The Connected for Life Program

A Relational Permanency Program

The Connected For Life program has been developed to provide older foster youth (10 to 18 years old) with an emotional experience of consistence, commitment, nurturing, and relational permanency in a family environment. Foster youth ideally would spend four to five hours per week over a period of time participating in the family’s everyday activities, such as :

• Playing sports
• Seeing a movie
• Week-end camping trip
• Helping with school work
• Visiting a museum
• Going grocery shopping
• Helping to cook a meal
• Participating in family events
• Making neighborhood friends
• Just hanging out

Selection of Families for the Program:

The following guidelines have been established for the selection of families who express an interest in developing a life long relationship with an older youth in foster care:

• Attend a 20-hour training program to help family members or single caring adults better understand youth in the foster care system.

• Participate in a screening process to match a family or adult with a youth.

• Be willing to be finger printed as part of background verification process.

• Commit to spending at least four hours per week with the youth.

• Interact, as necessary, with the youth’s support system; i.e, child welfare professionals, foster parents, therapists, and biological family members, when appropriate.

• Commit to establishing a permanent relationship with the youth, even after the youth has been emancipated from the foster care system.

• Provide an environment where the youth receives guidance, develops trust, has fun and enjoys the consistence and commitment of a life-long connection to a family.

• Understand that the program is a 100% volunteer program. The family or adult would not be compensated financially for monies spend on the youth (i.e.; movie tickets, clothes, gifts, food, etc.)

• And most importantly, have patience. Establishing a strong, nurturing, loving, permanent relationship with a youth in the foster care system most likely will take more than a year.

Program Support Services

Connected For Life will employ Case Managers. The Case Manager for the families will have social service training and experience and will be responsible for working directly with the families, youth’s social worker, youth’s foster parents, youth’s therapist, etc. to insure the program ideals of developing a life long connection for the youth are being achieved. The Case Manager for the youth should be a former foster youth with a BA degree in sociology and ideally has an informal relationship with a family or caring adult that’s allowed them to experience the caring and nurturing values Connected For Life will bring to youth in the foster care system.

Measurement of Success

The success of the Connected For Life program will be measured against the dismal statistics that characterize the emancipated foster youth of today. The positive impact of families building life long relationships to older foster youth will be reflected in the following:

• Larger percentage of emancipated youth employed
• Larger percentage of emancipated youth completing high school
• Larger percentage of emancipated youth not homeless
• Larger percentage of emancipated youth not on public assistance
• Larger percentage of emancipated males not incarcerated
• Larger percentage of emancipated females not pregnant before the age of 21