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“The power I have seen in this council is a model for the whole state.”
Tennessee has one of the highest percentages of teens in custody of any state. As you read this e-news article there are over 650 kids, including 300 teenagers, in state custody waiting for a permanent family. Seventy-four full-time DCS facilitators, regional DCS staff and private provider staff members are constantly working on the problem. To help, a group of young adults in Nashville has offered to join the effort.
“The
youth participating with the Nashville
Youth Opportunities Initiative
are coming up with options our department could never have found in isolation,” said
Elizabeth Black, executive director of the Office of Child Permanency
for the Department of Children’s Services (DCS). “The power I have
seen in this council is a model for the whole state.”
Historically
the problem has been that potential foster and adoptive families want
younger children. Many are afraid to bring unknown teenagers into their homes.
Therefore, the best solution for many older kids is finding someone in their
own community who knows them as opposed to being in a temporary placement or
a group home.
Finding
homes, or “permanency”, is a priority for DCS. They have one
department focused on finding homes and they have developed training
that is being provided by 13 colleges and universities around the state
to teach a Child and Family Team Meeting process to help young people
improve their situation and find permanent homes.
Black says
peer motivation from the Nashville
Youth Opportunities Initiative is
turning out to be an amazing inspiration for the process. “I could talk
all day but nothing would come close to being as inspirational as having youth
willing to share their own stories and real life examples of how the process
can and should work,” she said. “Even with 50 kids in the room
at a recent training, you could hear a pin drop when the kids from the TYAC
shared their message.”
Besides being peer leaders for CFTM trainings, the Nashville Youth Opportunities Initiative youth council members have initiated and participated in a number of successful team interventions according to Black.
Several
individual stories stand out in her mind. One was a girl who ran away
from a group home and a second was moved to a foster home out of town. Youth
at the council helped both girls call a team meeting and find the community
resources needed to get them back into school and into a family situation where
they felt safe and stable, according to Black.
The Nashville
Youth Opportunities Initiative salutes the DCS staff, the youth council
members and everyone willing to get involved in the Child and Family Team Meeting
process. Click on the youth spotlight and the partner spotlight buttons at
the left to read the exciting examples of how a few individuals are making
life better for teens in state custody. To find out how you, your company
or your organization can help, contact Kim Crane at kim.crane@vanderbilt.edu.
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