Women leaders raise over $50,000 for youth
United Women's Leadership Council wants to help young women leaving county's foster care system
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

IN RECOGNITION- Allison Bonburg, right, a local representative for Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), presents the United Women's Leadership Council with a certificate of recognition from the California Senate during a recent council meeting. From left are Lydia Ledesma-Reese, council chair, Amy Fonzo of the United Way of Ventura County and Kelly Baker, a council member.

They did it.

The United Women's Leadership Council not only met its goal of raising $50,000 by the end of June but exceeded it by $6,000, an official with the group said earlier this week.

"It's very exciting," Vice President Amy Fonzo said of the $56,000 the group raised.

Fonzo said that in addition to creating a personal legacy, founding members will also appear in the council's marketing materials for the first year.

The fledgling activist group of 56 women and men have taken up the mission of identifying the gaps in social services for girls age 15 to 19 transitioning out of the county's foster care system.

They'll partner with those agencies and organizations serving that population to meet the girls' needs.

Countywide, an average of 80 young women each year turn 18 and leave the foster care system. Many of them become pregnant, homeless and/or turn to gangs and drugs.

Stats for youth in foster care are just as dismal across the state and throughout the country.

Half of all foster care youth in the U.S. become homeless sometime during their first 12 months of emancipation.

In California, of the 4,000 youth who age out of the system each year, 65 percent have no place to live, 46 percent haven't completed high school, and 51 percent are unemployed, according to the Children's Advocacy Institute. Fewer than 3 percent attend college.

The council, which formed in April and operates under the umbrella of the United Way of Ventura County, has the overall mission of focusing its energies and resources on specific projects for at least three years, particularly those critical to women, by identifying and working with public and private social services agencies to fill gaps in services.

To meet their goal of growing countywide support, they want to increase membership to 300 and their operating fund to $300,000 or more. The council will hold an open membership recruitment event at Cal Lutheran University on Aug. 17.

For more information or to RSVP, call Amy Fonzo at (805) 485-6288, ext. 230.

Facts about girls who are emancipating out of the foster care system:

In Ventura County, there are about 85 females between the ages of 16 and 19 in foster care. Of these young women, 16 are pregnant or parenting.

It's estimated that 25 to 30 female foster youth in Ventura County will be emancipated this year.

According to national statistics, 50 percent of youth leaving the foster system are homeless sometime during the first 12 months after emancipation.

Provided by United Way of Ventura County