About Youth Connected Program
Our Mission
The Youth Connected Program provides an innovative support system, a safe home environment, and socio-emotional and academic resources for teens in foster care.
Thanks to you, we can create connections, opportunities, and loving homes for Orange County teens.
Youth Connected Program is a foster family agency for Orangewood Foundation that was created from a need to support teens in Orange County. With more than 2,000 Orange County youth in foster care, we strive to offer weekday dorm living and schooling at the prestigious Samueli Academy with placement in a local home for weekends, school breaks, and holidays.
Collaborative Foster Parents
Think of the mentors in your life:
your parents, your extended family, your favorite teachers and coaches. They played a critical role in supporting your dreams and wellness.
Not every teen is as fortunate to have a strong system of advocates. That’s where you come in.
A Collaborative Foster Parent provides a safe haven for teens outside of their school week at Samueli Academy. Each family commits to building an emotional connection and opens their home as a space for nurture and growth on weekends, summer vacation, and holidays.
We need your help to surround teens in foster care with supportive relationships so they can grow and develop socially, emotionally and academically. At YCP, we consider a unique approach to foster parenting that starts with you, the Collaborative Foster Parent.
Just as any teen’s confidant would support them with mid-week pep talks or cheer them on during soccer practice, your role as a Collaborative Foster Parent is the same: provide the care and compassion each teen deserves.
But you’re not doing this alone.
Unlike other foster organizations, you’re part of a community designed to support foster teens AND their foster parents, making this a collaborative partnership that benefits us all.
On campus, Samueli staff and teachers are trained with a trauma-informed culture from top to bottom.
We also connect each teen with psychologists and counselors who help teens process these changes.
Collaborative foster parents have 24/7 access to on-call social workers who are trained to guide through crises.
Think back again to your years as a teenager.
Growing up, finding yourself, making friends and going to school…
It was a tumultuous time.
Teenage years are already challenging and youth in our programs find themselves facing slightly more challenging circumstances. They have generally experienced abuse or neglect to some degree and may be working to reunite with their family members or striving toward independence.
YCP specifically focuses on Orange County teens between the ages of 13 to 18 who either attend Samueli Academy themselves or are the siblings of a student there. Each youth works with their counselors and Samueli staff to set ongoing, personal goals.
Did you know…
Youth in foster care miss 10% or more days of school due to home placement changes, school transfers, court hearings, and parental visitation.
Only 53% of students in foster care graduate high school on time.
Most youth experience three to five different placements within a year of entering foster care.
You, alongside your new community, can change the life of an Orange County teen.
Ready to take the first step?