FIHANKRA AKOMA NTOASO FAN
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Mission Statement
“Safe Places, Linked Hearts” that change DC foster youth’s lives. FAN has a mission of cultivating the well-being and positive development of youth in foster care in an environment infused with safety, security, and love. FAN stands for Fihankra Akoma Ntoaso, words from the Akan culture of West Africa meaning “safe places, linked hearts.” FAN has changed the lives of more than 150 teens in foster care since 2006 by providing an after school and summer-time “home base”—a safe and engaging space with supportive staff. For many young people, this is the most consistent home and family that they have known. FAN currently operates three programs for young people in foster care: our daily after school and summer program for 30 participants ages 9-18; our alumni support program provides on-going support to young adult participants (former after school participants) ages 18-21; and our caregiver support program offering monthly workshops and peer support events for caregivers of youth program participants.
About This Cause
Twelve-year-old Dante has been a part of the FAN program since the summer of 2013. At the time, Dante lived in a foster home with his foster brother Virgil. Whereas the older Virgil was soft-spoken and even-keeled, Dante was animated and boisterous—often giving into his temper and acting out during his first few months in the program. Even in his times of anger, Dante loved being a kid. He would ask for help opening a juice box, or talk wondrously about a cartoon he had just seen. Dante's home-life changed rapidly when he was reunited with his biological mother. He was forced to grow up quickly. He now rode the metro alone to school, and often would buy food for himself and his siblings. His grades and behavior at school deteriorated. Whereas most other times in his life Dante had to act like an adult, his time at FAN was spent being a kid. He still giggled at knock-knock jokes, and still found a sense of wonder in coloring books. At FAN, he felt a part of something, gaining important lessons in belonging and structure. As a result of returning to regular participation in FAN’s after school program, and with the help of our dedicated staff and tutors, Dante’s mother reports that his school performance and behavior improved to the point that he was named student of the week. Incorporated in August of 2005, Fihankra Akoma Ntoaso (FAN) has changed the lives of more than 150 teens in foster care by providing an after school and summer-time “home base”—a safe and engaging space for youth to connect with one another and with supportive staff. FAN exists to help fill gaps in children’s social, emotional, and educational lives, such as those that Dante experienced; this space is the most consistent home and family that many of the young people in the program have ever known. FAN is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission of cultivating the well-being and positive development of youth in foster care in an environment infused with safety, security, and love. The acronym “FAN” stands for Fihankra Akoma Ntoaso, words from the Akan culture of West Africa meaning “safe places, linked hearts.” FAN’s youth development program consists of three components, each targeting youth in foster care at a different developmental age/stage in order to address the factors—such as dropping out of school or failing to form stable relationships, which contribute to these hardships. (As youth in foster care, FAN’s participants are all considered low-/no-income. All participants live in the DC Metro area, and most originally come from Wards 7 and 8.) FAN’s Positive Youth Development program (PYD) operates for 6 hours each day for 6 weeks in the summer, and for two hours each afternoon for 32 weeks during the school year—serving young people in foster care ages 9-14 by providing them academic support, extracurricular instruction, community service, and group mentoring. The Youth Ensembles (YEP) program provides youth ages 14-16 with intensive training in the arts, leadership development, advocacy, employment, and life skills. The Transitions program, for youth ages 16-18, serves graduates of the PYD and/or YEP programs. These participants take part in off-site internships according to their career interests during the summer and participate in career and leadership development activities during the school year. In January 2014 we formally launched two new programs: the Alumni program and the Caregiver Support Program. The goal of the Alumni program is to provide ongoing support to young adult participants (former after-school participants) ages 18-24. Services include monthly workshops and social gatherings as well as targeted case-management, providing work-, college- and life-related education, as well as informal peer support. The Caregiver Support Program offers monthly workshops and peer support events for caregivers of youth program participants, and “family fun days” that encourage caregivers to spend time engaged in activities with youth. Our goals for this program are to support the mental health needs of youth in foster care, and to support stable foster care placements and stable reunifications with birth families. FAN’s goal is to bring a Positive Youth Development (PYD) perspective to Washington, DC youth in foster care. Positive Youth Development programs seek to provide young people with formal and informal opportunities to nurture their interests and talents, as well as acquire new skills. The long term academic and social support that FAN provides has made a concrete difference in the high school graduation rates, placement stability, work readiness, and birth family reunifications of our participants. FAN is helping to remediate the negative effects of adverse home environments—creating competent members of the society in the process. The effects of this work are widespread. Post-school remediation and job training programs are effective; however, these services cannot counter the effect of childhood neglect. At FAN we're heavily invested in both courses of action. Our PYD model provides important educational and environmental stimulus for young children, while our Alumni Program provides job readiness trainings necessary for youth entering the workforce. FAN objectively serves a relatively small number of youth (55 this year to date), but the young people that we serve are among the neediest. More than 1,500 children live in foster care in Washington, DC, and the percentage of those children who spend more than 24 months in the system has grown to 60% in 2012 (from just 36% in 2004). Nearly half of these young people live in two or more different homes during that time. Given the number of transitions these young people face, it is not surprising that they experience difficulties in navigating the key developmental tasks of adolescence. A study of youth exiting foster care indicates that more than half of these young people experience economic hardships such as homelessness, hunger, eviction, or loss of utilities. Only 40% of youth are employed upon exiting care, and of those who are employed, 90% earn less than $10,000 per year. These economic hardships are linked to a lifetime of educational deficits and a lack of social support. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that our participants receive the educational and social supports to make a healthy and successful transition to adulthood, and escape the cycle of poverty that contributes to entry into the foster care system. Despite limited resources, FAN has achieved some notable outcomes in support of that goal. Based on results from an on-going data collection project begun in July 2013, we found that 80% of participants had graduated from high school on or within one year of their expected graduation date; 89% postponed parenthood through their teenage years, and 82% were employed. In the current fiscal year, FAN has served 55 young people ages 9 to 24 that are currently or were formerly in foster care in the Washington, DC area, as well as 13 caregivers of program participants. As two of the strongest early predictors of high school dropout are academic failure and low attendance, FAN’s goal is to ensure that program participants receive the academic and social support that they need to succeed academically and to consistently attend school and their classes. During the grant period, we expect that 75% of participants will report never skipping class—an increase from a baseline of 50%; and 80% of participants will report no grades below a C- on their final report cards. We hope that you will make a donation to FAN to affirm that you stand with the nearly half-million foster youth in the United States.