Outlining the rights of Georgia's teens

  • Georgia teens from GA-RYSE website, by Columbus web design firm
  • News page from GA-RYSE website, by Columbus web design firm S+S, Inc
  • Housing page from GA-RYSE website, by Columbus website designers
State of Georgia website for teens

Category: Web Design

Industry: Non-Profits

Client: State of Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS)
Project Description

Not every teen has the good fortune to come from a stable home. Not in Ohio, not in Georgia. While the number of teens who find themselves taken care of in foster care are fortunate, they don't have the benefits of most other teens.

For example, someone to help show them a trade or craft, Just being able to have your own smart phone and computer might be a luxury for many. They, like all of us, do have more rights than they think they do. And this website we designed and built for the State of Georgia's Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), foster parents, and other partners in the care of children in foster care, makes them aware of the list of the rights they have, but might not be aware of.

The State of Georgia has 8 main programs for those teens 14 years old or older, and who have in foster care for at least of 6 months:

  • housing support, assisting with basic household startup cost and setup including rental and utility deposits, helping them purchase furniture and household items,
  • The National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) collects information on youth in foster care, including sex, race, ethnicity, date of birth, and foster care status,
  • Health Matters, which is, essentiially, Medicaid coverage to individuals who age out of foster care or age out,
  • Education, which covers young adults' expenses to assist in transitioning from foster care by attaining a secondary education,
  • Match Savings, like a 401K plan for employees, but for those who would ordinarily never have access to that type of savings plan,
  • Emergency Asssistance plannig,  which can cosist of can consist of emergency housing, food assistance, transportation (MARTA cards or City Transit bus tokens), medical, state identification, utility expenses and deposits,
  • Credit Report Assistance, which helps thousands of youth when they "age out" of foster care into adulthood without achieving permanency. For many youth, their transition is complicated by having no, or poor, credit, and
  • Life Training Skills, provideing youth with monthly workshops and trainings to increase awareness, knowledge, and access to being connected, safe, stable, healthy, educated, and employed.