Ethical and Cultural Competency Concerns

Agency Memo

Population

The population, in this case, is foster children aging out and becoming homeless in New York City. Statistically, between 18 and 26% of children aged out of foster care end up being homeless in New York City (citation). Out of this population, about 50% will fail to secure employment after they age out of foster care (citation). These children undergo various problems after leaving the foster homes; however, the most common and prominent problem is housing instability (McCoy et al., 2008). These children leave the foster environments without supportive adults to help them transition into independent lives. Children experiencing housing issues are at higher risks of developing mental health issues struggle with substance abuse, and in most cases, they end up being victims of criminal activities (citations). Most of thosechildren aging out of foster homes are black Americans (citation). , mostly the youths. SuchFoster youth a population who are aging out of the system is are vulnerable to life circumstances and can easily engage in criminal activities if homeless (citation). Therefore, they need to ensure that they have a place to go after leaving the foster home. Additionally, tThey should be offeredneed further assistant with employment vacancies to help them lead a normal life like other citizens.

Good start. In this initial section (describing the population), you will need a lot more statistics about the population you are proposing the intervention for (what are the demographics of the population – gender, race, ethnicity, any sociodemographic information, etc.). You need LOTS of citations for all the statistics that you find. Please use credible sources – preferably from peer-reviewed journal articles but sometimes you can find good statistics on governmental websites (CDC, etc).

Available Interventions

Various interventions to help children aging out of foster care homes in New York exist (citations). The first intervention is the provision of independent living readiness programs, which effectively help in improveing the employment and economic outcomes of these childrenformer foster youth. Independent living readiness programs Such intervention programs ensure that the children are prepared for their next life and re-parent themselves in the lone life (Montgomery et al., 2006). Independent living programs effectively positively impact employment outcomes and decrease mental health issues. Comment by Hawley-Bernardez, Alicia C: You say that “various interventions exist,” so you need to back that up with the citations for said interventions.

Another crucial intervention is increasing housing stability through policy changes at the macro level (citation). Over the past years, it has been established that many children leaving foster homes encounter homelessness due to housing instability issues (citation). Therefore, ensuring that housing issues are stable through reduced rental prices and more housing will help address homelessness.

The last intervention is offering them employment support to help them earn and improve their economic wellbeing. The wages or salaries they get will help them secure homes or houses and pay rents to sustain them and avoid being homeless.

All of these interventions sound very similar to me. You need to be very clear about the distinctions between them and the citations/references for each one. You will be thoroughly describing each of the interventions in this section and need at least a paragraph for each intervention.

Evidence for Interventions

The independent living program act was enacted in 1986, followed by title 1 of the foster care independence act of 1999 (citation). The programs have played an essential role in helping older youths leave foster care to develop life skills and habits essential for living independently. The policy acts have been successful, resulting in implementing independent living programs across America (citation). For instance, The Crossroads is the best and most recommended independent living program for young adults in New York.

Housing instability has been an issue affecting New Yorkers for the longest time possible. It Housing instability affects the African -Americans, Latinos, Asian and immigrant households across NYC (citation). In December 2020, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation S.6573/A.8009 to ensure housing vouchers are availed to eligible families under the FHEPS program (Dworsky et al., 2012). The legislation was to raise the amount of rent payable under the FHEPS to cover rental costs in New York.

For employment, creating job opportunities to accommodate the young youths leaving foster homes is an essential intervention towards homelessness in New York City. So far, little has been done to address this.

Each of these interventions that you list should be based on the research; if there are no interventions that exist that address employment for foster youth, then you might need another intervention. Once you find your 3 interventions, you will be looking at the results section of each one to describe in this section – what is the evidence that they found that shows it to be effective? This section is where you basically look at the results sections of the articles for each intervention and describe the evidence for effectiveness. You will need a paragraph for each of the interventions. You may want to include data about a statistically significant study that used each intervention.

Recommendation for Intervention

Based on the research findings gathered above, it is evident that independent living programs play a vital role in addressing the issue of homelessness among young youths who age out of foster homes (citations). Such programs provide them with ease and prepare them to face the outside world. Such programs help them navigate various economic resources available for them to sustain themselves while out of the foster care homes.

Based on the interventions you find and list above, you will make an evidence-based informed recommendation for which intervention would be best for the agency to use. You are not giving your opinion. You are making a recommendation based on the effective evidence provided in the literature.

Single Subject Design

Once the independent living program intervention is implemented, struggling young adults leaving foster homes in New York will encounter or experience a therapeutic transitional living because the services under most independent living programs aim at providing clients with life skills and encourage them to personally grow by combining education, restructure and therapeutic interventions. I will tell if the intervention is working based on the behavioral outcomes of the clients. It would be crucial to set them out in the lone environment for two to three weeks every month for 6 months. Those who will find it easier to navigate through life will establish that the intervention is working, while those who will find it challenging will have to undergo the same tests for another 3 months. At the end of the program, I would wish to see clients navigate through life on their own by putting the life skills into practice. Comment by Hawley-Bernardez, Alicia C: This is a run-on sentence. Comment by Hawley-Bernardez, Alicia C: How will you measure these outcomes? Is there a scale that exists that measures this?

After you have implemented your proposed intervention at your hypothetical “agency,” how will you monitor to determine if it is effective or not? You might consider pre and post tests? What did the participants know prior to entering the program and what did they know when they left? More than just a test, though, you also want to look at long-term behavioral changes. Also, be careful not to use first person in this section.

Ethical and Cultural Competency Concerns

Independent living intervention programs require implementation activities to be undertaken. Therefore, there are possibilities that conflicts will arise in the priorities of prevention scientists, practitioners, and program users. This always leads to difficulties in making decisions and choices dues to conflicts of interest, potential risks encountered, and inequities in the available benefits.

You may consider incorporating the NASW code of ethics into this section. You also may consider how race/ethnicity plays a role in needing/seeking services.

References

Dworsky, A., Dillman, K. N., Dion, R., Coffee-Borden, B., & Rosenau, M. (2012). Housing for youth aging out of foster care: A review of the literature and program typology. US Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development & Research.

Montgomery, P., Donkoh, C., & Underhill, K. (2006). Independent living programs for young people leaving the care system: The state of the evidence. Children and youth services review, 28(12), 1435-1448.

McCoy, H., McMillen, J. C., & Spitznagel, E. L. (2008). Older youth leaving the foster care system: Who, what, when, where, and why?. Children and Youth Services Review, 30(7), 735-745.