The current initiative is the most pressing in that it will establish a transitional life skills campus for young men and women exiting foster care. In 1997, I was a Sunday School teacher at the Body of Christ Deliverance Ministry. Several of the students in my class lived in a group home for foster children. In May, the church celebrated all graduations. For many young people this is an exciting time filled with hope, plans for college, and anticipation of the years ahead. For many, it is a sad time filled with fear.
“Matt,” one of the teens from the group home, told me he was going to graduate high school. I was so happy for him and I announced his graduation to the entire church. We all rejoiced with him. This was a major accomplishment for a young man who had been in foster care since the age of 10. Although immature and naïve, he was such a great guy, we felt sure he would finish growing up in college and succeed at whatever he tried.
A husband and wife team at the church who served as house parents at the group home told me that we did not understand what was going to happen to Matt. We did not know that graduation meant that “Matt” would have to leave his foster care setting. His options were severely limited due to his age; lack of job, social, independent, transitional, and cultural skills; maturity, and general preparation for life after foster care. Matt had lived at the home since the age of 10. He had come to Alabama from another state and had no family living in the area.
There is nothing magical about turning 18 that turns an immature teenager into an adult ready to live on their own. Something had to happen to give “Matt” and all the children aging out of foster care a chance to succeed in life after care. Children from stable family settings, leastwise those from an extended stay in foster care or any out of home setting, are not magically transformed into responsible adults, capable of making potentially life altering decisions simply because they graduate from high school.
Because teens still need to be cared for, encouraged, taught life skills, and nurtured beyond the age of 18, the idea was conceived to establish a transitional life skills campus. The campus will help this special group of young people safely navigate, as much as possible, the streams of adulthood as they move from dependence to independence.
A part of the “Vision” given to Bishop Bush spoke about taking care of the needs of children. With the “Vision” and Matt in mind, I spoke with Bishop Bush about making the part of the “Vision” that concerned children a greater reality. As a result, My Father’s House Foundation was established to make sure that our “Matt,” and the hundreds of others like him would have a place to finish growing up.