2017 junior league presentation
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Foster care youth face greater challenges transitioning to adulthood than those with familial support networks. They often "age out" of the system without a safety net. This document discusses empowering foster youth and alumni to build successful lives through addressing their top three needs: regional Thanksgiving events, sponsorship for advocacy trips to Washington D.C., and a program for storing professional clothing. It describes an event where foster care alumni shared a Thanksgiving meal on Capitol Hill to advocate for policies to better support youth transitioning out of foster care.
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2017 junior league presentation
- 1. Empowering foster care youth and alumni to build successful lives in young adulthood Junior League Meeting, 2017
- 2. Transition to Young Adulthood for for a young person with loving, involved parents
- 3. Transition to Young Adulthood for a foster care youth who “ages out”
- 4. Lack of Family Privilege
- 5. Top Three Needs: - Ohio Regional Thanksgivings - Three Days on the Hill sponsorship - Suits for Success: Long-term storage
- 6. On Wednesday, November 21, foster care alumni from all over the nation came to Capitol Hill to share Thanksgiving dinner on the west grassy lawn outside. Our message was: “We share one thing in common -- the government served as our parents… And now we are coming Home for the Holidays to remind the federal government to Foster Connections to Success.”
- 16. Copyright Lisa Dickson Adding to a young person’s Circle of Support:
- 17. What exactly can I rely on you for? It is critical to the youth’s success to identify those adults who will continue to provide various supports through and beyond the transition from care. Clarifying exactly what the various supports will include can help to avoid gaps in the youth’s safety net and misunderstandings between the youth and the supportive adult(s). • A home for the holidays • A place to do laundry • An emergency place to stay • Care packages while in college • Storage • Someone to discuss problems with • A phone or computer to use
Editor's Notes
- Welcome. We are here today to talk about and explore RESOURCES for youth “aging out” of foster care in their transition to living on their own. What’s the first thing you think of when you see this picture? (allow time for participants to respond) Imagine this young person run-run-running out of foster care and taking the big LEAP out into the sky and into adulthood Our young people are Ready to Launch – but can feel like a free fall
- Transition to adulthood: a.) for a foster care youth vs.b.) for a child with loving, involved parents
- Transition to adulthood: a.) for a foster care youth vs.b.) for a child with loving, involved parents
- In attempting to capture this challenge in words, first and foremost is: Lack of family privilege I’m not just a former foster youth – I’m also a stepmother. And, from the moment I was entrusted with my stepdaughters, I took on the charge of being a permanent emotional connection in their lives and preparing them for adulthood. It has been estimated that nearly a quarter of the cost of raising children is now provided after the age of 17.The average parent of 18-34 year olds provides over $2,000/year to support them. Half of young adults ages 18-24 in the U.S.A. live at home with their parents, according Children's Rights. Most young adults in the general population rely upon their families for assistance with a place to live, financial support and other guidance as they transition to adulthood. Meanwhile, the 25,000 young people aging out of foster care each year don't have a parent's basement to live in. They don't have anyone to co-sign for them to rent an apartment. When they go to college, they can't call "mom" and "dad" if they blow their budget and need help, and they don't have a place to spend college breaks, unless their college has taken this need into consideration.
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- Asking the right questions
- FOSTERING CONNECTIONS ACT Who are the peoplewho helped to make youwho you are today? It does take a village: During a youth panel at the 2006 Casey It's My Life conference, young people said that they needed an entire network of connections, and not just one person. It is often up to us to identify those key figures in a child’s life, and to facilitate the building of future relationships. Concurrent Permanency Planning offers caseworkers a structured approach to moving children more quickly from the uncertainty of foster care to the stability and security of a permanent family (having a back-up plan). Historically, caseworkers have been taught to plan in a straight-line, sequential fashion: first to work diligently toward reunification with the biological family; and if after a year—or two or three—reunification looks unlikely, to then switch gears and start planning for adoption or another permanency option. Unfortunately, by this time, the parents have usually become alienated from their child and the case planning process, the child will probably have to be moved from the temporary foster home to a pre-adoptive home, and the child’s length of stay in foster care has been prolonged unnecessarily. Chart the Connections: There are a variety of different ways to map out on paper who the teenager has in their lives and the level of connectedness, and safety related to those connections (timeline, circle, ecomap, genogram, connectedness map) Do not ask the youth to make a Family Tree. DO invite and include youth input. Introduction: “I don't know if you remember her but she remembers you as someone important in her life. As a social worker, I won’t always be around, but I want this information for her We’re worried about what might happen if she leaves foster care with no family connections.” (Ask for photos from childhood!!) Even if they can't parent the youth, they can provide some support to the youth. Tell them, “Your family has some responsibility for her - and here are some ways to help.” (my bio-fam could have been helpful) Reconnecting Can Be Painful Hearing that your biological father asked for a DNA test, for example… CBS interview with Leslie Stahl: Teens reunited with father -- only to discover that he was an alcoholic, their mother had died from a drug overdose and that their father has a total of 10 children, none of whom he had cared for. Imagine if you had built up hopes about your long-lost father. How he would come back into your life with a reason for being gone for so long. He was... abducted by aliens... in the Secret Service... stranded on a desert island. But, all the time he had been thinking of you, right? He had always been thinking of you. In that dream, your father isn't off fathering other children. He's not drowning his sorrows in a bottle. When dreams die, we feel sadness, anger and disappointment. That is a normal reaction to facing the rift between ideal and reality. Teens are idealists; they want adults to display perfection. It is hard to face human frailty, false promises… Preparation for permanency includes grieving the loss of people from their past, continuing to form personal identity, building trust and security through relationships, and developing an openness to forge permanent connections. Pain comes into our lives through relationships – but healing comes that way, too. Paint a realistic picture for the youth: Finding a permanent family is not fast and there is no guarantee of success. Be prepared for the youth to become impatient or discouraged. Prepare for daily questions from the youth about how the search is going. Discuss their expectations. Ask the youth if they would like to bring anything to share with the family, such as art work, crafts or a video. Take it slow: Give the youth details ahead of time, so they can mentally and emotionally prepare. Introduce the youth to the family member or other adult in a supervised setting. Accompany and support them during the visit. Make the first visit short and fun – and, if necessary, shorten visits to minimize stress and anxiety (my father’s birthday). Debrief after: Debrief after the meeting. Don’t minimize the complexity of a youth's post-visit feelings. Listen to and validate youth concerns and reactions, and recognize them as a part of the process. Adults cope with impermanence by building on an accrued sense of self-reliance and by anticipating and planning for a time of greater constancy. Teens in foster care have a backlog of painful memories to fall back on… (vs. RC: secure base)
- It is critical to the youth’s success to identify those adults who will continue to provide various supports through and beyond the transition from care. Clarifying exactly what the various supports will include can help to avoid gaps in the youth’s safety net and misunderstandings between the youth and the supportive adult(s). Permanency PactYouth transitioning from foster care are often unsure who they can count on for ongoing support. Many of their significant relationships with adults have been based on professional connections which will terminate once the transition from care is completed. It is critical to the youth’s success to identify those adults who will continue to provide various supports through and beyond the transition from care. Clarifying exactly what the various supports will include can help to avoid gaps in the youth’s safety net and misunderstandings between the youth and the supportive adult(s).Suggested Supports include: a home for the holidays, a place to do laundry, emergency place to stay, food/occasional meals, care package at college, employment opportunity, job search assistance, career counseling, housing hunt, recreational activities, mentor, transportation, educational assistance, relationship counseling, assistance with medical issues, storage, motivation, someone to discuss problems with, a phone to use, a computer to use, clothing, spiritual support, legal advise, etc.Copies of the Permanency Pact for each of the adults who has indicated a willingness to provide support should be made for the youth and placed in the Health and Education Passport, a document distributed to youth when they age out of care.