Amara foster families have been caring for more teenagers this year than in years past. This summer our families were caring for nine, four of whom identify as LGBTQIA+. Amara’s caseworkers are there for everyone involved in these relationships – teens, caregivers, and the teens’ families.
Whether it’s connecting families to the resources and support they need to help these teens, or making sure caregivers have the training they need to best support youth in foster care, or anything else, our caseworkers are always just a phone call away.
When teens do not have to move over and over again, switching schools and losing friends, they experience less trauma. “We really work hard with our caregivers to make it so all children and youth placed in Amara homes can stay for as long as they need” before they can either be reunited with their families, adopted, or enter a long-term guardianship relationship, said Emily Sigler, Amara’s Client Services and Compliance Manager.
Many teens in foster care have experienced trauma, and they carry that trauma history with them into their Amara foster family placements. Amara helps prepare and supports our foster caregivers as they support teens in navigating triggering events and/or emotions. We also help prepare them for the difficult questions teens frequently ask about why they are in care, so they can help teens cope with some of the big emotions they feel, like loss, fear, and shame.
“All teens go through stuff,” said Jenny von Veh, Amara’s Child Placement Coordinator. “Caregivers of teens in foster care need to be really prepared and ready to let the teen take the lead in as many decisions about their care as possible.”
One of the most important things foster and kinship caregivers of teens can do is to provide them with as much choice and control over their lives as possible. This can look like letting them decide what and when to eat, how to set up and decorate (or not decorate) their rooms, making sure they can still hang out with their friends, and letting them decide when to do their homework, and where. One former teen in foster care recalls being excited to just be able to choose where to do her homework, even if it meant sprawling all over the giant, chocolate brown sectional sofa in her foster family’s living room.
It can also look like giving teens the opportunity to voice their preference when they need a new placement. Earlier this year, Jenny helped a teen who needed a new placement find a new caregiver. The teen met with several different foster caregivers and even had a few overnight visits with some to find a placement that everyone felt comfortable with. Now everyone who cares about this teen is still connected and still supporting them. No one had to say goodbye.
Another teen was originally placed with her Amara foster family when she was 16. She opted to stay with this family after she turned 18 through Washington’s Extended Foster Care Program. This young adult has now turned 21 and has officially aged out of foster care. However, she is currently attending college and still stays with her previous Amara foster family on weekends, school breaks, and summer vacations. She considers this Amara family “home.”