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chapter one Foster Care and the Transition to Young Adulthood Americans consider the biological and nuclear family to be the optimal envi- ronment in which to raise children. However, sometimes parents are unable to provide the expected care for and socialization of their children, or they may intentionally harm their offspring. In order to protect these children, we remove them from their homes and place them in foster care. Foster care is meant to be a safe, substitute, and temporary family. The public policy goal is to provide these children with permanency, defined as an exit from the child welfare system into a safe and long-term family (or family-like) living arrange- ment. The preferred permanency outcome is to reunify foster children with their biological family, but permanency can also take the form of adoption, a legal guardianship, or care provided by a relative (Adler, 2001 Wulczyn, 2004). Despite the public policy mandate to reunify children with their fam- ily of origin, some youth remain in the system until they reach the age of majority. These youth do not achieve permanency: they leave care to go to independent living or some other living arrangement. As legal adults they are essentially discharged to “self” (U.S.D.H.H.S., 2012). What youth aging out of foster care share with all emerging adults are the common needs to become employed, to be financially independent, to acquire the skills to enable them to live autonomously, to develop satisfying relationships with others, and to be integrated into the community as pro- ductive and valued members. Mastering these tasks is a challenge for most young people. However, youth in foster care face unique and additional chal- lenges because of their life circumstances both before and after they entered care. Former foster youth have never known the love and security that comes from a stable family life. Not only are they victims of maltreatment, but they