DETROIT – As families gather across Michigan to celebrate high school senior year events, such as awards banquets and graduations, teens like Michael Morris face the future with far less fanfare.

For Morris, and the approximately 600 youth in Wayne County who will "age out" of foster care this year at age 18, graduating from high school can be trying. Morris, who entered foster care as a baby, was adopted at age three. However, his adoption was rescinded at age 11, leaving him with no family and mistrustful of adults. At an age when most boys are playing baseball or earning scout badges, Morris was sitting in conferences with social workers who were trying to decide what to do with him. Ironically, that's when he met the most important person in his life today – his mentor.

"All these people were sitting around the table saying I was a bad kid," says Morris. "They had basically given up on me, except Miss Bowens who took me under her wing."

The stories of struggle and survival from youth aging out of foster care are compelling. Such stories inspire community members to volunteer their time to help these youth in a variety of ways. A reception designed to raise awareness of how adults can get connected to youth is occurring May 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan corporate headquarters in Detroit. Over 400 representatives from local businesses, organizations, churches, universities and political offices will learn how they can help open doors for these youth.

Key speakers at the May 25 reception include:

• First Gentleman Daniel G. Mulhern
• Marianne Udow, director, Michigan Department of Human Services
• Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan
• Gary Stangler, executive director, Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative Foundation
• Jessica Lindsey, president, local Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative Youth Board

The reception will feature a pre-screening of the national documentary, Aging Out, and the local documentary, Foster a Future, to be aired May 26, 2005 at 8:30 p.m. on Detroit Public Television.

The pre-screenings will be followed by a brief question and answer session with the youth and key speakers at the event.

Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, along with First Gentleman Daniel G. Mulhern, is leading the Mentor Michigan initiative, a statewide effort to raise awareness about the need for mentors and the benefits associated with mentoring.

"Mentors play an invaluable role in the life of young people by offering guidance, advice and compassion," Mulhern said. "Mentoring transforms the lives of youth. By strengthening Michigan's children through mentoring, we are building a stronger future for them, our communities and our great state."

There are currently over 7,700 youth in Wayne County in foster care, and 30 percent of them are targeted for transitional services and programs. While Michigan is making great strides in changing programs and policies for adolescents in care, community members must get involved if our youth are to succeed as adults.

"Foster children need the guidance of adults for a lifetime – not just until they reach age 18," Marianne Udow, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, said. "That is why DHS is dedicated to helping youth who are aging out of the foster care system. DHS offers a variety of programs to these youth, including Youth In Transition funds that assist in obtaining a high school diploma, career exploration, job training, daily living skills training, preventive health services and money management, just to name a few. Additionally, youth aging out of the system can obtain independent living stipends to help them get started on their own and educational training vouchers to help pay for the costs associated with pursuing a college education."

In Michael Morris' case, his social worker is still very involved in his life six years later.

"She helped me understand who I was and that I could achieve anything," he says. "She said, 'The sky is the limit, and don’t let other people be your downfall.' "

Shuttling between foster-care placements, Morris missed too much school to graduate on time and ended up getting a GED. However, thanks to his mentor, he’s getting a second chance to don the cap and gown. He called her three days before classes began at Marygrove College last winter and still remembers her exact words. "She said, 'Michael, do exactly as I say for the next two days and you’ll be in.'" Morris trusted her, and now he is in his second semester.

A national study released last week shows that young people making the transition from foster care to adulthood face formidable challenges and often struggle to stay in school, find stable housing and medical and support themselves. The study, conducted by Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, found that those who left foster care at age 18 were nearly three times more likely than their peers to be disconnected from work or school.

"This study is a call to action to better support some of the most vulnerable kids who are essentially on their own," Gary Stangler, executive director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, said. "These young people need more supports past their 18th birthdays to make it. Fostering permanent lifelong connections to caring adults is perhaps the single most important thing anyone can do to make a difference in the life of a young person in foster care."