Sometimes, when young people come to us, they have fines and fees due to criminal activity and legal proceedings. Working toward stability includes responsibly taking care of these, but paying for fines can be extremely difficult or impossible for these young people without a safety net. The impact can be multifold, impacting their overall ability to achieve or maintain stability.
When people live in poverty and they get a speeding ticket or criminal charge, they typically don’t have the financial means to pay the associated fines. This causes relatively small issues to quickly become much larger, impacting many areas of their life and ability to be stable. Without access to the necessary resources, a single fine can build to warrants, suspensions, loss of income, loss of childcare, loss of housing and more.
For example, unpaid fines can lead to the loss of a driver’s license, which can lead to a loss of transportation to childcare, work, or school. This can result in a loss of income or an inability to continue education or training, impacting the ability to maintain housing, meet basic needs, and create long term stability stability.
When Fostering Futures is able to reduce or alleviate the financial impact of previous charges, it allows our young people to focus on building stability in housing, employment, education and training and other basic needs. Through working with our advocates, we can help young people build positive habits, avoid additional charges or consequences, and build stability moving forward. Through Small Big Things, you can be part of their next chapter.
