Older youth often rely on their stipends to cover food and basic necessities. But restrictions like store-specific gift cards or requiring in-person pickup can make it hard for them to get what they need.

Use flexible payment methods like cash, prepaid cards, or direct deposit to ensure youth can use their stipends.

How to do this

Choose flexible payment options. Give youth cash or prepaid cash cards (that don't have transaction fees). Or let them choose their preferred payment app like Venmo or CashApp. Avoid store-specific gift cards that limit where youth can shop. Don't require youth to go to monthly in-person meetings to receive their stipend.

Set up direct deposit for stipends. Open a bank account for each youth as part of your on-boarding process. Use the bank account to deposit their stipends. This makes it easy for youth to access and give them an income history on bank statements.

This strategy in action

Connecticut Department of Children and Families uses direct deposit to distribute extended foster care stipends.

Think of Us found that when youth received Target gift cards, they often used complicated workarounds to get cash. They purchased miscellaneous Target items, then returned them in batches to receive cash refunds in increments of $10.