The goal of the Foster Care Chronicles Project, funded by the HRSA JMSW Behavioral Health Training Grant through the Department of Social Work at UNCG, is to help people in the Foster Care System create and perform a production based on their first person accounts.
It will give regional youth aged 15-25 who are or were in Foster Care a unique opportunity to use the arts to boost their overall psychological well being. A program like this gives kids purpose: They learn to share their experiences, support each other, act, become confident public speakers, and develop into advocates and teachers through theater.
They form a new support network, increase their sense of belonging, and ultimately begin the transition to becoming healthy adult members of our community, all while having fun. Our participants transform themselves and the future of our community as they teach others what it is like to walk in the shoes of a “Foster Kid.”
What goes into this project?
Youth chosen for this project share their individual experiences with other youth in foster care, a licensed social work therapist, three Masters of Social Work student interns, and a professional playwright. They will participate in two outdoor retreats to connect with each other and become a team.
The playwright will then meld the incredible stories of the youth in foster care into a script and mount a full-scale production, The Foster Care Chronicles: Wrongs of Passage. Professional set, sound, and lighting designers and a choreographer will help the youth bring their stories to life on stage. The youth’s eight performance run begins on April 14, 2016.