Beyond Emancipation

In 1995, a handful of social workers from the Alameda County Child Welfare Department founded the Independent Living Skills Program Auxiliary as a way of providing emancipated youth with more flexible services than the County was able to offer. The organization secured donations for scholarships, housing assistance, and other needs of young adults learning to live outside the system for the first time. At this time federal Independent Living Program (ILP) money was limited to youth still in foster care or probation and did not provide funds for young adults who had emancipated from the program.