From Foster Care to Independent Living : Assistance: Advocacy group’s home lets young adults practice life skills while in college and before they strike out on their own.

Frances Ponce spent her adolescence chafing against the restricted life of a foster child and dreading the uncertainty of where she would be sent next.

But after six years of bouncing from home to home, there was only one thing the 19-year-old feared more than remaining in foster care: surviving on her own.

Due to be released from foster care after graduation from high school, Ponce was terrified at what awaited her: no money, no home and no means to support herself.

“I was ready to give my clothes away because I figured I’d have no place to keep them anyway,” Ponce said.

Unlike thousands of emancipated foster children, Ponce was spared that fate by a Pasadena-based advocacy group for foster children that has created a program designed to bridge the gap between foster care and total independence.

The group, Catalina House, has given Ponce and four other young women--the first to enter the program--a place to live, part-time jobs and, perhaps most important, the opportunity to obtain college educations.

“People can’t believe we’re doing it,” Catalina House co-founder Cindy Hart said. “Everybody knows that something like this needs to be done, but no one was doing anything.”

Each year, more than 1,000 foster children in Los Angeles County face a similar dilemma because government’s responsibility for their care ends on their 18th birthday. Ponce was able to stay in foster care past her 18th birthday only because she had not completed high school.

Unlike Ponce and other residents of Catalina House, though, most won’t find any help because there are few, if any, groups to assist them make a successful transition from foster care to independence.

Today, sitting in the comfortable living room of Catalina House, Ponce is unsure about her future. One thing she is certain of, however, is that without Catalina House, she would be living on the streets.

“Before I got into this program, I didn’t know how I was going to make it,” Ponce said. “I just knew I had nowhere else to go.”

For many of the thousands of children who were emancipated from the foster care system before 1988, Ponce’s nightmare of life on the streets was a reality. According to Hart, a recent UCLA study found that a third of the homeless in Los Angeles were formerly in the foster care system.

The federal government, realizing the need to prepare foster children for emancipation, began funding in 1988 for special education courses designed to give foster children the skills they need to make it on their own.

In California, these classes are known as the Independent Living Skills Program. The courses are administered through the community college system.

The program, designed to provide foster children with options, includes courses on financial management, job hunting and pursuing a college education.

Although these classes teach valuable skills, Hart said they cannot provide the one thing that foster children need most: a stable environment in which to practice them.

“During these classes, many of the kids begin to feel like they can succeed in life,” said Hart, Pasadena City College’s coordinator for foster care education. “But when they are suddenly pushed back into society without any chance to practice their skills beforehand, many of them end up homeless or in jail.”

Without any support, Hart added, foster children are confronted with such immediate issues as finding food and shelter. Attending college or getting job training sometimes becomes an impossible dream.

Providing assistance to newly independent foster children is not a new idea. According to Hart, government agencies have been studying it for years, but have yet to come up with a concrete program.

Catalina House, which is funded by private donations, is designed to provide former foster children with a secure, supportive environment where they can gradually become accustomed to living on their own.

As Catalina House resident Carmen Ramirez can attest, being on your own can be daunting. “The first day I was here, I discovered I needed something from the store,” she said. “I went to tell somebody I was leaving, and then realized that there was no one here but me. If I wanted to go, I could just go. The thought of that much freedom overwhelmed me and I began crying.”

Residents at Catalina House are given a great deal of freedom with their time, but have rules that other college students might find restrictive.

All participants in the program must attend Pasadena City College full time and are expected to maintain at least a C average. To assure that they have a regular source of income, they also are provided with part-time jobs on campus.

The young women also agree to attend workshops, share in household duties and assume some responsibilities such as maintaining checking and savings accounts.

Hart said participants may remain at Catalina House as long as they continue to fulfill their obligations, but predicted that most would leave after earning associate degrees in two years.

All this would not have been possible, however, without assistance from community organizations in the Pasadena area.

Catalina House case coordinator Miranda Barone said that plans for Catalina House were stalled by a lack of money, but that new life was pumped into the idea earlier this year when the Salvation Army offered the use of a home it owns in Pasadena.

“We couldn’t have done this without the Salvation Army’s help,” Barone said. “There was no way we could have put the money together to buy a house.”

Hart said Catalina House has also been strongly supported by other community organizations, including the Pasadena Junior League. Pointing out the newly redecorated interior of the modest two-story home, Hart said league members recently spent a day refurbishing the house.

Although Catalina House enjoys the support of its community, it cannot keep up with the demand for assistance from former foster children.

Hart said she received more than 40 applications for the five positions at Catalina House, and speculated that with more publicity, the number of applicants could have doubled.

“It’s terrible to make these decisions, because they are all so needy,” Hart said.

“My one hope is that Catalina House will help people to understand the plight of these children and will get them involved,” she added.

“Yea,” chimed in 20-year-old Simone Thomas.

“People need to realize foster children are not like other kids. If other kids have problems, they usually have parents to fall back on,” Thomas said.

“Foster children have no one to go back to. We’re on our own.”