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York County Foster Care Collaborative

WHY IT STARTED

Although some young people leaving foster care are able to move into adulthood with minimal difficulty, many others face real challenges finding the personal and community connections they need to succeed. For many youth in foster care, the seemingly ordinary challenges of transitioning to adulthood can become extraordinarily difficult to overcome. Although there are services in place to aid them, youth may not be able to utilize the full breadth of these services without caring adults to guide them. In 2007, MYTC decided to test a network approach to community building and social change for this population of young people. The driving idea behind the network was to help young people make new connections with caring adults in their local communities and inspire both youth and community members to solve problems together. As the network has been built, youth have been a part of every step in the process, guiding the partners by identifying the areas where they most needed support to achieve independence and success after foster care. The YCFCC states its vision this way: We are a community that is fertile soil for young people to experience the love and connectedness that nurtures their ability to pursue their hopes and dreams. Young people in York County are supported in an ongoing way from the moment they are welcomed into the system and beyond their transition out of it.

WHO IS INVOLVED

Since the start, the YCFCC has focused on gathering a broad range of stakeholders, so that the network partnership includes more than the “usual suspects” of service providers. As a result, this network is comprised of individuals and representatives from a variety of organizations: youth, DHHS’ Office of Child and Family Services, United Way of York County, Common Good Ventures, Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, Muskie School of Public Service, educators, foster parents, business owners, and community-based organizations. Most importantly, young people currently or formerly in foster care attend meetings on a regular basis, providing guidance and feedback to adults in a variety of ways; many participate in an organization called the Youth Leadership Advisory Team (YLAT – www.ylat.org ), where young people in foster care are able to connect with one another, learn leadership skills, and work with adults to identify issues and solutions that will improve the foster care system.

HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER

Effective community networks bring together traditionally fragmented sectors of the community to build enduring relationships and connections among members that can lead to innovative solutions to difficult social issues. The YCFCC believes in the importance of focusing on relationships and process, as well as results; the network has taken the time for members to dialogue with one another about important issues and arrive at common purpose, outcomes, and guiding principles. In a network, decision-making and leadership is shared. The YCFCC does not have a traditional organizational structure; rather, the network is facilitated by two members – Common Good Ventures and the Muskie School of Public Service – with all members contributing their expertise and knowledge about the community.

An important element in the development of the YCFCC has been the additional resource of a network coach sponsored by Common Good Ventures. This coach has been essential in guiding the network facilitators and all network members in learning this new approach to working together, staying focused on network principles, and “building the network out” into the community.

Another critical component has been identifying a “network weaver” role, which YCFCC partners were led to early on through research and training in social change networks. Network facilitators knew that as the YCFCC moved through the design and planning phases, the network could easily founder without someone who could actively build connections and interactions among diverse individuals and groups, enabling information, linkages, and resources to flow freely. To that end, the United Way of York County and the Muskie School of Public Services jointly hired a “network weaver” in the early stages of the network to help move the work forward. However, as networks progress successfully, multiple weavers may begin to emerge, creating new hubs of connectivity and relationships. This has also happened in the YCFCC, so that currently the weaving function is not solely one person’s job, but is being integrated into the work of many members.

CHALLENGES

As young people in the network have pointed out, the challenges they face moving into adulthood are intertwined: you can’t get a good job if your education has been disrupted, but it’s difficult to stay in school with no family emotional support; you can’t get to school or employment without a car, but you can’t buy a car if you have no money; you can’t find a safe place to live without a job, but you can’t get a job if you don’t have a place to live…the list of challenges can be daunting. Early on the YCFCC carefully considered all the areas where foster care youth needed support to achieve success after foster care. Through discussion and problem-solving, the group decided to focus on employment, education, and housing as keys to economic and personal success. Work has moved ahead on education and employment, but housing has proven to be too broad to consider on its own. The network hopes to address housing as it works through the issues of education and employment.

PROGRESS TOWARDS GOAL

Youth voice is part of the YCFCC, either through direct participation of youth or surveys and interviews of youth conducted by partners about specific issues. The interaction with youth that is part of the Collaborative has led partners to become more active in providing support for individual youth. For instance, through being part of the network, one member who owns a restaurant in a small town in southern Maine became aware of how he could directly support a young person from foster care. After several months of discussion and interaction with youth, he hired a young woman in foster care to work in his restaurant. She flourished in this restaurant and took on other duties besides kitchen work, venturing into interaction with customers. Seeing this success, the employer has begun to set up meetings with other business people in his area who could potentially provide jobs and career exploration for young people. He has pointed out the benefits to a business of building a workforce made up of people with a variety of backgrounds. In addition, he feels it’s important “for employers to be open to exploring various ways to help mentor and support young people in the workplace.”

Another area of focus is helping young people enter, stay in, and graduate from post-secondary education. Without supportive relationships to help them face challenges and celebrate successes, many young people become discouraged and drop out of higher education. Currently, the YCFCC is convening representatives from community colleges and the University to identify the systems of support that will reverse this trend and help young people with a foster care background stay in school and graduate.

The members of the YCFCC have learned the value of taking the time to build relationships that form the basis of the network; at times, this has been frustrating for some members, even as they acknowledge that the process holds the promise of results that are longer lasting and firmly rooted in the community. The YCFCC is poised to build on its success in developing relationships among members: more members are thinking of themselves as weavers, community colleges have stepped forward to become involved, and employers have expressed interest in helping more young people gain important workplace experience as they move from foster care into adulthood.