“I am here, and I matter.” JMG and Opportunity Passport® support Maine foster care youth and their financial independence to help them create a prosperous future
Opportunity Passport® participant Mariah Knight (left) with her program specialist Kara Boone (right).
As a child in Maine’s foster care system, Mariah Knight felt the only way she could survive was to make herself invisible and need nothing. “I didn’t have a need for money. Why would I? I would grow to be nothing and no one if I made it to adulthood,” she said. “The closest I had been to financial literacy was hiding out of shame on a bench far away from the cash register where my caregiver was swiping their EBT card.”
Today, Mariah works to empower Maine youth in foster care and remind them that needing help does not make them a burden. She credits her participation in the Opportunity Passport® (OP) program with helping her overcome her feelings of isolation and shame to become an independent, successful young adult.
Opportunity Passport® provides young Mainers currently or formerly in foster care with financial literacy training and mentoring support. Money saved by enrolled youth is matched dollar for dollar, up to $1,000 per year, toward purchasing specific assets. JMG serves as Maine's Opportunity Passport® program coordinator, supporting over 700 youth to achieve over $2 million in saved and match funds.
Mariah said she initially resisted participating in the program because she did not want to be known as someone connected to the child welfare system. That changed when at the age of 17, she began living with a new family. “For the first time, a family asked not where I’d been but where I was going. Where am I going? There’s a next for me now.”
Before joining Opportunity Passport®, Mariah earned money from babysitting and cleaning. She put that money in an envelope she called “Holly.” Now living with her new family, her Youth Transition Specialist again asked if she wanted to participate in the OP program. “This time, I was willing to be seen as a youth in care as I saw it as my ticket out. OP was the reason I learned about a savings account and knew it was time to take “Holly” to the bank. My dad assured me that I could still visit her through my account,” she recalled.
Opportunity Passport® supported positive changes in her life, allowed her to focus on financial literacy, and gave her skills and the opportunity to think about her relationship with money. “I was feeling good. I was living in my own apartment, working, and going to college full-time. I had a savings account and a life insurance policy. I was using my OP funds to support my independence.”
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Mariah lost her job, lost her internship, and her school went remote. “Overnight, I reverted back to my old feelings of isolation and feeling invisible,” she recounted. “Over the years, I built up pride around the illusion of needing no one. I was self-sufficient. To not be self-sufficient felt shameful to me. I was alone again.”
Through Opportunity Passport®, Mariah learned she was not alone. She received a call from her program specialist Kara Boone, and they worked out a plan for her match funds and found the support she needed. “I am no longer invisible. I am being seen. I am reminded that the world knows I am here and that I matter. It is OK to need help,” she said. “OP provided me with financial opportunities that I could not have achieved on my own. They paved the way for me to obtain my college education and become a homeowner at the age of 25 in the midst of a pandemic.”
Nine years after her enrollment in Opportunity Passport®, Mariah has come full circle and now works for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services as the Youth Transition Specialist in her community. She supports Maine foster care youth and is able to connect youth in care to the program that supported her transition to adulthood.
“I am now part of a group of supporters who say to other young people, ‘I see you, and you matter too.”
Impact the life of a young Mainer. When you donate to JMG, we can deliver on our mission to provide a continuum of support, create opportunity and economic security, and help students feel safe while having a sense of belonging. Together, with your investment, we can prepare young Mainers for a prosperous future.