Safe, secure, and loving environments for youth

Programs

FAN's inaugaral programs will use a positive youth development approach to address the needs of teens in foster care.

Positive Youth Development Program (PYD)

FAN will offer a daily after school and summer program for youth in foster care between the ages of 11 and 13 beginning in June of 2006. Youth will be engaged in community service, academic support, extracurricular and team building activities, and group mentoring in a culturally appropriate context. Intensive efforts will be made to recruit former foster youth to the staff. Through these activities, youth will develop supportive and caring relationships with adults and peers, enhanced critical thinking skills, a sense of success and mastery, and experience cultural enrichment. By engaging in these activities with other youth in foster care, FAN will provide a normalizing experience that will de-stigmatize the foster care experience and empower participants, while supporting improved psychosocial outcomes for participating youth.

Youth Ensemble Program (YEP)

FAN’s Youth Ensemble Program will continue to support youth in care ages 14-15 beginning in the fall of 2007. Participants will have the opportunity to select an area of specialization from the activities that they have experienced in the Positive Youth Development Program. Youth will continue to receive academic support and mentoring in the context of “ensembles” organized around artistic, athletic, academic, or vocational endeavors. Participants will also increase their expertise in a particular area of interest.

Transitions Program

FAN’s Transitions program will serve youth in care ages 16 and older beginning in the summer of 2009. Participants will act as junior staff members, collaborating to provide instruction and mentoring to younger participants in the PYD and YEP programs. Participants will also be engaged in professional development, college preparation, leadership, and advocacy experiences. The Transitions program is intended to support youth participants in making a healthy transition to adulthood and independence.

Support Programs

FAN may add additional programs as necessary to support the participants in the programs outlined above, or to otherwise advance the mission of the organization.

Training/Consulting

As the efficacy of FAN’s programs are established, FAN will offer training and consulting to partner organizations and others interested in starting similar programs, in the effort to move forward its vision of changing the ways that youth serving systems interface with young people.