Support former foster youth Oulu's education

Oulu Noonan (whose legal first name is Jennifer) is a fighter. As someone who spent years in the foster care system, Oulu's an incredible advocate for former foster youth. She's already achieved a ton, before even finishing her bachelor's degree in social work. You can read a lot about her story in this newspaper article: "Foster care agencies across the country pocket money owed to kids in their care. Oregon lawmakers want to ban the practice." You can also read Oulu's story in her own words, further below.

As a social worker myself, I want to see Oulu finish her social work education. She's achieved so much already, and she has much, much more she wants to do. But she needs help. She's almost exhausted financial aid and even what she's received covers only a fraction of the costs for tuition & fees. She lives in poverty, and she has one year left toward her bachelor's degree and then another year in an advanced-standing master's degree program. (In the photo you see her in a cap and gown the day she graduated from community college with an associate's degree.) To make matters more frustrating, the state of Oregon took more than $50,000 in Social Security benefits that were supposed to go to Oulu, a practice that's common with state governments and foster care youth, as stated in this article.

I'm sponsoring this fundraiser to help Oulu, and all money will go directly to her. She will use the funds to pay for tuition, books, child care, and any other living expenses necessary for her to continue her education while also feeding her family and herself. Thanks for anything you can provide; every little bit -- even just $5 or $10-- helps!

Here's Oulu's powerful story, in her own words:

At 18 years old I had my first child and $51,840.00 stolen from me from Oregon's child welfare system. If this sounds false to you, I assure you it is not. Every state in the US with a child welfare system has continued to seize SSI/SSD dependency care, death benefits and disability benefits from current and former foster youth. I was placed in care at the age of 10 and aged out of foster care at the age of 19.

The prospects for foster youth are slim, the future for me was faced with lifelong poverty, low-wage employment and reliance on assistance programs. I didn’t want to be that outcome. I didn’t want to become homeless, which is highly likely for former foster youth, and I didn’t want to become another foster youth who had children whose children were also placed into the system, (7/10 girls in foster care become pregnant before age 21 and ½ of babies born to former foster youth are placed into the foster care system). I refused to become this statistic, so I continued to try to climb out of poverty.

At 33 I have finally been able to complete an associate's degree in addictions counseling and social services, and I am currently attending a four-year university to complete my bachelor's degree in social work. My goal is to someday work as a director of child welfare at the state or federal level.

My interests involve political advocacy. For example, over the years with persistent calls for action, I have been able to work toward the creation of two bills in the state of Oregon that address the seizing of Social Security benefits and other assets from foster youth. The first bill regards SB556 with calls for the end of seizing SSI/SSD funds from foster youth going forward.

The other bill is SB557 and calls for the state's child welfare agency to retroactively repay former foster youth for whom funds were seized from. Unfortunately these bills are not guaranteed to pass in the legislature, which means if they do not, the agency will still have effectively been able to get away with taking $51,840 from me when I had nothing and when I still have very little.

To this day, with all I have worked to accomplish to better the lives of my children and my own, I am still on public assistance such as section 8 housing, SNAP, energy assistance, and Medicaid because the amount of money I make still places me in poverty. The money the agency took from me could have covered housing, childcare or the cost of my education.

Next year is my final year in my bachelor's program and I'll reach my lifetime limit of Pell grants in the middle of the year. I’ve reached this lifetime limit due to a learning delay/processing disorder/math learning disorder and PTSD. I receive accommodations in my educational institution, but every course I took in math I failed several times before passing, which is why I am reaching my lifetime limit of Pell.

Even while I still have Pell grants, the money covers only a fraction of tuition, and I also have other expenses, like fees, books, and living expenses. Because I am 33, I cannot access tuition waivers for former foster youth which employ age restrictions, and I cannot access CHAFEE to fund my education because this program also employs age limit restrictions for former foster youth to access. This money taken from me could pay for my final year of my bachelors and maybe my masters which I hope to achieve to reach my goal.

I try the best that I can, but without family support and without resources to help, and knowing these bills may not pass, I am again facing the likelihood of never being able to climb out of poverty or to ever be able to reach a career position that will allow me to continue to change policies to improve the lives and outcomes of all current and former foster youth.

P.S. Oulu is also a talented artist. Here are some of her works (not posted for sale, but to give you a glimpse of her creativity):