Helping Hands: Treehouse: Walking Alongside Washington’s Foster Youth

It’s the time of year when students are counting down the days until school is out and summer begins. For Washington’s foster youth, summers are often difficult to plan for. While many kids look forward to day camps focused on art, science or sports, foster youth are often wondering if they’ll be able to go home to their biological families, or if they may have to move again.

Clark County is part of region six for the Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF). As a large region, foster children in this area change homes an average of five or six times, often switching schools as well. Whether a teen or a toddler, they all want a sense of normalcy while their life is in flux; they want to have the same opportunities as their peers and come back to school in the fall with stories to share of fun summer adventures. And they want to walk in on the first day of school wearing new shoes and trendy jeans.

Thanks to Treehouse, a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, children in foster care throughout Washington have a consistent place to turn for a variety of resources. What began with a few social workers wanting to provide birthday gifts and school supplies, Treehouse quickly expanded its programs to focus on the whole child by providing educational support, enrichment activities and even extended help as youth move back with their families or into adulthood.

The Treehouse storefront and warehouse in Seattle provides free clothing to kids across the state. Katie Adams, content and public relations manager at Treehouse is proud to describe how big the clothing operation is and their high-quality standards to make it a “total shopping experience” for foster children who come in person.

“When our storehouse was closed, we created an online ordering system,” explains Adams. “Constantly having people come and go made it hard to start that, but COVID gave us the opportunity. Now people don’t have to come to Seattle.” Thanks to corporate sponsors who help keep the store stocked with brand-new, in-style clothing, “youth in Vancouver or anywhere in Washington can place an order saying we want sweatpants and T-shirts. [They are] able to shop three times a year, up to 15 items of clothing each time.”

Sometimes Treehouse even brings the store to them. “We have events during back-to-school where we do a pop-up shop,” Adams continues. Before the 2023-2024 school year began, 100 foster youth came to Clark College, where they could pick whatever they wanted, including new laptops, all donated by supportive businesses.

Stephanie Macomber, an education specialist in Treehouse’s Graduation Success program for Clark County high schoolers, loves “watching youth come to school the first day showing off their new clothes.” One of her youths was proud to sport expensive headphones, a gift they had earned for meeting an educational goal. “We have a budget for summer camps or experiences, too,” shares Macomber. “One kid was interested in drones and we found a camp in Portland with drone building. I’ve also had kids go through wilderness camps.”

But while fitting in is important to teens, the main purpose is to keep them focused on their education. Sadly, only 53% of Washington youth who experience foster care graduate high school in the typical four years. However, those who actively participate in Graduation Success with mentors like Macomber have a 75% graduation rate. While other agencies help youth only during the foster experience, Treehouse stays connected with them even after family reunification. “They stay in the program as long as they want to be in it,” explains Adams. “Treehouse becomes a constant where they can center their education.”

The consistency from Treehouse helps foster parents in their responsibilities too.

“Treehouse Graduation Success program has forever changed my perspective for fostering teens in care,” shares Cassie Deegan who has been a foster parent with her husband Josh since 2017. “For our family, educational support has always been such an emotional topic when determining if we are equipped to place a youth in our home . . . Common case events like court ordered visits, placement changes and appointments can be a huge distraction to everyday study habits, homework, test prep or project time for our kids. Unmet social and emotional needs can derail educational progress and completely shatter confidence in learning. It’s an essential need to have an advocate to help our kids in care to navigate those barriers.” 

And as youth look past graduation, the support they need changes. Another sad statistic is that one in six foster youth will become homeless within a year of aging out of the foster system. Treehouse aims to prevent this with Launch Success, a sister program to Graduation Success.

“A really big need for high schoolers is just trying to figure out what they can do,” shares Adams. She says that anyone with just 15-20 minutes to talk about their job or industry is especially helpful, and it can even be over Zoom. “They don’t have the community they would have with their bio families, so Treehouse helps fill that gap . . . We are part of their community to help them into their future.”

DCYF social workers with large caseloads often don’t have the same one-on-one time that Treehouse mentors are able to provide, especially at the vulnerable time of moving past high school. “The main focus of a social worker is to make sure they are safe and in a placement that supports their needs,” shares Macomber. “There are a lot of meetings about placement and what can happen when they turn 18. Sometimes youth don’t speak up when there are a lot of adults in the room. We want their voice in the conversations and do this by preparing them for these meetings and what they do and don’t feel comfortable sharing. We are in their corner.”

Thankfully, there are many options for foster youth, and Treehouse is there to ensure those options are readily available. “Watching them become adults is really neat,” shares Macomber. And while not everyone can be a foster parent, there are many ways to help children in foster care. Macomber suggests “setting up a peer-to-peer fundraising, such as a raffle at your office holiday party, bake sale or movie night with an entry ‘fee’ going directly to Treehouse.”

And this month all of Clark County is invited to attend an art show and contest benefitting Treehouse which will be held at Clark College on Saturday, May 18 from 11am-3pm, with art created by local foster youth. To learn more about Treehouse and how you can help, visit treehouseforkids.org.

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