SAFE PASSAGE:
YOUTH TRANSITIONING FROM FOSTER CARE INITIATIVE

The Safe Passage Initiative represents a funding effort by Dade Community Foundation to make strategic investments toward improving the lives, opportunities and successful outcomes for youth transitioning from foster care to living independently. This includes focusing on foster care youth during the years they need to and should be receiving comprehensive preparation and the years after they have aged out of the system and must sustain themselves on their own. Our primary goal is to help build our community's capacity to provide foster care youth with the preparation, support and permanent relationships they need to succeed in life on their own. Through this Request for Proposals the Foundation seeks to strengthen the array of community-based programs and resources that are not directly part of - but are working with - the state-funded child welfare system of care (i.e. Our Kids/ contracted Full Case Management Agencies) that are available to serve and support youth in the target population. The initiative will award a limited number of grants up to $30,000 for a grant period of one year. This opportunity is made possible by the Foundation's DadeFund- a supporting organization of the Foundation.

ELIGIBILITY FOR FUNDING: The Foundation will be working directly with Our Kids of Miami-Dade, around strategies to strengthen the state-funded community-based system of care. Therefore, Full Case Management Agencies of the Our Kids network will NOT be eligible to apply for direct funding through this request for proposals. Given the initiative's intent to build on and advance existing promising work, eligibility is limited. Applicant organizations must be able to demonstrate:

1. Current engagement in and a track record of success around programming with the target youth population and around any of the Areas Critical to Success.
   
   
2. A formal relationship (referral agreements, service contract, memorandum of understanding, etc.) that connects them with the state-funded child welfare system, or Our Kids/Full Case Management Agencies that allows applicants to consistently access youth in the target population; and/or defined relationships with other local entities that provide them strategic access to former foster care youth 18 to 23 who may or may not be receiving Independent Living services from the child-welfare system.
   
   
3. A strategic position within the community- based on their role around this issue, the nature of their work, their ties to youth, etc. - to complement and enhance the current system of care and support.
   
   
4. Eligible applicants include tax-exempt organizations based in Miami-Dade County or if based outside the County are working in formal partnership with an eligible organization in Greater Miami. While the Foundation will not provide direct funding to government or quasi-governmental entities (eg. Miami-Dade Public Schools, the Homeless Trust, South Florida Workforce, etc.,) we strongly encourage partnerships between nonprofit organizations and these entities.