About the author: My name is Samantha and I
am Aspiranet’s Program Manager for THP-Plus and
HPRP in Fresno.
For the last 1 ½ years, I have helped youth emancipating from foster care
successfully transition to adulthood. I have spent my career as a social worker
(15 years!), working with children and families who need help in healing, even
though the task often seems giant and the hurt is incredible. Seeing a child
get the chance for a better life makes the challenges seem small and the hard
work well-worth it. You can connect with me on facebook or twitter.
We’ve all heard the saying, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.”
In the last 1 ½
years, I have been able to experience social work from a different view,
working with young adults who have now left the foster care system and are now
trying to make a life for themselves on their own in THP-Plus.
The youth in our
program are great! They each have their
own personalities, dreams, interests. As
social workers, our roles with these young adults are now more about guiding
them in their newfound (sometimes daunting) freedom to make choices and
decisions for themselves. If you’re a parent or caregiver that has
raised children and sent them out into the world, you understand what it’s like
to watch them stumble and make mistakes, but come back to you for help.
I’m glad that we are
starting to recognize that these former foster youth still need our help just
like any other young adult learning and growing. We finally have programs like
THP-Plus in place to assist.
 |
| Youth in the THP-Plus Program |
Back to My Fish
Story
Every day in this program, our youth face the same challenges in reaching their goal of self-sufficiency:
Every day in this program, our youth face the same challenges in reaching their goal of self-sufficiency:
- Assistance in obtaining and maintaining stable housing.
- Learning the ins-and-outs of getting a job and then keeping that job.
- Encouragement to further their education and get specialized job training
Sometimes we feel
frustrated when we encounter resistance or complacency with our youth. Truth
is, we want to see them succeed in life just like we want to see our own
children accomplish great things.
When one of my team
members presents me with the dilemma of how to get a youth motivated, engaged,
and on a path to progress....and nothing seems to be working, I generally offer
this advice:
Sometimes a person
wants to help himself, but he doesn’t know how to do it.
He may feel scared, or
alone, or hopeless. When we want to help a young person to learn to help himself, we have
to let that person know that we are here to walk right alongside him. That means walking up and down the aisles of a
grocery store and helping that youth to budget and spend his allotted amount of
money for the month. Or taking a youth
down to an apartment, and sitting with him as he negotiates his rental lease. Then,
getting on the computer together and helping that youth find cheap (or better
yet FREE) furniture for his apartment.
It takes extra work
on our part to walk with youth in their transition from childhood dependency to
the world of independent adulthood, teaching them how to “fish”. But, when you show someone you care, an
amazing thing happens…they begin to care more, too. Because
they know that they are not alone, they are not helpless, and even if they’re
scared, someone’s there to support them.
I encourage all of
you reading this to lend your support to a young person making that transition
to adulthood. You can do that by
visiting our THP-Plus website to learn about our opportunities to get
involved as a mentor, volunteer or donor.
There are so many
ways to help a youth learn how to fish. We just need more teachers.
