GEORGIA
Program helps foster teens transition to adulthood
Independent living is usually a term associated with senior adults. However, Georgias Independent Living Program (ILP) is a program to help foster children make a successful transition to adulthood.
Joyce Atwell, Region 17 Independent Living coordinator, and Gina Kuykendall, GHK Public Relations, spoke about ILP at the noon lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Douglas County. Region 17 includes Cobb, Douglas and Cherokee counties.
ILP serves teens ages 14-21 who have been placed in foster care, youth who have been adopted after the age of 14, youth in custody of Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) for a minimum of six months and a ward of the state on or after the 14th birthday, youth with open welfare placement cases as well as open delinquency case, youth in DFCS custody up to 18 years of age and developmentally disabled youths. The program is part of the Georgia Department of Human Resources (DHR) and is funded by federal and state dollars.
We assist youth in obtaining employment, education, housing, health and supportive relationships, Atwell said. She said employment includes holding job fairs, learning how to fill out applications, what clothes to wear to interviews and how to ask for an application. Education is our number one push, she said. It may be working to pass the CRCTs (Criterion Referenced Competency Tests) to get into high school or taking part in extracurricular high school activities.
Atwell said housing is one of the biggest challenges in Georgia. We help kids learn what its like to live on your own, she said. We try to be as realistic as possible. She said once teens have an option to move into an apartment, a life coach helps them with decisions and the state pays rent and utilities for six months.
Atwell said ILP was able to get state extension of Medicaid insurance to age 21 for foster care children. Its amazing the difference the three years give them, she said. Many had been left without medical insurance.
She said the final goal, supportive relationships, is to find people such as coaches, teachers and relatives who will help the foster children succeed. Then we start looking to the community for mentors, she said.
Kuykendall said her role is to provide memorable events so that children come back to the program. These include workshops, intern programs, information about post-secondary education, doing Internet searches, learning dating etiquette, time management, legal issues and learning to navigate in a big city.
Winston Jones
26 August 2009
