This document outlines a workshop on adolescent emotional resiliency for teens in foster care. It covers four parts: (1) the stigma and culture of foster care, including an activity where teens anonymously share experiences; (2) how trauma and displacement can lead to survival behaviors and PTSD; (3) the importance of emotional support networks, including siblings and developing intimacy; (4) empowering teens and defining permanency from their perspective, including activities of sharing stories with social workers and discussing forgiveness. The goal is to help teens in foster care build resiliency by understanding how their experiences and behaviors are impacts of trauma, and providing support networks during recovery.

1. Adolescents in Foster Care
and Emotional Resiliency

2. Workshop Overview
Behavior in its
Context
Trauma, Survival
Behavior and
PTSD
Network of
Emotional
Support for Teens
Empowering
Teens in the
Healing Process

3. Part 1: Stigma of Foster Care
Culture of Foster Care
Postcard Project

4. Activity #1:
Anonymous Confession
What’s the worst thing you ever did
as a teenager?

5. Case file language

6. Context of behavior

7. Case file
questions:
• What is written in
my file?
• Is it accurate?
• Desire to close file
and/or update the
information.

8. Teen Brain Development

9. Magnified consequences
• Consequences and Risks: In general, foster children
and foster alumni operate by a different set of rules and
consequences. And they have a lot more paperwork!
• Let's say you're a teenager and you act out. Will you:
a.) Be transferred to a totally different place to live?
b.) Be grounded for a month?
• Let's say you're in college and you do a poor job of
budgeting. Are you:
a.) Now homeless?
b.) Able to call Mom or Dad to bail you out?

10. Part 2: Survival Behavior

11. Activity #2: Displacement

12. Children are wired for survival
Children in a hostile
living environment
learn to be highly
sensitive to signs of
danger.
What you learn to live
with, and what you
learn to live without
(security, protection).
If you learn the
language to express
emotions (emotional
vocabulary).

13. Trauma of displacement
Lack of
predictability
Feeling
powerless
Want to
exercise
control
Feelings of
inadequacy
Self-blame

14. Foster care and PTSD
• Former foster children experience PTSD at
twice the rate of Vietnam war veterans.
• At least one-fourth of foster care alumni have
PTSD.
• In young children, PTSD includes disorganized
and agitated behavior, including difficulty in
concentrating in school…which can look like
ADHD.

15. Physical effects of trauma
• Fight
• Flight
• Freeze
• Disassociate

16. Aftershock of trauma
• Am I safe yet?
The world seems dangerous.
• It’s hard to concentrate:
Scattered, thoughts
Distracted, unable to focus.
Hard to sort out relevant details.
• Hyper-vigilance:
Body remains on alert.
Restless, can’t relax, easily startled.

17. • Sensory cues can lead to trigggers: A familiar building, a shadow approaching
from behind, a smell…
￭ Traumatic memories are stored differently: Emotions, sensory details. This
can make them difficult to communicate verbally.

18. Memories resurfacing
• Flashbacks
• Intrusive
thoughts
• Nightmares

19. Part 3: Emotional Support

20. What’s the
first thing you
think of when
you hear the
words: trust
and reliable
love?
Activity #3

21. Foster care and Erikson
Erikson Stage 6:
Intimacy vs.
Isolation
The social task of
young adulthood is
to create strong,
long-lasting bonds
of friendship and
love.
Those who fail in
this task risk
remaining isolated
for the rest of their
lives.

22. Used with permission from Mark Stivers at www.markstivers.com

24. Copyright Lisa Dickson

25. Role of Siblings
During Family Upheaval

26. Siblings as Survival Unit
Copyright Lisa Dickson

27. Copyright Lisa Dickson

29. Part 4: Teens as Active Agents

30. How the system defines
permanency
• Safe, enduring
relationship
• Lifelong connections
• Legal rights
• Social status
• Provides for all levels of
development
• Family history, culture,
tradition, religion,
language
Source: Research Roundtable: Convening
on Youth Permanence, Casey Family
Programs and Annie E. Casey Foundation,
Sept. 12-13, 2006.

31. How youth define permanency
• “Staying in one place”
• “Not having to move”
• “A feeling of connection”
• “Like a permanent marker”
(Indelible mark on your life)
Sources: Chambers, K., et al. Foster Youth’s
Views of Adoption and Permanency. Urban
Institute, Child Welfare Research Program,
January 2008.
Sanchez, Reina M. Youth Perspectives on
Permanency, California Youth Connection,
California Permanency for Youth, 2004.

32. Activity #3:

33. Foster care youth: “Whenever I get a new social worker, I have to tell them my
whole life story. But I know nothing about him or her.”

34. Forgiveness
• Forgiveness of
self and others is
vital
• It is still okay to
keep yourself
safe
• Forgiveness does
not always mean
reconciliation
Forgiveness takes one person;
reconciliation takes two. We are
only responsible for our own
choices.

35. Taylor
Model
Copyright Danny Taylor, used with permission.

36. Post-Adoption Support
Copyright Grey Hilliard-Koshinsky, used with permission

37. You play a role in supporting
Teen Emotional Resiliency
Behavior in its
Context
Trauma, Survival
Behavior and PTSD
Network of
Emotional
Support, including
Siblings
Empowering Teens
in the Healing
Process

38. Closing and Evaluation