Transcript Slide 1

College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
Addressing the Non-Academic
Needs of College Students that have
Experienced Foster Care
February 19, 2014 – 10:50-11:50am
Sarah B. Greenblatt, ACSW, Sr. Associate Director
Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative
[email protected] – www.jimcaseyyouth.org
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College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
Goals for Our Discussion
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Build awareness of the non-academic developmental needs of
college students with foster care experience
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Deepen understanding of strategies that can work to integrate
and support college students who may lack family and adult
supporters
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Have opportunities to learn from the strides and struggles we
have all experienced in identifying and addressing the nonacademic needs of this sub-population of college students
Jim Casey Youth
Opportunities Initiative
Our Focus
Young people ages 14 - 26
Jim Casey Initiative
Site Locations
GA
Outcome Areas
• Permanence
• Education
• Employment
• Housing
• Health and
Mental Health
• Financial
Capability
• Social Capital
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Core Strategies
College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
Adolescent Growth and Development
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Emerging Adulthood
Gradual Brain Development
Protective Factors to Mitigate Risks
Capacity to Build Resilience
Normative Risk-Taking
• Experiences and Relationships Matter
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The Foster Care
Experience
What Happens?
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Multi-generational poverty & persistent discrimination
Abuse & Neglect
Separation from family, friends, school & community
Multiple moves and relationship disruptions
Educational instability: school changes; lost records &
delayed transfers; limited individualized planning &
supports; limited parental involvement & advocacy
The Foster Care
Experience
What is the Impact?
• Ambiguous losses
• Confusion, uncertainty, mistrust
• Social and emotional challenges: Externalized responses,
e.g. anger, fearful, anxiety; Internalized responses, e.g. sadness,
self-blame; depression
• Developmental delays
• Academic struggles
• Academic disengagement
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The Foster Care
Experience
Barriers to Academic Success
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After-effects of trauma
Lack of consistent supportive adults
Frequent school transfers
Disproportionate contact with exclusionary discipline
Disproportionate enrollment in so-called alternative
schools with low standards and unaddressed special
needs
CT Voices for Children, 1.16.14
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College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
What are the Worries of College Students
that have Experienced Foster Care?
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Post-Secondary
Educational Experiences
Youth in Foster Care
• Fewer than 20% of youth in care go on to
higher education compared to 60% of
youth in the general population
• For those that do attend, specialized nonacademic supports to are emerging
2012, ABA Center on Children and the Law, Education Law Center
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Post Secondary Education
Supports for Youth in Foster Care
• CA, WA, MI, CO
• Campus-based support programs to provide
assistance to students formerly in foster care with
financial aid, mental health services, housing issues,
and other supports
• Check with a college’s financial aid or student affairs
office to find out what types of assistance they provide
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Resources
ABA Center on Children and the Law
Education Law Center – www.ambar.org/LegalCenter
• California College Pathways: www.cacollegepathways.org
• Western Michigan University News:
http://www.wmich.edul/wmu/news/2008/041.html
• Colorado State University, Fostering Success Scholarship:
http://sfs.colostate.edu/csu-scholarship-application-csusa
• Supporting Success: Improving Higher Education Outcomes for
Students from Foster Care:
http//www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/pdf/SupportingSucc
ess.pdf
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Social Capital
Relationships for a Reason, a Season, a
Lifetime
• Quantity
• Quality
• Value
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College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
Youth-Engagement in Case Planning for Transitions
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Youth are engaged as partners in their own case planning
Youth identify team members who know and care about them
Youth are supported to guide content of their case plans
Youth practice life skills of team planning and decision-making
Youth are guided to become more autonomous
Youth learn to have increasing levels of new relationships, life
responsibilities and leadership roles
• Youth are supported through an identity development process
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College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
Benefits of Youth Engagement in Planning for
Transitions
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Builds “buy-in”
Stimulates brain development
Promotes open communication
Enhances doing with – not for or to
Supports self-determination, empowerment, and autonomy
Supports self-learning
Allows for “teachable moments"
College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
Courageous Conversations … Doing With, Not For or To
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Assess youth’s developmental phase and impact of any trauma
Listen for strengths, needs, fears, worries - get behind the “no”
Ask who they want on their planning and decision-making team
Prepare youth and team members for their roles and responsibilities
Be honest
Validate the youth and their life story
Create a safe space to do the work
Support youth’s gradual leadership in the case planning process
Empower through options & choices, expectations & responsibilities
Allow that it is never too late to change - go back to move forward
Acknowledge that pain may be part of the process
Adapted from 3.5.7 Model, Darla Henry (2005)
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College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
Help them to have answers to 6 key questions
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Who am I?
What happened to me?
Where am I going?
How will I get there?
Who will support me along the way?
How and when will I know I belong?
Adapted from 3.5.7 Model, Darla Henry (2005)
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Opportunity Momemts
Going Back to Go Forward
Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to
banish them with illuminations and forgiveness.
Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will
cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel,
as a reminder of your strength.
August Wilson
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College Connections for Student
Success: A Focus on Foster Care,
Homeless & Other Disconnected Youth
OUTCOMES for YOUNG ADULTS in COLLEGE
• Young people safely make sense of their story, make peace with
their past, and make realistic plans for their future
• Young people are “connected by 25” to the relationships,
knowledge, skills and resources needed for a successful
transition to adulthood – and beyond!
• Young people have supportive relationships for a reason, a
season and a lifetime ….
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Social Capital
Relationships for
a Reason …
a Season …
a Lifetime …
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