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Fostering success tax credit helping children
This holiday season your state tax dollars can be a Christmas gift to foster teens who are preparing to leave foster care at 18. The foster care agency Wellroot says the fostering success tax credit directly supports its transitional programs, but you have to act fast.
ATLANTA - The deadline is fast approaching for you to make your state tax dollars a Christmas gift to help teens who are preparing to age out of foster care at 18.
The Fostering Success Tax Credit directly supports transitional programs run by foster care agencies like Wellroot, helping foster kids successfully transition into adulthood. But, you only have until Dec. 31 to apply.
Wellroot's Transitional Living Program
The Oakhurst apartments off of East Lake Drive house Wellroot’s Transitional Living Program.
The ready-to-move-in units give foster kids who’ve turned 18 and aged out of the state foster care system a place to safely transition into adulthood by offering life skill training, mentorship, and ongoing support.
Tucker Mayor Frank Auman and his wife, Gaye, recently visited.
"Close proximity to work and school transportation of every kind," Mayor Auman told FOX 5 Atlanta. "Lots and lots of resources, in addition to being kind of a cool place to live."
Mary Vincent, SVP of Programs for Wellroot, emphasized the importance this kind of support can have for young people just learning how to navigate the world.
"We provide life skill training, mentorship and just ongoing support, financial support, housing for young people that are leaving the system," Vincent explained. "Kids that don't get the needed and necessary support sometimes end up homeless. Sometimes kids end up in jail."
Challenging statistics for foster youth
The statistics for foster children aging out of the system are concerning.
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one in six foster children report experiencing homelessness between the ages of 17 and 19, and one in four report being homeless from 19 to 21. The Fostering Success Tax Credit offers a way to help change these troubling statistics.
How the Fostering Success Tax Credit works
The Fostering Success Act allows taxpayers to direct their tax dollars to be donated to foster care organizations.
"Effectively, the state has said to taxpayers, ‘You can tell us that you want your money to go specifically to this cause,'" explained Mayor Auman. "And they do that in the form of tax credit."
The money goes directly to programs like Wellroot's Transitional Living Program.
"There are a lot of people who want to have an impact and they don't know how. This is how," the mayor said.
How you can help
The deadline is Dec. 31. For those interested, here are the instructions and the application.
The Source: This is an original report by FOX 5 Atlanta reporter Eric Mock, written by the FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team. Information on the Fostering Success Tax Credit comes from the Georgia Department of Revenue.