Treehouse Takes Bold Step to End Foster Care-to-Prison Pipeline

SEATTLE -- Treehouse announced a bold initiative to disrupt the foster care-to-prison pipeline with new investments in policy and systems reform and direct services to incarcerated youth, in partnership with the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) and the Raikes Foundation.

According to DCYF, in Washington nearly one in four young adults are arrested within one year of aging out of foster care and approximately 40% of Washington's incarcerated youth have experienced foster care. One Juvenile Law Center study showed that more than 90% of youth in foster care with five or more placements will become involved in the juvenile legal system. Dual system-involved youth graduate from high school at just 14%, the state's lowest rate. 

"State data shows that many young people go from foster care to incarceration, and when they leave incarceration, they become homeless, with the cycle repeating again and again," said Treehouse CEO Lisa Chin. "We can and we must end this cycle now."

"We have a lot of work to do for these youth and a long way to go, but through this partnership with Treehouse and the Raikes Foundation, we can work together to find ways to get better outcomes," said DCYF Secretary Ross Hunter. "The first and most important step we take is to listen to those with lived experience."

To that end, Treehouse has hired Arthur Longworth and Ari McLaren-Simpson to intensify its efforts to reform the foster care, education, and juvenile legal systems and to better serve youth in and after juvenile incarceration.

"We know from our work and from studies that not graduating, spending time in foster care and getting caught up in the legal system are closely connected to homelessness as a young person," said Paula Carvalho of the Raikes Foundation. "Breaking these connections is very important to us, and that's why we are excited to continue to support Treehouse and their efforts to dismantle the foster care to prison pipeline."

Visit Treehouse Takes Bold Step to End Foster Care-to-Prison Pipeline (treehouseforkids.org to learn more about how these new positions add capacity and expertise to advance efforts to transform systems and better serve youth.