Independent Living Skills Program

Natasha, you just had a transitional youth meeting. Please tell me about that experience. It was really helpful because coming into these meetings, we're getting ready to emancipate from the system, and it's hard to be prepared because you don't really know exactly how to be an adult when you turn 18. My name is Jessie Rojas. I am a social work case specialist. My name is Kelly Taylor, and I'm a social worker. My name is Jamie Richard. I'm the director of JR North Star 1 and 2. My name is Liddell Omar-Sommers. I'm an emancipated foster youth. My name is Stacey Wood. I am a social case work specialist for children's services in Contra Costa County. My name is Samisha Adams, and I'm an education liaison for foster youth. I'm Susan Hollingshead. I'm a county juvenile justice commissioner, and I'm also a court-appointed special advocate for youth. My name is Vivica Taylor, and I'm a social worker. I work for Mount Dablow Unified School District. I think initially when we developed the meetings, it was really a way to bridge the gap between just the regular social worker and the ILSP program. I think that many of the social workers, even including myself, who had been a social worker for many years before I started doing the team decision-making meetings, we didn't quite know everything that ILSP did. We didn't know the people. We were in different buildings. And when we started bringing everyone together to the table with the youth and educating each other, I mean, that was the initial process was ILSP educating social workers, social workers educating ILSP. And together we really formed this team, including the youth. And youth transition meetings are very important for the youth that we work with, especially as they prepare to emancipate from the system. And it really seems that the youth transition meetings allow them to kind of redirect their focus and their priorities kind of really forces them, for lack of a better word, to set goals for themselves and then really track away in order to get there. So it's really important for this stage of their lives. I think something I wasn't expecting out of the first transitional meetings that I attended was how it demonstrates to the youth involved that there really are people that care, that all of these people that may touch their lives only occasionally can come together to bring the benefit of their experience and their resources. And it really demonstrates a level of concern that I think is in many cases hard for these kids to see otherwise. Sometimes it's the first time that I have an opportunity to meet with all the various agencies and individuals that are supporting a youth. Basically in the team meetings we cover basically every aspect of the youth's lives and it's really beneficial to us because the ISP team is like a part of our program. Every component we teach, they have some input in it, so it's very beneficial overall. And it also allows them an opportunity to voice their own opinion and to bring to the table the people that are important to them, people that we may not even consider. And so it's been a really positive process, I think, for a lot of my kids. Youth who've been raised in care are used to the judge calls the shots, the attorney calls the shots, the social worker, the group home, the foster parent. And when we started doing these, it was five years ago, it was a real change for the youth to sit down and say, well, you don't care what I think. Or, you know, you just watch the transformation of someone really take charge of what is next for them. So I think that it's changed the philosophy of child welfare. You know, nothing about me without me. You know, I'm not going to make a plan for you. We're not going to sit here while you put your hood up and make a plan for you. This is your plan. This is your life. Where are you going to sleep the day you leave care? You know, we'll start there. If that's where you need to start on this first meeting, we'll absolutely start there. Where are you going to be the day you leave care? Where are you going to be on Christmas? Who do you love and who loves you? Sometimes you've got to start real simple. Important things in my life, such as school, my education, work, and also my housing. So it was very beneficial to me because we broke down the steps necessary to basically survive in life. It's really important to have a type of meeting like this where your social worker comes together, your youth advocate, everybody else that has been working with you. Because you really can't do it on your own. When you have a team meeting, it's really just that it's a whole team coming together. And so it's something that's really important. A really important thing is really hearing all the other people's perceptions and their point of views. Because I can sit here and say what I'm doing good, what I need to improve, but they really see other things that I do have problems with. And so when they bring it up to me, it's something that I can address and I can focus on it and really make some changes. So that I'll be okay when I do emancipate. Absolutely a benefit and crucial, I think, because I think that some of the youth I've worked with, they think that foster care is going to go on forever, and it's not. And so when they turn 18 and they're out there on their own, if they don't have a driver's license, if they don't have a California ID, if they don't have a savings account, if they don't have a job, it's going to be that much harder. So if we can build a support system, if we can help them get some of those things in place and come up with some different options and different plans, and they feel a lot more confident in themselves. My experience with the youth transition meetings have been very positive because, for one, they're strength-based, and I think that's a really good thing. A lot of times you find that when the meeting first starts, they come in, whether it be the caretaker or the youth, and they're really guarded, have their guard up and just kind of, what is this meeting about? And then once the meeting gets going, they start relaxing a little bit, and they realize that they have a say in what's going to happen with them, and they have a voice. So just like when Dorothy starts the meeting off, and it's just like, what are some of your strengths? And a lot of people can't answer that question because they're not used to somebody asking them, and they're kind of taken aback by that, and then it's just like, oh, you want to hear something positive. So they see that it's not, it's just negative, it's not a gang up, it's just we're all here to provide resources for you, and how can we help you so we can get out of your business? And so pretty much, like, they went over educational goals and support for once we leave the system, things about Medi-Cal, things you wouldn't typically know, and they set it up in a way where they write it down so you see exactly how everything should be, you know exactly what you need to do, and so it really helps to get organized in that sense. Well, I think the first and foremost, it's, you know, everybody sitting around a table and talking about you. It's, you know, you, you, you. And, you know, and not all the information is, you know, is going to be what they want to hear. They're going to be talking about difficult subjects. We have one facilitator who always makes it a point to talk about the elephant in the room, and I think that that is such a great metaphor for what often happens, or the most difficult piece of that process, which is, you know, the difficult thing or things that kids don't want to have to address, especially in a forum like that and with people who are going to have opinions about, you know, about what's happening for them. So, I'd say that's probably the most difficult thing for them and, you know, for me too. It's, you know, it calls everybody on the carpet at some point or another, so. I feel like what happens already is pretty substantive because it really does kind of refocus their attention. I think they're so caught up in what's happening at school or what's happening in their environment with their friends or their peers that it's, it's just an opportunity to kind of slow down. I think one of the things that we've had is, you know, we pass them paperwork, you know, with a plan, and they're given the plan. I honestly don't know if they really pay attention to the plan. Oftentimes, before we vacate and dismiss with our youth, they will call back and make reference to the meeting and they'll say, do you remember this part or do you remember what so-and-so said? Can you, can I get that phone number? You know, I'm wondering if there is a more tangible piece of something. Maybe it's taking a portion of the plan and laminating it or something along those lines so that they actually have something that might be easy to locate or identify that they can refer to. We would suggest or hope that we can start the meetings a bit early in the youth's placement, around 16 perhaps, I don't want to give the exact date, but that would give the team overall more time to actually implement the program and the kid that's behind that, that we could catch up and get him up to par. So besides that, everything else as well, but just the time frame. I'd like to see them, if I had a choice, calendared out very consistently. Watch the kid walk into Stanford with a full scholarship, to Berkeley, you know, to go on a scholarship, to an historical black college. Some real successes academically, but some real empowerment and successes personally for the kids. As far as for the kids go, it's been a good thing for them. They feel good, and I think on a very personal level, they just feel cared for. They see all the people that are in their corner sitting at the same table. And I'm going to a community college, preparing to transfer to a four-year college. And also, I'm basically paying rent, and I've learned how to budget money, and I'm working. So I have a lot of things going for me, thanks to going through ILSP and through team decision meetings.