Casa Valentina

Casa Valentina provides intensive life skills programming and affordable housing to former foster care and other at-risk youth (ages 18-23) as they transition to independent living. We support them by providing structured, realistic education support, life skills, job preparedness, financial literacy, safe housing, and, most importantly, the security of a caring supportive team. We work with our young women and men to give them the individualized survival tools to become self-sufficient and productive.

Since opening our doors in 2006, Casa Valentina has served over 175 young women and men through its original purpose of providing housing, but we have recently expanded the life-skills services to a more community-based platform through which the team of social workers facilitate group sessions in the community, as well as individual sessions to program participants. In addition to the 21 youth we house, we are fortunate to be able to deliver life skills services to an additional 100 youth in Miami-Dade - approximately 80 middle and high school students ages 13-17, and twenty 18-24 year olds at partnering residential programs.

In 2005, five women from various cross sections of Miami came together to address the pressing need of youth exiting the foster care system. With over 28,000 youth "aging out" nationally, and 150-300 in Miami-Dade County alone, there was a sense of urgency to find solutions for an often overlooked population. The past year has been an exciting year of growth & expansion for Casa Valentina, and we look forward to reaching more and more youth. With an ever growing number of young adults being left without homes or hope, Casa Valentina is the safety net for the future of the young adults who have aged out of foster care and are at risk for homelessness.