The Works Wonders program provides employment and life skills training to foster youth in Rhode Island. It uses a youth engagement model where foster youth help develop the curriculum. The program includes peer support groups, individual career coaching, and supported employment experiences. Early findings show foster youth lack employment skills but are motivated to learn. Involving youth in decision-making has increased participation and buy-in. The program aims to improve foster youth transitions to adulthood by addressing relationships, self-advocacy, and career development.

1. Works Wonders
Funded through the Department
of Health and Human Services,
Administration for Children and
Families, Children’s Bureau, Grant
#90CW1141/01

2. Objectives
• Understanding the context of foster youth
well-being and the connection to
employment.
• Importance of relational competency for
youth in care.
• Works Wonders intervention strategies.
• Developing a demonstration project
through a youth participatory process.
• Early findings.

3. Introduction
• Foster Forward
• Nicolas Hardisty, E2 Group Facilitator
• Leah BouRamia, Employment Coordinator

4. Works Wonders
• Foster Forward is the lead agency, working in
partnership with:
• The Rhode Island Department of Children,
Youth and Families (DCYF).
• The Workplace Center at Columbia
University School of Social Work.
• Rhode Island College School of Social Work
• The Voice.
• The Rhode Island Council of Resource
Providers (RICORP).

5. Works Wonders
• In 2011, Rhode Island was awarded one of four
national grants from the Department of Health and
Human Services, Administration for Children and
Families, Children’s Bureau for the Works Wonders
initiative.
• Works Wonders uses youth engagement and career
development strategies to increase well-being,
relational competency and empowerment for youth
who are in, or who have aged out, of foster care.
• Contributions and insights from both current and
former foster youth have played a significant role in
the development and implementation of Works
Wonders.

7. Successful Transition to Adulthood
for Youth in Foster Care
• Key elements:
– Identifying & engaging in healthy, supportive
relationships (social support).
– Developing self-advocacy skills (psychological
empowerment).
– Connecting with the labor market (career
development and employment engagement).

8. Relational Competency
• Understanding of appropriate behavior
and communication across a range of
settings and situations.
• Youth in care are at risk of not developing
relational skills to connect to workforce
and develop healthy, supportive
relationships.
• For youth aging out of care, healthy
supports and financial independence offer
improved outcomes.

9. Rationale for Works Wonders
• 100 RI youth surveyed- 41% aged 14-17,
59% aged 18-20.
• 68% currently unemployed.
– 75% were seeking employment.
• 88% wanted to participate in work, work
experiences, volunteering or internships.

10. Identified Skills Youth Want to
Learn

11. Improved Outcomes for Youth In
Care
• Skill training that includes education,
employment, consumer credit and
budgeting improves outcomes for youth in
care (Cook, R. 1991).
• The inclusion of relational skills within
skills-based curricula is a key element in
assuring socio-emotional well being
(Samuels, G. 2008), as well as long term
success in employment.

12. Works Wonders
• 300 youth participate in the study over the
course of 4 years.
• All youth will have an initial interview, with
follow up surveys after both 16 and 52
weeks.
• 150 youth selected receive Works
Wonders intervention.
• 150 youth do not receive this intervention,
but are eligible to receive other services.

13. Targeted Population
• Youth currently in care, as well as youth
who have aged out of care, but are
enrolled in the voluntary aftercare program
called YESS.
• Years 2-4: Current and former foster
youth, aged 16-21*.
• Year 5: An adaption for youth aged 14-15.

14. Exclusions
• Youth with developmental disabilities, as
the curriculum is not tailored to meet their
needs.
• Youth with only a juvenile justice status, as
opposed to child welfare or dual status
(both child welfare and juvenile justice).
• Youth who are in lockdown facilities or out-
of-state placements.

15. Works Wonders
Employment and Empowerment (E2) Club
Strategy

16. Works Wonders Employment and
Empowerment (E2) Club
• Peer support groups derived from a
psycho-educational model.
– Positive behavior change is most likely to
occur when staff and clients have positive and
mutually respectful interactions.
– Staff’s ability to develop a trusting and
accepting relationship with youth is critical to
maintaining these interactions.

17. Building Youth Participation in a
Demonstration Project
• Successful employment programs exist, but are
not adapted to meet the needs of youth in care.
• Maintaining youth buy-in throughout the project
is essential to ensuring that the full intervention
can be applied to all cohorts.
• Engaging foster youth as expert advisors during
the creation and implementation of Works
Wonders ensures that the intervention relates to
youth in care.

18. E2 Curriculum
• Collaborative approach between staff and
youth.
• Established resources were adapted and
modified, and combined with original,
research-based components.

19. 16 Weeks of Youth Buy-in
• The more control that youth have in
classes increases their buy-in. They are “a
part of something.”
• By incorporating youth in class plans, staff
become trusted supports, and build the
foundation of mutual trust and respect
necessary for the psycho-education
model.

20. E2 Empowerment Topics
• Self-advocacy.
• Communication.
• Strategic sharing.
• Permanency.
• Value of support systems.
• Family and support finding techniques.
• Navigating the DCYF system.

21. E2 Employment Topics
• Meanings of success and work.
• Exploring interests, skills, and preferences.
• Identifying fields of work, careers, and jobs
that match interests, skills, and preferences.
• Job search, application, and interview skills.
• Understanding pay and financial planning.
• Appropriate behavior and communication.
• Worker’s rights and legal protection.

22. Structure of E2 Club Meetings
• Group meal.
• Peer check-in.
• Educational instruction.

23. Works Wonders
One on One Career Coaching &
Employment Experience
Strategies

24. Career Coaching Strategies
• Support awareness of skills and interests
• Use self-advocacy skills to develop
organizational competency.
• Support connection to education and/or
vocational training.
• Supported employment experiences.
• Removal of barriers to employment.

25. Career Coaching Strategies:
MBTI
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as tool
to support both self-identification with
respect to employment, as well as tool to
better understand how their preferences
might interact with their career choices:
– Choice of profession/vocation
– Choice of work environment
– Choice of education or training program

26. Self Advocacy in Organizations
• Challenge the all or nothing assumption
about youth interaction with systems
• Assist youth in gaining organizational
literacy
• Educational/training sphere
• Vocational/ professional sphere

27. Supported Employment
Experiences
• Participants will have at least one opportunity to
engage in a supported employment experience.
• Safe place for participants to engage and
experiment in the workforce, a privilege of many
non-fostered youth.
• Opportunities for development of key
employment skills, specifically those skills which
undergird relational competency.

28. Leveraging Employer
Relationships
• 15 Local Employers
– local physical therapist, local elder care
facility, local restaurant, several non-profits
• Developing new relationships as needed
• Supporting the employer
• Translating skill and ability to the youth
• Coaching youth self-advocacy in
structuring an experience that fits their
needs

29. Removing Barriers to
Employment
• Procure necessary documentation.
• Overcome logistics issues.
– Childcare
– Transportation
• Coach frustration management and
flexibility.
• Navigate complex policies.
– HR, Financial aid, academic advising

30. 6 Months of Youth Buy-in
• Introductory meeting
– Coach vs. Paternal Figure
• Understanding client confidentiality.
• Establishing a collegial approach to
working together.
• Respecting young adult choices and
preferences.

31. Works Wonders
Challenges and Early Findings

32. Challenges
• Developing survey materials and
curriculum appropriate for foster youth.
• Maintaining implementation schedule.
• Class times and duration.
• Attendance policy.
• Youth who exit intervention early due to
successful support and engagement.

33. Early Findings
• Lack of necessary employment and
relational skills.
• Participants are deeply aware of deadline
associated with aging out of care.
• Many are lacking the basic documentation
required to begin employment.
• Based on eco-maps and interviews,
positive relationships prepare youth for
successful transition.

34. Early Findings
• For nearly all youth, participation was based
on the need for employment-related skills and
support.
• While employment skills and experiences
differ among participants, none have felt that
they were truly “ready” for the workforce.
• Involving youth in decision-making has been
empowering and a key factor for continued
participation.
• Works Wonders youth have shown a desire
to pursue healthy, supportive relationships.

35. Early Findings
• Youth who have aged out, or are likely to age out,
of foster care are remarkably self-aware and are
most motivated by self-authored career choices.
• Youth are highly receptive to constructive
feedback.
• Participants are often surprised with “wins,” and
these wins challenge their assumptions of their
own limitations.
• Participants are vocal in identifying the role of staff
as positive, supportive coaches in their lives.

36. Conclusion
• Early findings support the rationale that social
support, psychological empowerment and career
development are essential to successful
transitions to adulthood for youth in care.
• The inclusion of relational skills and
organizational skills in a skill- based curriculum,
paired with a psycho-educational model of
support and guidance offers the potential for
functional transitions and improved well-being
for youth in care.