Beyond The Foster Care System: The Future for Teens

Chapter 6: Creating the Getting Beyond the System® Self-Advocacy Seminars

We had traveled many paths in the foster care system, engaged in many problems faced by teens, and considered a range of solutions . During this time we had observed many worthwhile program efforts fail. We believed that the combination of our work, in both policy and programming areas, positioned us to develop an effective curriculum that would actually work for the teen, be suitable for meaningful replication, and eventually promote a positive change within the foster care system. We focused in on one overarching problem: the system failed to prepare teens to reach their potential as individuals and citizens. However, we faced a risk by basing our program on the premise that teens in foster care could take on more personal responsibility for preparing for their future, engage in intellectual programs to advance their understanding of independent living, and become empowered through skillfully applying self-advocacy techniques. Transferring this responsibility to teens could potentially be disastrous by confirming the system’s low expectations, threatening teens by requiring more from them, threatening professionals with a perceived loss of control and power, and being effectively resisted by the foster care bureaucracy. However, our experiences suggested we could and should attempt this program, and few other options seemed realistic. We concluded that the stronger forces of inertia would continually defeat our efforts to force change within and on the system. Instead, we would openly attempt to undermine the premise of diminished expectations 130 6 Creating the Getting Beyond the System® Self-Advocacy Seminars through creating a successful model that would gradually attract resources and policy change for wide-scale adoption. In addition, we would develop a method that would empower equally professional and student to benefit from the potential of all participants in the learning process, rather than focusing exclusively on either the student or professional. We analyzed the source of diminished expectations. The rationale for inadequate programming, passivity regarding inadequate high school education , and absence of college or career planning stemmed from the theory that teens in foster care were too traumatized to significantly achieve anything in their lives. The government presented traumatization and victimization as reasons not to challenge teens to higher achievement and more rigorous education. We wanted to prove the trauma theory wrong. Some literature, coupled with our experience, suggested that trauma could spur a person on to greater achievements. Thus we wanted to replace, or at least balance, the prevailing trauma theory by highlighting the strengths, the potential, and the accomplishments we had observed in our work with hundreds of teens in foster care. If we could help more teens leave the system and become successful, participating citizens, then we might demonstrate to the teens in the system, to the architects of the system, and to the community that the system should institute the highest of expectations for all teens and develop programs that support those expectations. Our position of being independently funded and operating on the fringes of the system created an unusual advantage. We had the opportunity to implement and test a high-level, future-oriented, intellectual program. If the design worked, then we would try to replicate the program. We analyzed our previous work and carefully crafted a challenging seminar that would empower teens by helping them understand the importance and skills of self-advocacy and begin the process of taking responsibility for their own futures. We viewed self-advocacy as a critical thinking process for developing goals and plans to achieve those goals within the context of the community at large. Self-advocacy requires that an individual understands the needs and goals of others, presents a positive image of themselves, and develops solutions that will provide mutual benefits. Most everyone understood 131 Getting Beyond the System that these skills are critically important for all teens preparing for successful independence. We developed four overarching goals for the seminar: 1. Help teens take responsibility and control of their lives 2. Advance intellectual abilities (to deal with modern economy and world) 3. Initiate preparation for a future career 4. Create relevancy and motivation for continued learning We also broke down the self-advocacy process into components, which formed the basis for our curriculum: Planning and reaching your goals Fact analysis How systems and organizations qork Importance of presenting your strengths Understanding the needs of the other party Process of transitions Engaging and utilizing allies and finding mentors Depersonalizing issues and discovering...