What's New
Sites Plan Holiday Cheer for Youth from Foster Care,
Even Turkey with Grandma
Nadege Mardy, Youth Board
Chair in Bridgeport, Conn.
For youth from foster care, holidays can be the most difficult times of the year. But across the nation, Jim Casey sites are seeking to make them fun and memorable.
This month, several youths in San Diego will have the chance to join the families of Initiative staff members and community partners for Thanksgiving dinner - a tradition that began last year.
"Our goal in doing it was not to make them feel like we were doing it as a handout," said Mark Nanzer, manager of the San Diego Youth Initiative. "It was just a matter of them coming over as a guest like any of the other invited guests."
Last Thanksgiving, Nanzer hosted a young man of 20 at his home and enjoyed seeing him interact with his family, including a lively conversation with his 97-year-old grandmother.
Overall, the evening was "tremendous," Nanzer said. "He ate a ton of the food."
Livingston County (MI) Honoring Caseworkers
In Livingston County, Michigan, the youth board is planning its own party for the winter holidays.
Through a Christmas party held at a resort banquet hall, the youth board plans to honor caseworkers from the local office of the Department of Human Services (DHS). But there is also an "ulterior motive" in hosting the party, said Becky Gremore, 22, youth board president. "We need to recruit more young people."
Strong relationships with DHS caseworkers are important to introducing youth in foster care to the Initiative, Gremore said, and many of the caseworkers she had known personally have retired.
"So I thought, well if we got all the caseworkers to know about us...maybe they could get the young adults to come check us out," she said.
The youth board will ask the caseworkers to bring other youth with them to the party, which includes a catered dinner, speeches, and singing. The board will also give out gift bags that include brochures and cards about the program.
"We're going to thank them for their wonderful job...because caseworkers are underappreciated and they're the middle person a lot, and we understand that," Gremore said.
Bridgeport (CT) Emphasizing Permanency
The youth board in Bridgeport, Connecticut, also plans to express some appreciation this winter.
Board members will celebrate important people in their lives with its first annual permanency dinner. On December 1, each member of the youth board will invite family members, friends, mentors, and others for an evening of food, poetry, and entertainment.
"As youth in foster care, we have so many problems and issues where we never really stop and say thank you for all the good things people do for us," said Youth Board Chair Nadege Mardy, 22.
At the party, youth board members will share their appreciation for the permanent people in their lives, she said.
In the past, the board has exchanged gifts among themselves, but this year Mardy wanted to do something different. "Instead of appreciating us, let's appreciate someone in your life who changed it this year," she recalled telling the board.
Each board member is taking part in planning and organizing the dinner, from putting up decorations to serving as the master of ceremonies. The board is still planning to hold a Secret Santa-style gift exchange for each other, but the focus of the party will be on others. "I'm inviting my mother and my sister," Mardy said.
Other Michigan Events
In Northern Michigan, three holiday dinners are in the works for youth leadership board members and community partners. This will be the second annual series of joint holiday gatherings in which representatives from local banks, community colleges, and businesses will have the chance to connect with youth formerly in foster care in a festive atmosphere.
"In a very qualitative way, it makes a whole lot of sense for the [youth] to meet the people in the community that we're trying to connect them to," said Alan VanderPaas, local coordinator for the Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative with the Department of Human Services. "We try to make meaningful connections between them and the partners because permanency is the underpinning of everything we do."
About 200 people are expected to attend the three gatherings and youth will be eligible for giveaways such as iPods. Each youth also will be given an opportunity to share how they are doing. "It's nothing extraordinary or out of the ordinary, but certainly meaningful," VanderPaas said.
