Johnny Madrid's mother died when he was 11, and he was shuttled between 19 different foster care settings by age 18. When he aged out of the California state system he still had no permanent contact. He says this remains an issue for him to this day.

"People tell me I'm a success story," says Johnny, now 25, who holds a degree from Stanford and a Goldman Sachs position as a security analyst. "But I think of all those times when self-destructiveness overwhelmed me ... the nights I slept in my car during college holiday breaks ... Most of all I think of that hole in my heart and that sense of loneliness."

Today, Madrid is working to alleviate similar situations for others in the foster care system by leading a nationwide movement to ensure "no child grows to adulthood without a lifelong connection to a caring adult." You can read more about him in the winter 2007 edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation Casey Connects magazine, and at www.childadvocacy360.com.

Casey Foundation, lawmakers push for changes:

The Casey Foundation, along with other professionals, practitioners and policymakers, has turned its attention to the issue faced by nearly 25,000 young people who age out of foster care each year without permanent contacts to call "family" or addresses to call "home."

Among the potential solutions posed by experts at a national convention hosted by the Casey Foundation:

• Re-establish contact with foster care youths' actual family members.
• Foster a permanent connection with at least one adult coach, teacher, friend's parent, social worker or other mentor willing to provide lifelong support.
• Work to help older children and youth maintain contact with family members, including siblings.

Still, one of the best ways to prevent the anxiety Madrid felt throughout his youth is to avoid placing young people into foster care in the first place. States such as Indiana, North Carolina and Oregon have secured federal clearance to use reallocate funds to do just that by bolstering their family preservation and reunification programs. Allegheny County, Pa., has trimmed its foster care population by 30% and placed more than 50% of all youth requiring foster care with relatives since a 1997 tripling of abuse and neglect prevention funds and a doubling of family preservation funds. A shift to emphasize family permanence in New York City helped it cut from 1,584 to 843 the number of youth under the city's care while boosting the adoption rate for older foster children. Elsewhere, Illinois and Maine are making strides with their own through a subsidized guardianship program and the introduction of family team meetings designed to identify permanent contacts for foster children.

Some are encouraged by the recent national attention the aging-out and permanency issues have received, but more groups and states must elevate the issue to make it a priority and work to follow the successful models already in place. Madrid earned a Harry S. Truman scholarship while in college for his work to reform the U.S. foster-care program and said in a 2004 Stanford Daily article that he believes it can be improved from within. "I'm optimistic about reforming the foster-care system because I have to be," he said.