Launching into late teens & preparing for adulthood in residential care: through advocacy, empowerment & life skills development
Conference Contribution ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Children’s Aid Society (Melrose Home) caters to the needs of children and young persons affected by family violence, child abuse and neglect issues. The Home became keenly aware of the need to help a particular group of teenage residents who have spent a relatively long period in residential care setting, prepare for adulthood. A team consisting of a professional teacher, a social worker, a youth worker and a community psychologist put together a customizable programme framework for teenage residents aged 16 – 18 years old, designed to help prepare them for greater independence and responsibility as they move towards adulthood. The programme covers key domains such as time management, personal financial management, self-regulation, personal development plans etc. A key feature of the programme is the clear and purposeful departure from institutional care approach which provides the residents greater control in setting and working towards one’s own goals in various domains in a supported manner. Using Action Research as the guiding model, this paper aims to share 3 aspects of this pilot programme: 1) The implementation process, 2) The collective evaluation of the first period of implementation (2 months) and 3) the reflections of the team of youth workers which mentored the residents which highlights the challenges, learning points and future development of this effort. The authors envisioned that the findings may be helpful for other residential care professionals who are attempting to introduce similar evaluation efforts in residential care settings or who are exploring the possibility to do so.
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13th International Conference on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
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14
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Kuching, Borneo
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University of Roehampton, UK
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Roehampton, UK
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