PROJECT INDEPENDENCE
Today, we have just under 100 kids on our Casa Bernabé (CB) campus. These children will eventually leave us in one of two ways, they will be reunited with their families or they will age out of our care. Guatemala has begun to place a priority on family reintegration, mandating that children are not to be in our care for longer than 6 months. In 2019, we saw our largest group of children to date, reunited with their families, 34 CB kids.
For 43 of our children, family will not be an answer or a resource. These adolescents, aged 13-18, are children of Casa Bernabé, they have primarily grown up within our walls and under our care. Within the next 5 years, all of them will age out to independence. Our job is to make sure they are prepared to take on independence successfully. Without this program, these children are highly likely to fall back into a life of abuse, poverty, and trauma outside the walls of CB. This group of kids are the focus of Project : Independence.
Over the next five years, Casa Bernabé will further develop and utilize the individual Life Plans for 43 orphans and vulnerable children currently at CB through Project: Independence. Their Life Plans will be developed into a traceable, measurable plan with evidence-based outputs and outcomes. This will further the children’s psychosocial health, physical well-being, strengthen their spirituality, reframe their understanding of family, and educate them to ultimately prepare them for an economically sustainable and employed life.
PROGRAM COSTS
We have received a grant for partial funding of this entire project. Please consider becoming an investor in the lives of our children, helping to ensure this programming doesn’t get cut. As an investor in Project: Independence we will send you quarterly reports on how your contributions are being used and updates on the success you are helping foster.
OVERALL PROJECT: INDEPENDENCE GOAL
Over the next five years, Casa Bernabé will continue strengthening and implementing specialized and individual Life Plans for 43 adolescents within the residential program that include psychosocial support, security and shelter, family reframing, education, and training to transition to an economically sustainable and employed life.
The Overall Goal will be accomplished through specific Key Objectives in Transitional and Behavioral Development.
“CHILDREN OF CASA BERNABÉ”
The Project: Independence group of adolescents is unique in that they have by and large grown up within the walls of CB, having been separated from their families or given up at very young ages. They have spent the majority of their short lives here. Because of this, these children have very little idea of the reality of survival in Guatemala. Recognizing that they will be forced to launch into independence without the support or safety net of a family outside our walls, CB developed a plan to ensure their preparedness and success in becoming independent.
PROGRAMMING OVERVIEW
The goal of Project: Independence is to successfully transition these 43 children over the next five years, by focusing on their personal and transitional development. This cross-functional program provides individualized Life Plans that address our children’s needs with evidence-based treatments and therapies addressing their social and emotional needs caused by abandonment or abuse, their nutritional development, their academic progress and their job skills.
The program success will be evaluated and measured in a series of outputs and outcomes as measured by our professional staff.
LOOKING AHEAD
Last year saw the largest family reunifications in CB history, with 34 children being reunited with their biological families. This was a 44% increase over the previous year (2018) and an 82% increase in the last five years. The majority of these reunifications were younger children who had been at CB for a short time. The difference for the children in this program is they are all long-term residents of CB, and reunification for them is not a possibility. Over the next seven years, we will use the Life Plan model to guide these children with the necessary support, love, and direction required to heal and allow them to successfully transition into independence. Based on the recent shift in the governmental procedure as a priority on family reunification, we believe that this group of children will be the last long-term placements we will guide from infancy through adulthood.
We want to see our kids doing well, thriving in their independence, becoming exceptions to the rule of the statistical norms Guatemala.
OVERALL GOAL
Over the next five years, Casa Bernabé will continue strengthening and implementing specialized and individual Life Plans for 43 adolescents within the residential program that include psychosocial support, security and shelter, family reframing, education, and training to transition to an economically sustainable and employed life.
Key Objective 1. Transitional Development
Sixteen children will graduate from the program over the next three years, with an additional 27 in the next five years. This includes using and tracking the Life Plan and having graduate sustainably employed or enrolled in higher education.
By December 2021, 5 youth successfully graduate from the program
By December 2022, 6 youth successfully graduate from the program
By December 2023, 5 youth successfully graduate from the program
Key Objective 2: Personal Development
Ninety percent of the youth reaching the age of 18 years will be prepared with the social and emotional skills necessary to live confidently outside the security of Casa Bernabé. They will have an understanding of how to function as contributing members of society and the ability to navigate public transportation as well as completing necessary tasks such as banking and grocery or personal need shopping.
TRANSITIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CB strategically places children, ages ranging from infant to 20 years old, in family housing units. 89 children, including 43 children identified for Project Independence, live onsite in these housing units. They live with a Guatemalan Christian family that leads each home. Their role is that of parents. They help provide structure, love, discipline, security, and guidance to their biological children and the eight to ten children placed within their care by the Guatemlanan courts. House parents complete extensive training, are Trauma Competent Care certified and know that they are following a calling from God in caring for the children placed in their home. They impart spiritual wisdom and life preparedness skills at every juncture of their day, teaching responsibility and respect with household chores, imparting patience and instilling confidence with homework help, and enjoying laughter around the dinner table.
To live a productive life, both economically sustainable and contributing to the community, youth must be equipped with competitive vocational skills and social and emotional competencies. To equip youth for life challenges, Casa Bernabe has designed Project Independence that combines vocational training with transitional preparation, beginning when the youth is 12 years of age. The program includes meeting their emotional, physical, academic, social, and cognitive needs.
The Transitional Program Director and psychologists help flesh out how the child sees themselves; identifying a central struggle; discovering the root of that issue; and then working through six different aspects of their lives, identifying development goals in the areas of psychological, social, physical, educational, spiritual, and work. They set short, mid-range, and long-term goals within each one of these categories that continue to shift and change as they age and meet these goals. The plan helps them identify support networks within CB and the outside community that the youths can go to when they need help. The construction of these life plans is a continual learning experience and opportynity for our youth to know themselves better and help them make concrete plans for their future. The one-on-one attention and guidance promote greater emotional and social intelligence and consequent societal integration.
VOCATIONAL PROGRAMMING
Part of this program includes our vocational education, as essential aspect for future emoloyment, as the job market requires graduates to have competitive skills and abilities. To address this essential requirement, CB has designed a program that includes instruction in carpentry, automotive skills, a beauty school, a professional cooking school, language skills, and an experienced team of professionals focusing on the successful transition of CB youth into society.
The Program Director also works with business owners to foster a working relationship, to guarantee youth jobs in local businesses. Per the different business owners' requirements, the Program Director works on vocationally preparing our youth for a specific job in a trusted business. These plans also include each individual's educational certificates and diplomas, vocational certifications, health cards, and certifications, and other personal documents necessary to obtain employment.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER…
This plan begins and ends with the involvement of the house parents. The house parents are the heartbeat of Casa Bernabé. Every child that comes to CB has a skewed sense of what family is and what parenting should look like. The house parents serve at ground zero, ensuring that the psychological, nutritional, spiritual, and educational pieces all come together to produce healthy, socially-contributing, independent individuals. By their very existence in the children’s lives, the house parents reframe what family is supposed to look like, what love looks like, and how it feels to be unconditionally cared for. House parents are modeling healthy family relationships, creating a stable foundation for the children to flourish from.
In many cases, it is the house parents who are the first to alert that something is wrong with one of their children, physically, mentally, or emotionally. They make those connections with our professionals to begin the journey of healing or help. Their impact is measured in the implementation success of our directors, teachers, nutritionists, and psychologists. Additionally, the house parents work with the Transitional Program Director in finding the right fit for vocational classes for each of their kids. The house parents know their kids better than anyone, so they help the Director figure out the best fit for each youth in their vocational training. This is also true for university preparation. They collectively work together to figure out which path is the best for their youth and the steps needed to get there.
Each youth can count on a team that is working together for their best. Their house parents are providing mom and dad's role and providing that love and encouragement and support that each teenager so desperately needs. They stay up late, helping with school projects, and waking up early to get them off to school. Their psychologist helps them work through their particular story and history, understanding why certain behaviors happen during times of stress or after a fight with a friend. They help the teens manage their emotions and give them tools to face hard parts of their past and even perhaps hard parts in their future to come. The Transitional Program Director is providing that vocational role, helping the teens have opportunities to try new things and to figure where they excel. The Transitional Program Director is responsible for helping children develop a sustainable plan for their future and enabling them to take steps to get there and is the one that is with them until they age out of Casa Bernabé.
