BNY Mellon Spotlights Challenges of Youth Aging Out of Foster Care in New Report

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Apr 11, 2013, 07:38 ET

NEW YORK, April 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its focus on assisting vulnerable youth making the transition to adulthood, BNY Mellon has published a new report about the challenges of youth aging out of foster care, an issue that affects more than 25,000 young people in the United States annually.

Entitled "Pathways: When Johnny Ages Out," the report outlines the unique challenges faced by this population, which include a scarcity of housing and jobs and financial stress due to gaps in their education. Twenty percent of youth experience homelessness in the first few years after aging out of foster care, and ninety percent earn less than $10,000 annually in the 12-18 months after they age out.

The report includes the views of local and national leaders in the field of supporting youth who participated in a BNY Mellon-hosted thought leadership summit on how to prepare these young people for independence. Their presentations addressed the issue from different angles and included a national scan about the scope of the problem, an overview of regional funding issues and a discussion of 21^st century job clusters.

"We're committed to raising awareness of the challenges faced by this vulnerable population and supporting efforts to help improve their prospects for the future," said Jim McDonald, BNY Mellon's director of global philanthropy. "Our materials spotlight the barriers facing youth aging out of foster care and national and local efforts underway or planned to assist them."

BNY Mellon's Pathways program is a $6 million, five-year global workforce development initiative to assist vulnerable youth making the transition into adulthood. It is part of Powering Potential, the company's philanthropic focus on making local communities better places to live and work by targeting organizations that concentrate on workforce development or the provision of basic needs. For more information about the Pathways program, visit www.bnymellon.com/pathways. To learn more about BNY Mellon's Powering Potential initiative and commitment to corporate social responsibility, visit www.bnymellon.com/csr.

The report is now available on the BNY Mellon website at http://www.bnymellon.com/pathways/summit.html, along with a video that captures presentations made at the summit.

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 36 countries and more than 100 markets. As of December 31, 2012, BNY Mellon had $26.2 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.4 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com, or follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon.

SOURCE BNY Mellon