Category: Programs

Celebrating Karrington!

For many young adults, juggling a job and going to college can be incredibly difficult. Imagine how much harder it would be if you were given an unfair start into adulthood. The young adults in ACH’s LIFE Project come into the program with backgrounds in foster care or homelessness. Oftentimes, ACH becomes a safety net for them, creating a positive environment where their accomplishments and milestones are celebrated—as any family would do.

ACH is so proud of 18-year-old Karrington, who recently reached her six-month anniversary at her first job. She also earned a promotion!  Working at In-N-Out Burger is an incredibly stressful, fast-paced job—and balancing this while being a college student is no easy feat.

ACH’S LIFE PROJECT IS HERE TO HELP THESE YOUNG ADULTS COMING FROM ROUGH SITUATIONS BY PROVIDING THEM WITH THE TOOLS AND SKILLS THEY NEED TO NAVIGATE ADULTHOOD. PART OF BECOMING AN ADULT INCLUDES MILESTONES, LIKE GETTING YOUR FIRST JOB OR LEARNING HOW TO DRIVE, AND WHEN THOSE THINGS HAPPEN, WE CELEBRATE.

“With everything that is going on with the coronavirus, it is definitely a job that is intense,” Karrington shared. “It felt like a huge accomplishment when they told me I was promoted.”

Volunteer Mentor Coordinator Kate Faggella-Luby spends a lot of time with the young adults. She mentioned how important it is that big milestones like these are affirmed for the young adults in LIFE because of how hard they work to become independent, self-sufficient adults.

“Part of what families do is build celebrations and memories that become part of our identity. Because these young adults are already on their own, it’s up to us to help celebrate and encourage all the positive things in their lives,” said Kate.

As a way to honor this milestone, LIFE Project mentors threw Karrington a fun-filled celebration. They gathered on Zoom and played a trivia game through Kahoot! During the celebration, Karrington was presented with a certificate of achievement.

“It felt really nice to have people celebrate the fact that I’m working hard,” she said.

Afterward, volunteer mentors shared experiences, funny stories, and advice from their first jobs—it became a great way for the young adults to connect.

“It is a real privilege for our volunteers and staff to celebrate the progress and hard work of these young adults,” Kate added. “It makes all of us feel good to take a minute and recognize good things happening in the world.”

Stay tuned in our blog as we celebrate many more milestones with the young adults in the LIFE Project!

ACH is especially grateful for the continued support of the Holloway Family Foundation, which helps fund volunteer mentoring programs for our LIFE Project.

Proud Moment: Jane’s Growth

A new start in LIFE

 

When Jane* entered ACH’s LIFE Project last year, she was determined to build a better life for herself. Even after years of abuse from her mother, Jane was ready for a new start.

Things took a turn for Jane when the pandemic started, and she began to struggle with old wounds. These challenges brought her to a deeper understanding of herself and the trauma she went through. She started taking more time to focus on her mental and emotional health, and has found mindfulness and exercise to be hugely beneficial to her.

“Jane went through a huge transformation in the last year in setting healthier boundaries for herself and developing a more positive outlook for herself,”  said LIFE Mentor Cassandra Morgan.

Jane recently shared with staff that she now recognizes the abuse for what it was, and is more aware of all the pain she had bottled up. She’s more optimistic about her future than ever before and feels she is no longer hindered by the abuse from her past.

“I am so proud of her for coming to a place where she can acknowledge the abuse and experience freedom from the lies she had believed for so long,” said Cassandra. “Hearing her talk now, there is a deep conviction and determination of someone who has survived deep pain and who wants to inspire others in their journey towards healing too.”

*Client’s name has been changed for this story. 

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PROUD MOMENT FORM

 

Sprouts Gardening Committee: How Gardening is Helping ACH’s Young Adults

Healing in the Garden

During the stressful times of COVID-19, the Sprouts Gardening Committee—formed by young adults in the LIFE Project Program—has become a healthy outlet and opportunity for personal growth.

When shelter in place orders took effect in Tarrant County, this meant many of the young adults had to put plans for their future on hold, like going to job interviews. They were faced with uncomfortable uncertainties, and the garden became a way for the young adults to relieve their frustrations by giving back and volunteering their time. While spending time in the garden, they are able to put their worries aside and focus on the plants they are caring for.

Gardening brings about healing and a sense of belonging, which is incredibly beneficial for the young adults in our care—many of whom come from a life in foster care or homelessness. Cultivating the garden, feeling connected to nature and each other, and focusing on the growth of a plant, helps build their self-confidence.

More than anything, taking the time to learn different gardening techniques, and skills promotes self-efficacy—the ability to feel empowered and in control of a productive project— within the young adults. This growing confidence is what ACH seeks to implement within all the youth we serve.

For Alex, Sprouts Gardening Committee member, the garden has shown her and the other members that if they encourage themselves, and believe they can achieve a goal, they will.

“We want this to succeed,” said Alex. “Even if it gets challenging and there are a lot of obstacles, you have to keep pushing through.”

Digging for a Deep Meaning to Gardening

The Sprouts Gardening Committee, or Sprouts for short, is digging deeper. They’ve been working on growing more plants, utilizing garden techniques, and turning every step of the way into a chance to learn.

Sprouts meets every Thursday afternoon for a learning session and discussion. “Conversations on gardening often lead to addressing life skills that are important for personal growth,” said Cassie Morgan, a LIFE Project mentor and Sprouts Gardening Committee leader.

One of these discussions included how plants can form bonds, just like us.

“We discussed several techniques related to companion gardening and which plants grow best together,” said Cassie. “This opened up conversations to discuss how we need healthy friendships and relationships to really grow well and it gave us the opportunity to talk about what a good friend looks like.”

During a conversation about removing weeds from the garden, Sprouts also talked about unhealthy relationships and the effects they can have on our life.

“We also discussed how to set up healthy boundaries and how to keep toxic people from hurting us,” said Cassie.

Cultivating the Garden Club

The LIFE Project is a supervised independent living program here at ACH that promotes self-sufficiency in young adults, ages 18-21, who are homeless or are in extended foster care. 

The Sprouts Gardening Committee was formed in April after Alex and a few other members of the LIFE Project noticed that the Wichita garden, created by volunteers, need a little TLC.

Alex had only planted a few seedlings at the time, but with encouragement from Cassie, and LIFE Project mentor Stephanie Henry, she decided to take on the task of maintaining and caring for the campus garden.

“They apparently think I have a green thumb,” Alex joked.

From there, the Sprouts Gardening Committee was formed with Alex and a few other young adults from the LIFE Project, who wanted to volunteer their time to add more beauty to the campus. In April alone, the committee volunteered a total of 27 hours!

“The first thing that caught me off guard was the more people that wanted to join the committee and join this journey,” said Alex. “That was very surprising, especially from some of the boys.”

RTC Lends a Helping Hand

The Residential Treatment Center (RTC) helps vulnerable youth ages 13-17 in the foster care system who need time away from home to heal from trauma and rebuild trust in adults. 

The committee itself is growing too. Young adults from ACH’s Residential Treatment Center are going to start getting involved, thanks to Alex. Richard Capodagli, Director of the RTC, saw our previous blog on Sprouts and asked Alex if the RTC youth could join the committee. Alex and the committee were more than happy for more members!

Youth in the RTC are often dealing with overwhelming emotions from past trauma, and the healing benefits from gardening will be helpful in their journey here at ACH.

“We definitely hope that it can inspire other groups to get involved,” said Cassie. “We want to partner with more groups on campus to make it a success.”

Looking Ahead

Alex is excited to see how the garden turns out and hopes that everyone at ACH will be able to benefit from it.

“It may not be blossoming as much as we want it to, but at least the garden is something that we worked hard for, and that’s enough for me,” she said. “It’s amazing to know that gardening will help us in the future, and we can always regrow, and flourish even more.”

The group does have an overall goal of arranging flowers they’ve grown to form the letters ACH, as well as adding colorful bricks, and a birdbath to beautify the garden.

“We just want to make it something we worked for and were proud of and other people can see it and get inspired too,” she said.

However, Alex said there is one other thing she had hopes to see come from the garden.

“Watermelons!”

And it happened!

Help Sprouts Grow!

The Sprouts Gardening Committee needs help from our community to continue flourishing!

We are currently asking for in-kind donations that include seeds, plants, soil, and gardening tools. For the safety of our clients, all donations must be new and unopened and through appointment only.

 SCHEDULE A DROP-OFF

Aging Out of Foster Care: Justin’s Journey Through The LIFE Project

Young men who are aging out of foster care learn life skills in ACH's The Life Project.

Entering adulthood can be difficult. But becoming an adult after growing up in the care of Child Protective Service (CPS) and aging out of foster care, comes with a whole set of other challenges. Despite that, Justin continues to persevere with the help of ACH’s The LIFE Project, a Supervised Independent Living program. 

Youth aging out of the foster care system are often overlooked. These children come from hard places, like Justin, and are expected to face adulthood without a support system.

“That’s something your typical young adult doesn’t have to worry about,” says Transitions Program Manager Nick Little. “This population needs caring adults in their lives as well.”

Justin reflects on his past foster homes and what he needed to prepare for adulthood.

“I’ve seen the difference between a home where the parents care about helping kids and others where you’re just in the house, doing your own thing,” says Justin.

The LIFE Project offers support and guidance for foster youth ages 18-21. The program assists with finding and maintaining employment, enrolling in school, learning how to create structure for themselves, and other necessary adulthood skills.

“We get them used to thinking about all this on their own,” Nick adds, “But it’s also learning the more difficult concepts, like how to have appropriate relationships.”

The LIFE Project helps community clients as well, who find themselves homeless or couch surfing, with really no place to go. But most clients are young adults who decided to stay in extended foster care after turning 18.

Since joining The LIFE Project, Justin thinks about how far he’s come with the help of staff mentors like Thad McCall.

“Mr. Thad found out I didn’t have an I.D., so I wasn’t able to get any jobs. Within two weeks of being here, he made sure I had one,” he recalled. “I’m legally an adult. He could’ve told me to figure it out on my own, but he didn’t, and I just really appreciated that.”

Justin believes The LIFE Project has allowed him to see how much he can succeed and plan where he wants to be, not just months from now but years down the line. He hopes one day to become self-sufficient as an entrepreneur and have the family of his dreams.

May is National Foster Care Month. Learn more about the foster youth we serve in our podcast. If you like what you hear, please be sure to rate and review. You can advocate for young adults like Justin by sharing this podcast with a friend.

Hear Justin's Fully Story Here: