Foster youth carry a lot on their shoulders. Trauma, instability, and loss coupled with lack of consistent support and frequent school changes often lead to mental health challenges like anxiety, PTSD, and social isolation.  It’s also common for young people in and from foster care to cope with their trauma by engaging in high-risk behaviors such as violence, substance use, and delinquencies and to experience higher levels of unemployment, homelessness, and incarceration.   

That’s why we launched Pivotal’s Mental Health Fund to expand our coaching support and connect our scholars to the resources they need when they need it most. Thanks to a generous multi-year gift from Pivotal Dream Maker Louise de Putron, over the past nine months, we’ve begun to create a program that helps scholars access therapy, assessments, specialized treatment, and other mental health services. Led by Pivotal’s Director of Coaching Programs, Savonna Stender-Bondesson, LCSW, this initiative is helping our scholars take real steps toward healing. This program comes at a pivotal time. Savonna Mental Health Quote

Pivotal coaches help scholars navigate the system, advocate for their needs, and find providers who understand the needs of foster youth. For scholars still in care, County-provided mental health services are available until age 21. But once a scholar ages out, their options are limited. Ironically, as they navigate adulthood, this is the time when they’re more likely to benefit from long-term therapy and reflection.  

The Pivotal Mental Health Fund works to help these scholars find the support they need. We are building partnerships with local organizations and mental health practitioners to provide reduced, long-term mental health treatment and using the Mental Health Fund to directly pay for, or supplement, the cost of mental health services for Pivotal scholars. This continued support is critical to helping scholars overcome the mental health barriers that prevent them from achieving their academic and professional goals. 

In the past year, we have distributed nearly $43,000 in direct payments to scholars for therapy and other critical mental health services. We have worked with 13 different providers, many of whom have deep experience working with foster youth and our scholars have received multiple forms of therapy, including ADHD assessments, substance-use counseling, and short-term intensive treatments, to address the complexity of their individual needs. 

In addition, our coaches are receiving additional Mental Health First Aid training and building new processes to identify scholars who most need this type of support. This fund and focus is another way that we ensure that our scholars feel safe, seen, and supported in all the ways they need. We hope to help scholars develop emotional resilience, access the care they deserve, and overcome the mental health barriers that too often stand between them and their goals.  

We’re incredibly grateful to Louise de Putron for her generosity and to Savonna and our incredible coaching team who are bringing this vision to life and proving what’s possible when compassion, expertise, and community come together. Together, we’re addressing one of the most urgent needs facing foster youth today, ensuring every scholar has access to the healing they deserve. 

Matt and Louise