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Unrestricted, One of every four adolescents aging out of the Los Angeles foster care system at the age of 18 will face homelessness and other obstacles. These youth face challenges in the arenas of health, social support, and education. From the perspective of a Los Angeles-based alumnus of the foster care system, this thesis project explores the experience of youth aging out of care, the resources needed for their transition, and what they must do to survive.; The documentary aims not only to tell the story from the first-person perspective, but also to shed light on the emotional, educational, and social struggles that confront these young people. In addition, the documentary highlights the systemic challenges that policy advocates attempt to eradicate. A mix of story line, policy-maker strategy, and social research data informs the viewer.

As part of comprehensive joint medical surveillance measures outlined by the Department of Defense, the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM) is beginning to assess environmental health threats to continental US military installations. A common theme in comprehensive joint medical surveillance, in support of Force Health Protection, is the identification and assessment of potential environmental health hazards, and the evaluation and documentation of actual exposures in both a continental US and outside a continental US setting. For the continental US assessments, the USACHPPM has utilized the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) database for risk management plans in accordance with Public Law 106-40, and the toxic release inventory database, in a state-of the art geographic information systems based program, termed the Consequence Assessment and Management Tool Set, or CATS, for assessing homeland industrial chemical hazards outside the military gates. As an example, the US EPA toxic release inventory and risk management plans databases are queried to determine the types and locations of industries surrounding a continental US military installation. Contaminants of concern are then ranked with respect to known toxicological and physical hazards, where they are then subject to applicable downwind hazard simulations using applicable meteorological and climatological data sets. The composite downwind hazard areas are mapped in relation to emergency response planning guidelines (ERPG), which were developed by the American Industrial Hygiene Association to assist emergency response personnel planning for catastrophic chemical releases. In addition, other geographic referenced data such as transportation routes, satellite imagery and population data are included in the operational, equipment, and morale risk assessment and management process., Published in Science of the Total Environment Journal, n288 p111-117, 2002. Presented at the Issues and Applications in Toxicology and Risk Assessment Conference held in April 2001.