Despite long-needed improvements now underway for the more than 60,000 California youth in foster care, many are still falling through the system’s cracks for a variety of reasons.

A forum in Oakland brought together advocates, experts and former foster youth. who shared stories of what issues they’ve encountered during their years in the system and transitioning to adulthood.

Ayanna wants to know how – how to save money, how to cook, how to do all the things that she thinks adults should know how to do. Throughout her teens, she cycled through juvenile hall, group homes, youth shelters, and the homes of both her adoptive and biological mothers. She’s lived in a lot of different places, but now she’s out in the world:

I like to feel that I have a higher power that could help me through the trials I go through as a homeless youth. There have been times in my life where I felt lonely. I believe that having a God helped me through the loneliness. I come from a religious background and was told things like “God does not love gays” and a lot of other things I was ...