Families for Teens: A Toolkit for Focusing, Educating and Motivating Staff

Outline

Introduction

The Challenge of Working for Permanence for Teens

What Makes Permanency Work So Difficult?

Getting Started

On-going Support for Staff

Overview of the Families for Teens

Key Concepts

Keeping the Promise

What are Families For, Anyway?

What Does Permanence Look Like for Teens

Dynamics of Adolescent-Family Involvement and Adoption

Issues Teens Need to Address

(Six Units and 41 topics. Each topic consists of one-page discussion of the concept, a case study, and set of questions for discussion)

Unit 1: Believing that Teens Really Need and

Can Have Families

Topic 1.1: Imagine Permanence Being as Intuitive as Safety

Topic 1.2: What Makes Adoption So Hard to Say?

Topic 1.3: The Label “Unadoptable” Needs to be Lifted From All Our Children

Topic 1.4: Belief is Transformative

Topic 1.5: Do We Really Want “Aftercare”?

Topic 1.6: Focusing on Permanence for Adolescents will Achieve It

Topic 1.7: A Placement is Not Permanent

Topic 1.8: Families Provide “Social Capital”

Topic 1.9: Independent Living Starts with Family Connections

Unit 2: Understanding the Process of Making Permanence Happen for Teens

Topic 2.1: Interpreting the Adoption and Safe Families Act

Topic 2.2: Making Permanence What We Do

Topic 2.3: What Does It Take?

Topic 2.4: No Youth is a Family Connection Write-off

Topic 2.5: The Power of Our Secrets

Topic 2.6: When Our Judgments and Feelings Poison Adoption

Topic 2.7: The Three Steps in Adoption

Topic 2.8: Brothers and Sisters

Unit 3: Working Through Teens’ Feelings

Topic 3.1: The Shame in Foster Care

Topic 3.2: Children Need Their Own Stories

Topic 3.3: We Can’t Make Their Losses Go Away.

Topic 3.4: Teens Have a Right to Their Anger

Topic 3.5: Finding Strengths in the Guise of Weakness

Topic 3.6: What About Belonging for Those Youth Who are Gay,

Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, or Questioning?

Unit 4: Exploring Shared Parenting

Topic 4.1: All Parenting is Shared

Topic 4.2: All Parents Are Resources

Topic 4.3: The Challenge of Shared Parenting

Topic 4.4: Adoption is Shared Parenting

Topic 4.5: Rethinking Concurrent Planning

Topic 4.6: Re-valuing Foster Parenting

Unit 5: Talking With Teens About Permanence

Topic 5.1: Does Permanence Mean Forcing Adoption on Every 18 Year Old?

Topic 5.2: Does Bringing up Permanence Set Teens Up for More Rejection?

Topic 5.3: Of Course They Say “No”

Topic 5.4: A Teen’s “NO!” Means a Host of Things

Topic 5.5: Who do YOU Want At Your Next Employee Review?

Topic 5.6: Preparing Teens for Family (Re)Connections

Unit 6: Finding Families for Teens

Topic 6.1: Unparenting

Topic 6.2: Working with Teens to Find Families

Topic 6.3: The Best Recruitment for Teens is Completely Child Specific

Topic 6.4: Permanence is More Mending Than Making

Topic 6.5: Holidays and Boundaries

Topic 6.6: Kin Adoption

About the Authors

Additional Resources for Permanence for Teens

Bibliography and Online Resources

Adolescents and Families for Life: A Toolkit for Supervisors
by Robert G. Lewis and Maureen S. Heffernan

The Family Bound Program: Preparing Teens for Permanent

Family Connections developed by Robert G. Lewis and

Communities For People