Claudia Mendez spent many of her high school days fighting her mom in a court room. At age 16, San Francisco placed Claudia into a foster home. Even in a bad situation, Claudia realized that she was able to advocate for herself.
She found her way to San Francisco’s Independent Living Skill Program (ILSP) on Valencia street, where she took advantage of the program’s college-prep, scholarship support, and college fair. And now in her twenties, Claudia is about to graduate from college—a feat that only between 3 and 11% of the nation’s former foster youth achieve—with the help from San Francisco ILSP.
The San Francisco ILSP serves 16-20 year-olds currently in foster care or who were in foster care for any period of time after age 16 —could be one day, one year, or whole life—and also youth in juvenile justice system who have an out-of-home placement. ILSP provides weekly life-skill workshops that vary greatly, from healthy cooking, money management, financial literacy, CPR and first-aid, parenting support group, job club, arts expression, college 101, signing up for Cal-Fresh, and a youth-led tutoring session every week called TGIF.
The still-alive San Francisco ILSP
This last year, First Place for Youth became the new provider for San Francisco ILSP and Maryam Toloui became its new manager. “I have been working with foster youth for about 10 years,” says Maryam. “I then came to First Place for Youth two years ago. I loved the mission to help young people be self-sufficient in a permanent way, not just until they leave the system.” When ILSP changed providers, some ILSP staff left as well, but most of the program services remained in tact. “We are still the same ILSP,” says Maryam.
But the new changes and First Place for Youth model have discouraged some youth receiving services at the old ILSP. “There’s a problem now in that some San Francisco ILSP current and former young participants feel that just because the old staff left, they should leave,” says Claudia.
Current and former participants have told Claudia that the new ILSP has more rules and pictures on the ILSP walls of Oakland youth that few recognize. “I hear a lot of ‘you guys took away our staff and our home!’ complaints. It’s not really a bad environment, just different. It’s going to take awhile to rebuild trust,” says Claudia.
Still, Claudia is optimistic about First Place for Youth’s program model. “Yes, a lot of things have changed. I can see why youth were upset, lost community workers, but at same time there’s still room for improvement. First Place for Youth is really good program. They have good goals and they kept the advisory program to express what San Francisco ILSP should be like. ”
First Place for Youth model
Traditionally, the First Place for Youth model has been a successful THP-Plus housing program for former foster youth in five counties in California, including San Francisco, LA, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano. ”Of the youth in First Place for Youth housing program, 90% go to college, 80% of them attain jobs—compared to 30% of former foster youth statewide—and 90% of youth have safe or stable housing upon exiting THP-Plus,” says Maryam.
“We have been working with San Francisco youth for many years, as a THP-Plus provider” says Maryam. “So now we are bringing that successful track record and support from our housing program to our independent living program.”
Focus on Employment and Education
First Place for Youth’s first focus is on employment and education, “the sure-fire way to achieve long-term life stability for former foster youth,” says Maryam. “Without them, you are missing the big picture to how they can be healthy young adults.”
In addition to employment and education support, First Place for Youth has a holistic approach to the needs of current and former foster youth. “We have a large scope in our title “Independent Living Skills” which means we are looking at the whole picture of a young person’s life,” says Maryam. “While focusing on employment and education, we help young people build strong, permanent connections to fill in the rest of their needs.”
First Place for Youth runs two individualized components: First Foundation and Seneca Center. The First Foundation works with youth who are still in high school and need extra support to graduate, meeting weekly with staff to address the barriers to achievement and develop the skills to move on to post-secondary education. “Of the youth in the First Foundation in two other counties,” says Maryam, “77% graduated on time.”
The San Francisco ILSP’s other individualized component is the Seneca Center. Since many former foster youth do not have the network of permanent adults because of the isolation of many years in foster care, the Seneca Center program prepares them for adulthood by helping to build a network around them.
Two Seneca counselors work in ILSP offices to re-connect young people with family, distant relatives, old teachers, or anyone else they have lost touch with or didn’t know they had in their network to rely on permanently. This support network can help the young person with anything from if their electricity goes out, they need somewhere to go for Thanksgiving, or they’re going through a bad breakup, etc.
Change from Measuring Outputs to Outcomes
When asked what most differentiates First Place for Youth from the old ILSP provider, Maryam pointed out the change to how the San Francisco government will measure the program’s success. “This is the first time that the San Francisco ILSP has had outcomes attached to their contract,” says Maryam.
According to Maryam, across the state, independent living skills programs for current and former foster youth have traditionally been held accountable by output, or evaluated only by how many people the program served, and not by how well the young people do after the program.
“San Francisco Human Services Agency is leading the way in measuring not only outputs, but the outcome requirements: that 90% of the youth that work with Seneca will have a minimum three permanent connections before they leave; that 60% of youth will receive HS diploma or GED; and 75% will be employed or actively job-ready and searching,” says Maryam.
Building Foster Care Community in San Francisco
Aside from individual outcomes, San Francisco ILSP fosters a larger, healthier foster care community. “We are really trying to be a part of the foster youth community for other providers, by allotting days for providers to co-locate and come to ILSP to provide HIV testing, Cal-Fresh assistance, and infant health programs,” says Maryam.
The San Francisco ILSP also run large community building events, celebrations for major holidays, and a lot of events for National Foster Care Month in May. For example, the recent Foster Youth Leadership Awards ceremony with SFUSD, California Youth Connection, and Human Services Agency honored 30 current and former foster youth leaders.
This last week, ILSP hosted a live “Independent City” game where each young person received a bio, including info as to what kind of education and income they have, and then had to navigate the “Independent City” in order to find an apartment, open a PG&E account, find a job, etc.
The ILSP’s biggest event of year, however, is the ILSP graduation ceremony for any ILSP-eligible person who graduated from high school, earned a GED, completed a vocational program, or finished an AA program this year. This event will be held in June.
This last November, Claudia helped Maryam and the new ILSP set up their first “Dia de los Muertos” alter. “The first ILSP as First Place for Youth “Day of the Dead” alter had a lot of youth turn out,” says Claudia, “and I’m looking forward to do the “Day of the Dead” event every year.”
Still personally assisting the youth who she taught ESL classes at ILSP, Claudia wants all San Francisco ILSP alumni to get involved. “If they did volunteer work or met with ILSP staff and let them know ‘this worked for me’ or ‘that didn’t,’ then I think that those of us who have been involved in the San Francisco ILSP community for a long time would create a little bit of that world that we liked so much,” says Claudia.
Life beyond San Francisco ILSP
Now both a San Francisco ILSP alumna and former employee, Claudia will graduate next spring from San Francisco State University, where she will major in Comparative World Literature. Besides her classes and extra-curricular activities, Claudia will start to intern on more law-related positions to bolster her law school application.
“I keep saying “Yeah, I’ll prepare for law school,” but different things keep popping up,” she says. Claudia knows she wants to practice dependency law. “I will start working dependency law, or non-profit. I’m still figuring out how busy I will be,” she says.
Its successful stories like Claudia’s that inspire Maryam to continue at ILSP. “The work we do with young people really affects their ability to live fulfilling lives,” says Maryam, “and that is why I stay.”