The model
A transition system that does not require a building
Twenty four months, eight components, and three phases. It runs in a licensed placement, a scattered site apartment, or a tribal community with no dedicated property, using the staff you already have.
How it starts without a property
It phases
Every other transition housing model requires a building before it requires anything else. That is why the conversation usually ends at the first meeting.
The product
Eight components, one manual
The whole model, documented. The 24 month arc gives it a defined runway, the Resilience Reserve gives the young adult capital, and the funding architecture is what keeps the program alive after year one.
24 month transition arc
A defined runway rather than an open ended stay, with a structured beginning, middle, and exit.
Resilience Reserve
Residents contribute $500 per month. Months 1 to 6 are a program pay in. Months 7 to 24 convert into savings the resident takes with them.
Banking partnership
A financial institution opens resident accounts and delivers financial literacy and planning. OneAZ fills this role at the inaugural site.
College Pathway Program
Postsecondary navigation and persistence support, built from the doctoral research on what keeps alumni of care enrolled.
Structured curriculum
Monthly interactive modules covering the practical and relational skills the transition requires.
Legal and operating structure
Operating agreement, resident lease, and program housing rider, integrated into the implementation manual.
Data and outcomes framework
Logic model, outcomes framework, and reporting structure, so the program can prove what it does from day one.
Funding architecture
Grant tracker, funder narrative, and a case built around the pillars funders actually score against. A program nobody can fund is not a program.
Placement fit
It installs in all three approved living arrangements
A qualified young adult in voluntary extended foster care resides in a licensed foster home, in congregate care, or in a supervised independent living setting. This is an overlay, so it runs in any of the three without a licensing change.
01
Licensed foster home
Curriculum delivered by the licensed caregiver, with the anchor function carried by the caregiver and a navigator assigned by the agency.
02
Congregate care
Delivered as structured programming inside an existing group care license. Highest fidelity, because staffing is already scheduled and supervised.
03
Supervised independent living
Delivered as scheduled contact and coaching rather than supervision, alongside the Independent Living Subsidy where the young adult qualifies.
Same model, three settings, one implementation manual.
Source: Department of Child Safety (DCS) Program Policy Chapter 5, Section 33, Young Adult Living Arrangements.
Policy alignment
Built to the structures already in statute and policy
| What the policy says | How the model is built to it |
|---|---|
| Extended foster care ends at 21 | The 24 month arc is timed so the exit plan, the savings, and the permanent connection are complete before services end, not after. |
| Success coaching requires trained coaches | Statute requires success coaches to complete a Department administered training program. Institute certification is designed to sit alongside that requirement, not to replace it. |
| Quality review monitors participation | The curriculum drives the exact participation categories under review: secondary completion, postsecondary enrollment, and employment. |
| Transitional living eligibility begins at 16 | Young people in the custody of the Department, a licensed residential group care facility, or a tribal child welfare agency at 16, 17, or 18 qualify for transitional living services, with room and board assistance for those in care on their 18th birthday. |
Sources: Arizona Revised Statutes 8-521.02 and 8-521.03; Department of Child Safety (DCS) Program Policy Chapter 5, Sections 32, 33, and 36; Laws 2023, Chapter 141.
Navigator and anchor
Four states, and only one of them holds
Staff locate their own caseload on this within seconds. Congregate settings tend to be staffed for navigation and understaffed for anchoring, which is a scheduling problem rather than a failure of individual workers.
Navigation capacity, low to high
Dormant entitlement
Rights held on paper and never converted. Low take up everywhere.
Supported non activation
A trusted adult without benefits knowledge or reach. Wellbeing up, take up flat.
Brittle activation
Resources accessed, but shocks cannot be absorbed. Attrition at the first renewal.
Durable transition
Resources accessed and sustained. Take up, renewal, and persistence all elevated.
The target stateAnchor relationship, low to high
The evidence base
Two frameworks, two different jobs
Purpose without method burns staff out. Method without purpose processes people. Certification requires both.
Framework A, answers why
The Transition Justice Framework for Foster Youth
Reframes leaving care as a question of continuing obligation rather than individual readiness, and gives staff language for what the system owes at exit.
Submitted and under peer review.
Framework B, answers how
The Navigator-Anchor Model
Specifies the two functions a young person needs at the same time: a navigator for systems and skills, an anchor for durable relationship.
Submitted and under peer review.
Under review is not accepted. Both manuscripts are submitted and under peer review, and neither is published. A desk rejection or a revise and resubmit is a normal outcome at this stage.