Life Launch – Our Life Skills Program for Young Adults from Foster Care
Life Launch is a unique life skills program for young adults from Finally Family Homes. We serve college-aged youth (18-24 years old) who’ve experienced foster care and need extra support as they grow into contributing, successful members of the adult community.
According to national studies, 4,000 youth age out of foster care in California each year, and 65% of these youth leave foster care with no place to call home. Most of these youth have not received the kind of personal investment giving them the skills they need to succeed in life.
What Our Life Skills Progam Is and How it Works
A life skills program is a curriculum of activities and lessons designed to teach young adults how to do the practical daily skills in life that aren’t taught in school and gets missed by kids who are in foster care. Our life skills program helps young adults become successfully independent by equipping them with the tools needed to function in the adult world. By providing our youth with the tools and connections to build and sustain holistic life success, we mitigate the risks for negative outcomes associated with the foster care experience, such as homelessness, human trafficking, and prison.
Through our Life Skills Program, Life Launch, foster youth ages 18-24 will receive life skills training through an evidence-informed multi-sensory learning program. Each section of this program offers worksheets and application guides that require participants to meet with a life skills coach to engage in discussion and encourage life application. The curriculum is designed to meet the requirements of Chafee’s life skills for Foster Care Independent Living Programs.
5 Essential Life Skills for Young Adults
Five essential life skills topics are covered in our trauma-informed program. We’ve also mapped additional topics to Maslow’s Hierarchy to ensure a holistic approach to covering life skills. Here are the 5 main topics covered:
1. Resilience
Being placed in foster care is a traumatic experience. Often, these youth experience many traumas before and after being placed in foster care. A key life skill to overcome difficulties and rise above is learning resilience.
2. Getting and Keeping a Job
Our goal is to help young adults achieve lasting success in life. Learning to get and keep a job is key to building long-term financial stability.
3. Personal Finance
Just because you have a good job and bring in money, doesn’t mean you’re “set for life.” Learning how to manage money wisely is important for sustainability.
4. Communication Skills
Regardless of what path you pursue in life, great communication skills will serve you well.
5. Independent Living
Independent living is a part of lasting success. It’s not always intuitive. Learning how to manage bills and supply all your needs requires guidance.
How to Become a Life Skills Coach
We are looking for volunteers to come alongside our youth and coach them as they go through the life skills curriculum.
Expectations
After completing an application, background check, and training with Finally Family Homes, Life Skills Coaches will meet with youth on a regular basis (1-4 times per month) in person or via zoom/phone to review the life skills that they are learning. You will be given a copy of the guides to help you talk them through the lessons.
Requirements
In order to be approved as a Life Skills Coach, you must:
- Currently reside in Santa Clarita or the surrounding areas.
- Be able to meet 1-4 times per month with the youth you are paired with.
- Be 25 years or older.
- Agree to undergo a background check.
- Be able to commit to meeting with a young adult for at least six months.
- Complete all required volunteer training and commitments.
If you’d like to learn more you can download our life skills coaching info packet here.
Ready to Become a Coach?
As a part of the application process, you will be required to review and accept our policies which can be found here.
How to Get Life Skills Coaching
Our life skills program is funded in part by a grant from the city of Santa Clarita.
To be eligible for our life skills coaching you must be:
- 18-24 years old
- live in Santa Clarita or surrounding areas
- have had experiences in the foster care system
- be willing to meet (even if just over the phone) 1-4 times per month with a coach
Participants will receive a $25 gift card to the place of their choice for each life skills topic completed and will be invited to a graduation party upon completing the program. Additionally, all participants are eligible for extra support through our Family Care program.
