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Dear Friends,
Mentoring is something we often think of as a formal relationship. Yet we mentor every day when we say an encouraging word to the young person at the grocery store, ask a 6th grader where they want to go to college and tell them about our experience or offer to introduce a family friend's son to a professional in the field they want to go into.
Mentoring can be more formal when you just commit an hour or two a week to talk with a child about school, help them with a college application or lead a scouting troop.
We have all had people in our lives who mentored us, formally or informally, and it made a difference in how we saw ourselves and what we believed we could do.
Our children in foster care need that kind of relationship too. So we have taken the step of engaging Foresight Leadership to provide a structured mentoring opportunity for our young men. You'll read more about them in this edition of Fostering Connections. In the near future we will expand and offer mentoring for our young women too.
I hope you will think about your mentoring role and if you are not now actively parenting, or if you are and you can commit a couple of hours, think about being a mentor. Our children need you.
Take care,
Mary | |
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Mentoring for Youth in Foster Care and Delinquency Court
By District Court Judge Rickye McKoy-Mitchell
"One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of house you lived in, how much money you had, nor what your clothes were like. But the world may be a little better because you made a difference in the life of a child." How often have we seen and read this quote on various kinds of placards and in different articles about children? Sometimes we may even give it a moment of thought. What if you encounter a pre-teen or teenager and their response to a question about their talents and/or future ranges from silence to "I don't know," "an athlete or entertainer" or even to "If I'm living?" Then, do we stop and truly think about how critically important and highly relevant that quote is in the lives of the young people we encounter in the custody of the Youth and Family Services (YFS) Division of the Department of Social Services (DSS) and within Delinquency Court? Having repeatedly heard those responses from numerous young people that have appeared before me, I was even more driven to seek ways of enabling those young people to gain a "vision" for the future beyond their current circumstances and to understand the tremendous possibilities for their lives. After being persistent in having these same young people express their interests in potential careers and other experiences and then exposing them to persons in those fields and other resources such as Arts and Science programs, many of these same young people who had had behavioral and academic problems seemed to be transformed into young people with not only decreased behavioral and academic issues and risky behaviors but began to excel in many areas.
What caused the transformation???
Click HERE to read more ... |
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Journey's Place
Transitional Living Program for Males 18 - 21 by The Relatives
A transitional living center that is designed to assist young adult males, between the ages of 18-21, gain the skills necessary to make a successful transition to adulthood. Each young adult will work one on one with a Transition Specialist who will provide the case management and skill building services necessary to help young adults function independently in society.
Who is Eligible
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Young adult males ages 18 -21, who are in legal custody of the Department of Social Services -
Young adults with a diagnosed Mental Health Need -
Young adults who are in need of additional housing support that supports the development of appropriate independent living skills -
Young adults with unmet education completion & career development/sustainability needs
Who Can Make Referrals
What Are the Focus Areas
What Are The Service Areas
Utilizing the RENEW (Rehabilitation for Empowerment, Natural Supports, Education and Work) model, Transition Specialist provide case management, and skill building services to assist young adults through the process of transitioning to adulthood. Specific services include:
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Intensive Case Management -
Goal Setting/Futures Planning -
Living Skills Support and education -
Counseling/ Mentoring/ Coaching -
GED/Graduation support -
Career planning -
Job readiness, training, and support -
Housing support Contact Information: Honta Epps 704.943.9597 Curtis Joe 704.377.0602
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Legacy Hall (P.A.L.S.) is a residential program at Florence Crittenton in Charlotte, NC that caters to at-risk adolescent females, ages 16-21, in the legal custody of the Department of Social Services. These clients receive vocational, life, and social skills development in order to facilitate positive future outcomes. This is an excellent opportunity for children who may need to be in DSS custody past their 18th birthday. Our department is supportive of entering into CARS agreements for the children placed in this program.
Florence Crittenton's Legacy Hall program provides:
24-Hour Supervised Residential Care Needs Assessment Individualized Service Planning Case Management Services Counseling: Individual, Group & Family and Significant Other, if appropriate Educational Opportunities Vocational/Career Training Life Skills/Independent Living Classes Recreation Medical/Dental Care Spiritual Enrichment Mentoring/Tutoring Follow-up Services Transportation
If you would like to learn more please contact:
Ashley Beatty | Legacy Hall Program Manager
704-372-4663 or via email at abeatty@fcsnc.org
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Foster Parent Association Clothing Closet Update ...
Katherine 'Susie' Taylor
President | Mecklenburg County Foster Parent Association
The Foster Parent volunteers are slowly getting the Emergency Clothing Closet organized and with every Saturday that we meet, collect and sort donated items, the volunteers get more and more excited about its endless possibilities. Thanks to the department, we were able to secure additional used racks from Norketts and once those are delivered, a Girl Scout troop will help complete the task of organizing and hanging clothes. (We owe a special thanks to Donna Fayko for arranging Girl Scout participation). Hopefully, very soon the Closet will become a vital resource for foster parents and caseworkers having emergency placements.
We will also be incorporating a rack of professional 'adult' clothing for biological parents needing appropriate attire for emergency court hearings. Danica Little asked her Drycleaners what they do with dry-cleaning that people don't pick up. In turn, he donated a large selection of 'dry-cleaned' adult clothing, in bags and on hangers, which had never been claimed. We plan to solicit other donations from the various dry-cleaners in the city.
Because of marketing efforts and clothing drives coordinated by attorney Danica Little and Charlotte School of Law student, Kristen Shearin, we have a huge selection of very nice items to stock the closet. Danica, Kristen and I met to discuss ideas and opportunities for continuing to keep the closet stocked and additional ways to get the community involved in helping foster children. Kristen is an Officer this year for the law school's Family Law Society group. The law school encourages student involvement in the community. Kristen plans to bring up the idea of the group sponsoring the MCFPA Emergency Clothing Closet as their community project at their August meeting.
Stay tuned for meeting date! |
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"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches BUT to reveal to him his own."
Quoted By: Benjamin Disraeli
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What the World Needs Now ... Is More Eclectic Family Trees
As foster parents, we open up our homes, our lives and our hearts to provide the children that we're fostering a sense of security, acceptance and love. To effectively accomplish this, regardless of the amount of time that the children live with us, it's important that they become, for all intents and purposes, members of our family.
Because foster parents invest so much of themselves in order to meet the essential needs of our foster children, when the children leave our homes, foster parents suffer a profound loss that; even in the best of circumstances, leaves us with feelings of regret, emptiness and sadness; however, if we're fortunate enough to build a bond with the biological family, that loss is lessened and replaced with an extraordinary extended family connection. I call this connection the 'Eclectic Family Tree', with each new placement taking on the form of a new branch and with every successful co-parenting transition forming extended branches. Every branch becomes an eternal bond that lives on after the transition is complete.
Due to the successful co-parenting transition of my last sibling placement, I was fortunate enough to build this eternal bond and cultivate my 'Eclectic Family Tree'. As a result, the co-parenting relationship that was developed has continued to grow strong and has produced a very real sense of 'extended family'. My extended family calls often for a status update and during those times my foster son (whom I refer to as 'Little Man') will let me know how both he and his baby sister are doing. He continues to call me 'Mommy Susie" and with every telephone call and/or picture that I receive from the family, our 'extended family' bond grows stronger.
I want to challenge all foster parents to cultivate and grow your own 'Eclectic Family Tree' by finding ways to reach out to family members of the children that you foster. Let them see you as a viable resource for a successful transition. I understand that it isn't always easy, but in doing so, you'll also be able to build that eternal bond and once transition takes place, it will be 'your' foster son or daughter calling to let you know that you're still a very important part of their life.
God bless, Katherine 'Susie' Taylor
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 Building Relationships ... Building Community
Empowerment University Mentoring Program
Program Description
ForeSight Leadership Training, a private non-profit organization has developed and implemented a 12 - month pilot model training program for male youth in foster care. The program promotes a healthy transition to adulthood and self-sufficiency by developing and strengthening skills for managing healthy relationships among peers, adults and professionals.
Program Goal
To impact the lives of the male youth to become responsible men, responsible fathers and a productive citizen in the community.
Description of Service
ForeSight Leadership Training will offer Empowerment University. Empowerment University provides a continuum care model that is uniquely designed to work with the target group of 20 male youth, ten (10) male youth between the ages 16 - 17 and ten (10) aged out male youth 18 -21 in foster care system.
The program model addresses the emotional, social, and behavioral competences as well as academic enhancement and vocational/career preparedness that allow youth to build and maintain healthy relationships through normal experiences in a supportive environment.
The program curriculum is divided into three core fundamental areas: Human Development, Economic Development and Community Development. The curriculum is uniquely selected to teach and transform the lives of the youth and transition them into adulthood by utilizing their gifts, skills and talent coupled with providing necessary information/resources, skills development and modeling to become self-sufficient.
Human Developement
(education, coping skills, self-esteem, health relationships, character development, social skills development, goal setting, critical thinking, conflict resolution, manhood and fatherhood training, enrichment activities, etc...)
Economic Developement
(education, life-skills, money management, networking, team building, vocational/career preparedness, etc...)
Community Developement
(education, leadership, purchasing & maintaining a home, identifying community resources, community service, collaborating, volunteerism, mentoring, etc...)
The program offers academic enhancement, facilitated workshops and one-on-one mentoring. Additionally, the program will offer monthly training sessions for Foster Parent and Guardian ad Litem (GAL) on a variety of topic of interest to better work with youth in the foster care system.
Contact Information: Derrik Anderson
PO Box 561645 | Charlotte, NC | 28256
Ph: 704.754.8913
Fx: 704.754.8912
Email: info@foresightleadership.org
www.foresightleadership.org |
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