It's called emancipation, but for many foster children who age out of the system at 18 or 19, that “freedom from slavery” is more like being thrown into the deep end.

Each year in California, approximately 4,200 young adults exit foster care when they turn 18. Deemed to be adults by the state, many end up couch surfing or living in their cars, unable to find stable employment or decent living situations.

“Who's ready (to be an adult) at 18?” asked Kerri Fulton, program coordinator for Nevada County's foster youth independent living program.

Fulton works with foster youths ages 16 to 21, helping them make that crucial transition to life after foster care. The biggest gap, she said, is housing — and two local nonprofits are aiming to close that gap through a state-funded transitional housing program.

The program, THP-Plus, provides affordable housing and support services for up to 24 months to help former foster care youths who are at least 18 and younger than 24 make a successful transition from the child welfare systems to adulthood. Nevada County currently has six beds available — four in apartments, administered by Environmental Alternatives, and two in host family situations, through Sierra Forever Families.

A host family — a supportive adult with an existing relationship to the participant — commits to opening their home for 24 months and working to support the participant in meeting goals. Participants are required to obtain or actively seek at least part-time employment and must contribute a part of their income towards rent. The host receives a stipend and a subsidy for utilities, and the participant receives some supplies as well as an emancipation fund for when they leave the program.

“It's not just a free place to live,” Fulton said. “They have to be very goal-oriented, they have to be committed.”

For Jason Noschka, who is finishing up his 24-month stint with his host family through THP-Plus, the program was a lifeline that helped him achieve financial autonomy. He has work in a field he calls his passion and, he said with quiet pride, he just bought a new car.

Sierra Forever Families social worker Todd Cirillo, who has been meeting with Noschka once a week to work on setting financial, educational and employment goals, said he did an “awesome, awesome job” in the program.

“He's set a very high standard” for others to follow, said host father Chris Bock.

Noschka, 21, spent 10 years in foster care, bouncing from Grass Valley to Anderson to Redding to Cottonwood, then back to Grass Valley. Multiple foster placements are not that uncommon, particularly as foster children grow older, said Sierra Forever Families Social Work Supervisor Sandra Boyd. And the more placements a foster kid endures, the harder it can be for them to succeed in the real world.

“Foster care is a very dependency-based system,” Boyd said. “It's very regimented, very strict — at 18, we expect these kids to walk out and be independent.”

“For kids who emancipate out of a group home, where even the Tide is locked up, and one day you're out on the street and you don't have skill-set one to take with you, this program offers that transition,” Bock said.

Young adults who don't have access to a network of supportive adults often end up homeless, face high rates of unemployment, are more likely to suffer from physical and mental health problems, lack access to adequate health care, do not finish high school and are at high risk of coming into contact with the criminal justice system.

“We're interviewing kids (for the program) who literally will have nowhere to go” when they turn 18, Boyd said.

Longtime foster parent Bock said THP-Plus provides at-risk youth with the opportunity to migrate from childhood into adult relationships.

“You get kids who are in foster care because of delinquency issues and you send them back to that environment, and you've got a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Bock particularly appreciated the fact that the program is accessible to former foster kids up to age 24.

“It doesn't have to follow immediately after emancipation,” Bock said. “A lot of kids who've been in the system long to be out of the system and independent. Then, they find it's not that easy.”

That was the case for Noschka, who graduated out of the system at 18 and went to live with his sister in Auburn.

“It was fun for a while ... until reality sunk in,” he said.

Through the program, Noschka has been able to refine his goals. He went to Sierra College for a semester, with an initial plan of studying architecture. But he soon realized that cooking was his passion, he said.

“What came out was his strengths,” Cirillo said. “He works with senior citizens ... so his goal became finding out if there was room for advancement. It seems like a simple step, but it was huge.”

After four years of working at Quail Ridge, Noschka finally went to his supervisor.

“It was kind of funny,” he said. “She said, ‘It took you four years to tell me you wanted to cook?' She had been waiting for me (to say something).”

“Jason has been able to get his career on track,” Boyd said. “Now, he's independent — he's there.”

To contact Staff Writer Liz Kellar, e-mail lkellar@theunion.com or call 477-4229.