“Several of my foster youth have participated in IBP. It really gives them a voice and the ability to hopefully find a good fit for foster home or adoption.””Several of my foster youth have participated in IBP. It really gives them a voice and the ability to hopefully find a good fit for foster home or adoption.
Mark Burke from The Matthews House in Colorado talks about his experiences working with adoptive eligible kids in foster care who have been part of the I Belong Project (an initiative of Colorado’s Kids Belong). Learn how this one-of-a-kind program elevates kids to be stars of their own stories and tell about what they want in a family. Mark has seen its impact first hand on the kids he works with and shares some powerful observations.
One particular youth I am thinking of really did feel in sort of a helpless position. He really did struggle with some of the homes he was in, not foster homes but group homes. He didn’t do well in those environments, so he kind of built a rap sheet in some way that didn’t represent him; it represented a youth who wasn’t in a good environment and didn’t do very well.
So through I Belong Project, he was able to really represent himself in a good way. It instantly injected hope back into his life. He saw a way to find a family again. Kids need to feel that they can succeed. They need to see the path to success.