New home for girls aging out of foster care

by Jessica Harthorn
From © NBC 25

FLINT -- Young female adults who struggle to find a place to live after they age out of the foster care system will now have a place to call home.

NBC25 got an inside look at Nina's Place.

At first glance Nina's Place looks like a glorified dorm, but the transformation that will be taking place within its walls will dramatically impact young women for the rest of their lives.
 
This cozy room will soon be called home by a young woman aging out of the foster care system.

“The support from the state is discontinued, or they give her a very small stipend, and basically she is sent on her way with a good luck and I hope everything works out for you," said Harmony Langford, the Director of Operations at the YWCA of Flint.

Now 11 girls aged 18 to 20 can live here at Nina’s Place.

It’s located on the fourth floor of the YWCA in Flint, and is the residential component of a new program called Partners in Transition.

"We are just so thrilled to be offering this opportunity," said Langford.

The Director of Nina’s Place says 50% of girls get pregnant within 18 months of aging out of foster care.

"They go looking for the first person who is going to show them love, and the first person that they will have security, and often times that's a boy and they make poor choices," said Langford.

But, Nina’s Place will offer support services in a communal living environment.

In a few weeks, at least five life coaches will be hired to create independence plans for the girls.

"We'll be teaching them budgeting, grocery shopping, and how to cook, all those things that you and I might have counted on our families to teach us," said Langford.

But there will be guidelines the girls will have to follow, they'll have to do chores, be home at a certain time, and be in school and working 40 hours a week.

Structure within these walls that the YWCA hopes will bring balance between being a young adult and someone trying to make it in this world.

The girls will start moving into Nina's Place the end of November.

NBC25 will be covering the transition for one girl as she journeys through the program the next few years.

Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow and Congressman Dale Kildee secured $850,000 for the Partners in Transition program.