & wellness, housing essentials, and more. Our dedicated case managers focus on connecting young adults to post-secondary education and vocational opportunities and help them build long-term support networks that won’t disappear when the program ends.
It provides real, wraparound clinical support. Each team includes a licensed clinician who provides individual therapy and brings clinical insight to every part of the program, because we know that the path to independence isn’t just about skills, but healing, too.
Every team in Bridging Futures (Bridge Parents, case manager, clinician, and supervisor) serves no more than 15 young adults. That ratio is intentional in providing a high level of individualized care, support, and attention.
Growing Across North Carolina
Bridging Futures is already growing, with six homes currently in development across multiple regions of the state. We opened our first home on Crossnore’s Winston-Salem campus in April and are already serving five young adults. A second Winston-Salem home is in final renovation, with additional homes progressing on our Avery campus, in Guilford County, and in the Smoky Mountain region.
We’re intentionally placing Bridging Futures homes near post-secondary institutions and are excited to build partnerships with local colleges and educational institutions. Whether a young adult is pursuing a four-year degree, a community college program, or a vocational certification, we want those pathways to be close, accessible, and supported.
More Than a Program
Adulting is hard for all of us. There’s a reason most of us lean on our families and communities as we figure life out. Youth aging out of foster care deserve that same kind of support and safety net. They deserve someone in their corner who knows them, believes in them, and will be answering the phone when things get hard.
That’s what Bridging Futures is – a community, not just a program. It’s a team of people who show up every single day to make sure these young adults have the stability, skills, and support to write their own next chapters. Our vision is to accept Bridging Futures referrals for young adults from across N.C., so that no young adult aging out of foster care is left without a path forward. Every graduation, every new beginning, every first step into adulthood deserves a safety net. And we’re building one.
If you know a young adult ages 17 to 21 in DSS custody who might benefit from Bridging Futures, or if you’d like to learn more about Bridge Parent career opportunities, reach out to us at referrals@crossnore.org or call (866) 892-6213. You can also learn more at crossnore.org/bridging-futures.
