Foster Advocates Urge Mayor Against Fair Futures Cuts

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Cheyanne Deopersaud never could rely on a mother's support.

She's a foster youth growing into adulthood. Sometimes, she finds herself embarrassed to ask things — like how to write a cover letter — that other youths would have no problem asking of their parents.

That changed when she got linked with a coach through HeartShare St. Vincent's Service Youth. The coach helped her write a cover letter, and so much more.

"I feel that she's the mother figure in my life," Deopersaud told a Facebook Live rally on Wednesday.

But Deopersaud and about 1,100 other foster youths — many of whom aged out of foster services but still need life help — face the loss of their coaches through the Fair Futures program.

New York City officials, facing a billions-strong budget deficit amid the coronavirus downturn, could cut support for Fair Future, advocates fear.

They held a Facebook Live rally to urge Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council members to keep funding the program, which went citywide last year with $10 million from the city's budget.

It got off the ground quickly and made remarkable progress, said Natasha Lifton with New York Community Trust.

"Over 1,100 young people have gotten connected with a coach and hundreds more are now working with a Fair Futures tutor," Lifton said.

The program aims to provide middle school and high school children, as well as those who age out of foster care at 21, with adult figures who can support, coach and mentor them.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former police captain who hails from Bed-Stuy, added his support to the program.

"Fair Futures is a way of going upstream and preventing young people of falling into the river of homelessness, drug use, crime and all the other despairs that is really supporting their opportunity in life," he said.