StopGap, Inc.

Our Mission: Empower youth aging-out of foster care and at-risk youth in attaining ownership of their lives by providing them with a foundation of life skills to transition from dependence to independence and compete in society.

Our Vision All youth aging-out of foster care who are unable to grow up in a family unit will be able to flourish in life.

StopGap, Inc. is a minority/woman-owned grassroots nonprofit organization that was founded in 2008 under a dream of Ms. Burton. Our goal is to encourage and empower youth aging-out of foster care and provide them with the survival skills needed to transition to adult living. For these youth, the biggest issues is becoming homeless and being exploited by those people who prey on vulnerable youth for their own ill-gotten gains.

Through extensive research, we discovered there is a need in Douglas County for a program that would provide assistance to this populace. Their needs are great, and there is a lack of programs that assist with transitional living.  

Our Youth Empowerment Outreach Program was established in 2012 to serve youth ages 15-17 to obtain the survival skills necessary before living on their own.  We offer an eight-week program curriculum that covers employment preparedness; nutrition; budgeting/finance; finding an apartment/home maintenance; sex, physical and mental health education; and continuing education, SAFE prevention program, identifying a good relationship vs. a bad relationship, teen sex-trafficking and exploitation, identifying the pitfalls, and basic self-defense.

We provide life skills training to approximately 10 youth every eight-week semester. Our Youth Empowerment Outreach Program fills a significant piece that is lacking in the lives of youth “aging-out” of foster care. We provide a program with hands-on experience and real knowledge in a challenging, supportive environment taught in collaboration with licensed staff from local business partners.  

 Our future goal is to establish "The Lighthouse Transition Program" and work with young adults 18-26 years old that have aged out or aging-out of foster care. This is an 18–24-month program, which includes a house that will provide a safe warm and secure environment to gain the life skills necessary to transition into the adult world and become productive adults and comfortable and rewarding lives.