It's commencement season, a time of high expectations for a bright future full of promise. For some young people, however, the achievement of their educational goal, whether a high school or college diploma, is an extraordinary accomplishment.

Youth who have lived in foster care and achieved these goals have beaten the odds against them. These young people have experienced the trauma of abuse and neglect in their families, been placed in foster care, and struggled to keep up with their peers in school. Few would expect them to graduate from high school or college. And in reality, few do—in King County only 33% of young people in foster care graduate from high school by the time they reach age 18 and leave care. Nationally an estimated 15% go to college and only 5% graduate.

Grim Statistics
Young people leaving foster care who haven't graduated from high school and college, who have no home to return to and no skills to rely on, have bleak prospects. In studies that follow youth for two to four years as they leave foster care, the findings indicate:

• Fewer than 50% are employed
• 25% are homeless for at least one night
• 60% of young women had a baby
• Less than 20% are completely self-sufficient

They cost our community a great deal both in what they don't contribute in taxes as well as what they cost us in remedial services. It's worth our while to help young people in foster care succeed.

You may wonder what's different about those young people in foster care who do graduate from high school and college. You may wonder how they held on to a vision of possibilities that included college when over half of youth leaving foster care are homeless in the first year. You may wonder how they forge ahead with no continuing family or state support after their 18th birthdays.

Typical young people in high school can see a future full of opportunity and promise, but most youth in foster care find their thinking consumed by fear about where they will live and how they will support themselves. They don't have a plan beyond meeting immediate needs.

Yet, with the help of someone who cared about their potential, these resilient youth developed hope and a vision for the future. Each and every one of these young people had a partner or a guide—someone who reached out to them and helped them nurture their dreams, learn their facts, and explore possibilities. Then, these partners helped them hold on to their visions and strive to make them real.

Reaching Out
Who are they? Foster parents, relatives, teachers, school counselors, pastors, agency caseworkers, or volunteers. Any one of us can step up to help a young person in foster care. These partners are not different from any of us, except that they asked "How can I make a difference in the life of a foster child?" Then they took action!

Julia (not her real name) entered foster care in sixth grade because of a parent's mental health problems. She remembers feeling lost and confused when she left her home and her school to enter foster care in a city 30 miles away. Not being known by the other students or an adult was hard and she faltered in her schoolwork. A bright girl, her potential was noticed by her teachers and her foster parents.

Small gestures meant a lot to her. She remembers receiving a scientific calculator valued at $75 from Treehouse. Receiving it validated her choice of challenging, college preparatory classes. A friend of her foster family was impressed with her ambition and success and paid for her books throughout college. She graduated from a local private college and decided to "give back" because of all the support she had received.

After a year of service in the CityYear program tutoring middle school students who were kicked out of school, she entered Teach for America. She simultaneously taught in an urban elementary school and completed her MA in teaching. She continues on her path as a teacher, mentor and friend to children from challenging circumstances. Caring partners and guides made a difference for her and she is making a difference for others.

When a child enters foster care it is because a judge rules that his family is not able to keep him safe. At that moment, the child becomes the responsibility of our community. While most of us will not choose to be a foster parent and raise a stranger's child in our home, each of us has the potential to be a partner to a child in foster care. All of us can be passionate advocates and volunteers who help these children and youth.

Celebrating Hard-Won Achievements
As May came to a close, Treehouse and its collaborators (Washington State Division of Children and Family Services, YMCA Transitions, YMCA Independent Living Program, Girl Scouts Totem Council, Lutheran Community Services, and Casey Family Programs) joined to celebrate the accomplishments of nearly 100 youth here in King County who are graduating from high school, achieving a GED or graduating from college. In a celebration of their accomplishment and the partnerships that supported them, we invited the youth and their caregivers, as well as staff, volunteers, supporters and younger youth in foster care to gather.

As in commencement ceremonies across the country, we listened to music and speeches and watched a procession of graduates cross a stage. Here, though, we celebrated unlikely successes that can be replicated if each of us chooses to be a partner to a youth. And as a community that cares, we show other kids in care and the community at large that success really is possible—no matter what the statistics show.

Janis Avery is executive director of Treehouse [1] in Seattle, Washington. Treehouse offers local kids in care educational support services, extra-curricular programs and summer camp, as well as school supplies and clothing. It's mission is: giving foster kids a childhood...and a future.