Changing the Health of Adolescents Impacting the Nation Reaction, Incorporated (C.H.A.I.N. Reaction, Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The organization was founded in 2005 by Ms. Jessica Saint-Paul an African-American, Physician Assistant and Public Health Practitioner. “I witnessed too often that foster care and probation youth were aging out (>18 years old) of the Child Welfare System without valuable resources to access housing, medical, and mental health services.” Emancipated youth were no longer eligible for foster care services. “They experienced homelessness, lack of education, sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies, unemployment and incarceration at higher rates than their adolescent peers.”
C.H.A.I.N. Reaction, Inc. was established to address the health behavior challenges experienced by foster care adolescent girls residing in group home facilities in Los Angeles county. In response to these needs faced by present and former foster care youth, C.H.A.I.N. Reaction, Inc. formalized services and provided health education, case management, independent living and volunteer opportunities for female and male foster care and probation youth who emancipated from the Child Welfare System.