Ashley Roszell started working at the Ranch two years ago as a youth care worker at Rever House. A year later she signed up to staff a brand new project helping youth transition to adulthood.
The Youth Transition Program (YTP) is for youth ages 16 to 21 that require support to successfully navigate the transition to adulthood. Youth live by themselves and make the decisions in their life while still receiving support and financial assistance. Each youth has a personalized plan that focuses on daily life skills, connecting with community/family, medical resources, peer/community involvement and vocational/education skills.
The program was developed in response to the reality that many youth have poor outcomes as they ‘age out’ of the child welfare system.
Generally when a young adult reaches this period in their life they have the support of friends and family to help them face challenges. However, many youth who have been in group homes for a long period of time tend to have compromised family and community relationships, and require additional support to help them succeed.
“We want them to see all the support available to them when we are no longer around or when they are no longer at the Ranch,” Ashley stated. “A lot of basic tasks that people know, these kids have never been taught. We want to help them to learn to be responsible and learn the consequences for things like not paying rent or showing up for work.”
Tasks like paying rent, making hair cut appointments, sorting laundry, grocery shopping, budgeting, cooking, building a resume, interview skills, and learning how to make doctor appointments are just some of the life skills the youth are learning. Learning how to use community resources like youth groups, church groups, or sports organizations is another main component of the program.
The program was officially launched last April and is under the direction of unit manager Denis Loise.
“Our first resident in the program was Carly. She had been going back and forth between group homes at the Ranch. She just couldn’t live in a group home setting anymore; she really wasn’t fit for it and was causing at lot of chaos in the group home but was really great in a one-on-one situation.” Ashley added, “They needed to find a place for her to go and this program was already in the works.”
Ashley followed Carly into the program and the Youth Transition Program was officially started. Two Ranch staff, Ashley and Desire White, take turns providing the support to the youth on a part-time basis. Many of the hours are based on what the youth wants or requires.
When the program was launched they spent the weekend at Carly’s apartment helping her make the adjustment to living alone.
“We stayed over and set up the futon and the dining room table and the bed frame,” Ashley said. “We wanted her to feel safe and be okay with living alone.”
“It’s overwhelming for youth to go from a group home setting to living alone. Especially for kids who have been institutionalized for most of their lives. Most kids who ‘age out’ are just thrown into regular life with no support. Can you imagine?”
Carly has since successfully discharged from the program and another youth, Emilio, entered the program. He is set to go to SIAST in the fall. More youth are currently scheduled to enroll into the program.
