As DiAna Dery and Cyndi Olmstead watched their children struggle to become independent adults, the friends wondered how foster children, who don't have family support, handled the same challenges when they left the foster care system.

"I can't even imagine her being alone," Dery said of her 19year-old daughter. "They're still mentally little girls."

The Simi Valley residents considered setting up a nonprofit that would help young women who were leaving foster care; then they heard about other women with a similar purpose—the United Women's Leadership Council.

"I'm very interested in the group," said Olmstead after attending the council's Oct. 16 meeting at United Way of Ventura County's Camarillo office. "I think it's crucial."

The two-year-old volunteer council, which operates under the auspices of United Way, is working with public and private agencies to fill in gaps in social services for former foster girls.

A nonprofit recently submitted a proposal to the council to provide housing countywide for six young women aging out of foster care. If accepted, the housing program could be in place by November.

"It has all the potential to be what we want," council Chair Lydia Ledesma-Reese said at the meeting.

Once they turn 18, young adults across the country "age out" of foster care and stop receiving many of the services provided to them while they were growing up. About half become homeless within the first 12 months of emancipation; many don't complete high school, and most become unemployed. A rare few attend college.

For young women, life is often a cycle of homelessness and pregnancy.

Having a mentor and stable housing are the primary needs of emancipated young women in Ventura County, the council discovered in a survey earlier this year. Transitional housing programs can't provide enough stable living arrangements for all of the 25 to 30 young women leaving Ventura County's foster care each year, said Amy Fonzo, a founding council member and United Way's vice president of external resources.

This summer, the council launched a countywide mentoring program for foster girls ages 13 to 18 through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ventura County. Three girls have been matched with a mentor so far, and 10 more foster girls—including five in Camarillo—are waiting for a Big Sister, said Lynne West, Big Brothers Big Sisters executive director.

All donations and membership fees—$1,000 per year, less for "Friend" status—go toward the cause, council officials said. To cover operation and overhead expenses—estimated at $30,000 a year—the council has fundraising events.

In August, an allwoman social evening at a Westlake Village restaurant raised $9,000. An event to be held in west Ventura County is planned for early 2009.

United Way paid overhead and administrative costs for the council during its first year of operation, but the board of directors thinks the council will be able to sustain itself starting with this fiscal year, Ledesma-Reese said.

For more information on the United Women's Leadership Council, call Amy Fonzo at (805) 485-6288, ext. 230.

For more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ventura County, call Kelly Dooley at (805) 484-2282, ext. 19.