Jaheim Smith disappeared from foster care last week

4/5

a transition that can be frightening for young people who have spent most of their lives in child protection and are living on their own for the first time.

But Smith, recently 21, is confident in his new life. He rents an apartment in Sacramento and works as a behavior consultant for children with autism, teaching them skills that help them thrive in school. He works shifts at McDonalds

in the meantime

make ends meet.

Smith writes his

successful

Newfound independence, thanks in part to the Court Appointed Special Advocates program. When he was 11, it was

which

matched him with a dedicated mentor

when he was 11 years old

WHO

has

helped him with everything from homework to getting a driver’s license over the years.

The program recruits and trains volunteers appointed by judges to advocate for individualized foster care

youth

in a complex child welfare system struggling to provide enough much-needed social workers.

But as the state grapples with a projected budget deficit of $22.5 billion, CASA faces a significant reduction in new funding that was intended to expand the program’s reach. Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed in his latest budget plan to reduce a $60 million commitment to $20 million.

While Newsom administration officials say the move is one of many “difficult cuts” needed to close the looming budget gap, foster youth advocates are urging the governor and lawmakers to reinstate that funding, saying calling the program a “lifesaving” service. They say the program will save state costs in the long run, as research shows that children in foster care are more likely to become homeless or go to jail.

I deal with abuse a lot. I was a very angry, disruptive child, and she helped me see that it might be better for you if you just let people in to help you, Smith said of his CASA mentor. She helped me see a better side of the world.

Sharon Holgerson, 65, of Woodland

,

was Smith’s assigned attorney, and said she plans to stay in his life now that he’s older, calling them “good friends.”

Holgerson recalls being stunned at how little he knew about the real world as a kid.

She taught him what a post office was

,

and showed him how to obtain important documents

Like it

such as a birth certificate and

S

social

S

security card

or, as Smith put it,

“things you need as an adult,” as Smith put it.

“He really hasn’t had anyone to navigate life with. He’s been placement after placement. But he’s always been very motivated. I knew he was going to be a success story. He just had to go in the right direction,” said Holgerson . “He needed someone to help him through it.”

CASA, a national program founded in the 1970s, operates 44 programs across California, with more than 11,000 volunteers dedicated to helping children in the foster care system with a range of needs, acting as a liaison between them and the courts and other government agencies.

Last year, the CASA program received an additional $60 million in state funding to be spent over the next three years under a plan that proponents hoped would strengthen fundraising, training, and recruiting volunteers for all foster youth in need.

California is home to more than 78,000 foster youth, more than anywhere else in the country. CASA estimates

That

volunteers

only

reach

only

16%

per cent

of those children

currently

.

But Newsom’s budget proposal in January cut funding increases for the program by two-thirds. The decision was “not a proposal that would be introduced, like many others, were it not to close the deficit,” said HD Palmer, Treasury Department spokesman.

California’s CASA programs raise approximately $58 million each year, primarily from private donations, to recruit and train volunteers. They also receive $2.7 million in state grants each year, which “isn’t going very far,” said Sharon Lawrence,

Director

chief executive for the California CASA Assn.

Lawrence said she is “very grateful” to Newsom for additional funding, but that CASA programs had plans for the original, larger amount and that it is too late to pivot and

make due

do without.

“These people chose to be in a child’s life when everyone else in the system is paid to be there,” Lawrence said of CASA volunteers. “We want every child who needs it to get it.”

Adjustments to Newsom’s $297 billion state spending plan will come in May, but Lawrence said she has received no signal that CASA funding will be reinstated. However, some state lawmakers favor reinstating funding, which could affect the final budget in June during negotiations with the governor.

More than 24% of 21-year-olds who had recently left the foster care system experienced homelessness, according to a study by USC’s Homelessness Policy Research Institute. State data

has

so show

N

that those in foster care are disproportionately represented in California prisons.

“These advocates can play a critical role in the outcomes of foster children and can change the trajectory of whether these young people enter our justice system or become homeless or whether they go on to live healthy, thriving lives,” said the Speaker of the Assembly Budget, Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), who supports the preservation of the $60 million.

The issue was a rare moment of agreement between Republicans and Democrats at a Legislative Budget Committee hearing in February, when lawmakers including Assembly members Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) and

mounting member

Reggie

Jones-

Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) pushed against the cuts.

Lackey pointed to recent cases of serious abuse of foster children as evidence of the need for the attorneys insured by the program.

What could be more valuable than a child in danger? And yet we are going to cut costs here?’ Lackey said. “Someone needs to speak up for these young people because they can’t. This is very hurtful to me. I just hope we will.”

want to

reconsider.”