Jamie St. John, MSW ’15, has a soft spot for foster kids, especially those aging out of the system, having been in that age group herself not so long ago. Once they turn 18, transition-age youth can no longer receive assistance from the systems of care that previously provided for many of their needs. And like many young people, they are starting out with limited resources and experience.

“I realized transition-age youth are kind of a forgotten bunch,” she said. “They’re in that most critical time in life, and it’s just such a shame we have all these services to help them when they’re kids, and then we have all these services to help them later when they’re adults, but we don’t have that much to connect the two. My field internship gave me the tools for learning how to create that bridge.”

And it also landed her a job. The San Diego Center for Children has hired its former intern as its new transition coordinator.

St. John hopes she can make a difference and fulfill her desire to pay it forward.

“I’ve definitely done my own work and came into the field having gone through that process myself, and I wanted to give back,” she said.

St. John also attributes her success and decision to pursue this line of work to her good fortune of being chosen as one of the 34 USC School of Social Work students to receive a $10,000 stipend through the Tri-County Behavioral Health Training Consortium.

The financial assistance is part of a $1.4 million grant the USC School of Social Work received from the Health Resources and Services Administration to train students in specific areas of behavioral health to address gun violence.  Part of the Obama administration’s “Now is the Time” plan to reduce incidents of mass shootings, which are often perpetrated by young men between the ages of 16 and 25, the training grant was created to help prepare students to work with transition-age youth, many of whom do not have or are unable to access mental health services.

She and the other recipients were required to take courses in substance abuse, transition-age youth and other relevant areas, and participate in a seminar that taught specific techniques, including Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), tailored to working with this population. 

In her new job, St. John hopes to put into practice the evidence-based principles she learned through the Tri-County program. Specifically, she plans to implement Positive Youth Development, a concept that views young people as resources rather than as problems that need fixing. This is accomplished by building confidence, competence and community connection. This strengths-based, non-pathologizing approach is rare and desperately needed when working with young people, said St. John.

“It’s a really positive cycle where you invest in these youth, and then they’re able to go back out and invest in that community,” she said.

The Tri-County stipend program will continue through 2017, with stipends awarded annually, and follow-up surveys occurring six months and a year after recipients graduate. The goal of the project is to have 50 percent of stipend recipients employed in organizations that serve transition-age youth one year after graduation.