By age 17, Brayden Boyce found many people willing to pay him to perform odd jobs, but no bank willing to give him an account to store and grow his money.
Boyce's experience was common for a foster youth nearing graduation. Many face even greater struggles.
More than 23,000 foster children exit the foster care system at 18 years old each year without a safety net, with a fifth instantly becoming homeless, half failing to achieve gainful employment by age 24, and less than 3% earning a college degree, according to the
"Any security of my money, let alone even myself, was really hard to find," said Boyce, who is now 19 and grew up in 17 housing placements as a foster youth in Portland, Oregon.
"I didn't know where my money was, I didn't know where my clothes were, I didn't even know where my favorite pair of beat-up Nike shoes were," Boyce said.
It was only after a proctor parent agreed to cosign with him on a Wells Fargo savings account two years ago that Bruce could safely store the money he made as an intern on a construction team.
Youth Villages Oregon, a chapter of a national nonprofit supporting young adults transitioning from foster care into adulthood, hopes to make the process of obtaining a bank account easier for foster youths going forward.
Last week, the nonprofit announced it had partnered with $17 billion-asset First Tech Federal Credit Union in San Jose, California, to make it the first to allow foster youths under 18 to open a bank account in Oregon and Southwest Washington without an adult cosigner.
"People who grew up in intact families, who are of means, have a lot of privileges that these kids don't have," said Andrew Grover, executive director at Youth Villages Oregon. "This is a small innovation that creates a slightly more level playing field so that they can start building their own financial future."
The "Youth Villages Foster Youth Savings Program" is part of an effort that has included similar financial-institution partnerships and education programs for foster youth.
Oregon set itself apart from the majority of states in the nation in 2016 by passing a law that enables foster youths between the ages of 12 and 18 to open savings accounts without adult cosigners.
"It's incredible legislation. But that was the bold print of it," said Shauna Lugar, director of development at Youth Villages Oregon. "The fine print was that there's a lot of compliance and legal issues that come to the table when a 13-year-old walks into a bank and tries to open up a savings account with nobody else with them … but it's a whole other ball game when you actually give them a network of financial institutions that can open up a savings account for them."
First Tech rewrote its contracts to make its identification requirements more flexible, noting that foster youth often lack access to primary forms of ID. To start an account, candidates will need only five dollars, a Youth Villages flier and either a valid government-issued ID or two forms of valid secondary ID.
The credit union hopes its effort will encourage other banks and credit unions across the state to follow its lead.
But change at larger financial partners may be more difficult.
"There's not a high ROI for them to build out a process to support this community," Lugar said.
Candace Elliott, First Tech's member experience manager, argued that making a difference can also make good business.
"It could drive more membership because people will see that you're trying to do the right thing," said Elliott, who spearheaded First Tech's partnership with Youth Villages Oregon after she became the chair of the nonprofit's board of ambassadors in 2020.
In addition to offering foster youths financial independence, allowing them to bank can teach essential financial literacy skills, said Dr. Clark M. Peters, an associate professor at the University of Missouri who studies the foster system.
"Young people who are gonna be on their own have to combine book learning with risk-taking experiences," Peters said. "That's how they learn."
Youth Villages Oregon seeks to provide that comprehensive educational process by allowing foster youths to apply for grant funding to open accounts only after attending a class on money management.
Those eligible can then join First Tech through The Financial Fitness Association, a nonprofit designed to boost community resource management and financial literacy that allows for membership amongst some outside the credit union's Select Employee Group.
More robust nationwide efforts might move the needle for foster youths, according to Dr. Margaret Sherraden, a research professor at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.
"Projects like these would have a much easier path if there was a policy structure in place that would facilitate and streamline implementation," she said.
Boyce, meanwhile, reinforced that banking access can mean much more than an account balance to those in foster care.
"There's a lot more than that behind it— it is a sense of independence, ownership and collaboration between two people," he said. "It's life changing."
