WE’RE MISSING REAL QUESTION

The recent announcement about San Pasqual Academy closing in October has generated a passionate debate about what happens next for dozens of foster youth who remain at the residential school.

With the capacity to house nearly 200 hard-to placeyouth, San Pasqual Academy has been both a consistent home and the last resort for many foster youth for two decades. So now a growing number of people, including current San Pasqual Academy youth and alumni and their passionate supporters, are looking for or demanding answers.

Must San Pasqual Academy close this year in accordance with state and federal rules or could it remain open in perpetuity?

What’s the plan for the remaining students who never found a welcoming place in foster care before coming to San Pasqual Academy?

And, of course, who’s to blame?

The struggle for answers to these questions has generated lots of heat and energy, but, as a wise man once said, “It’s not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” Resolving the pressing and core issues surrounding San Pasqual Academy requires asking fundamental questions to better serve both the students in it now and all the young people impacted by foster care.

I first began asking those questions because of Belen, who I met as her mentor 20 years ago when she was 8, just before she went into foster care for the third time. When Belen was 11, she suddenly turned to me while we watched a TV show at my home and asked a question that gave me a moment of lasting clarity. “Why are you still here?”

At that moment, our three-year connection was the longest continuous relationship Belen had ever had with a caring adult. And I said to myself, “No young person should ever have to ask themselves why truly caring and committed adults are still in their lives.”

That’s what the current students and alumni have been telling us and what they deserve. That they need a consistent sense of connection and belonging. That everyone should know they have a place they can go to for refuge. That community is a basic need, just like food and shelter. This is the truth we all know and that’s why, despite our best intentions, any plans or solutions that ignore that truth are doomed to fail.

That’s been my belief since I joined Just in Time for Foster Youth (JIT) in 2003. I was first a volunteer, then a board member, then became executive director in 2010, the same year Belen graduated from San Pasqual Academy. We’re dedicated to building a youth-centered community that fills the most essential gap that exists for young people impacted by foster gap: disconnection. They can be disconnected from their biological families, disconnected through multiple placements, and ultimately disconnected when they leave the system. Which is why resources and relationships are essential in everything we do.

If we listen carefully, I believe we can hear the young people at San Pasqual Academy asking us a deeper question than the one about the fate of their school. They want to know and should know, “Who is and will still be here for me?”

For almost 20 years, JIT has been dedicated to answering that fundamental question for transition-age foster youth. We recently completed an internal survey to question our theory of change — that assisting young people impacted by foster care to become confident, capable and connected empowers them to achieve self-sufficiency with a sense of well-being and life satisfaction for the long term, breaking the cycle of foster care. Ninety-one percent of JIT alumni, ages 27 to 35, responded that they were breaking the cycle with high levels of satisfaction for well-being. They were also successful in life compared to both foster care peers and all young adults.

In this current controversy, the real question that can finally enlighten everyone is not just about a San Pasqual Academy plan for tomorrow but about a larger promise for years to come for all youth impacted by foster care. Will we answer “Who is and will still be here for me?” with assurance that we will work together with them for a future when they would have more community and choice in their destiny? Will we commit that no young person will have to fight for connection or be astonished to have a sense of belonging?

Will we change our intention from one where young people impacted by foster care are “placed” in a system to one that matches them with the relationships and resources they need to thrive?

That’s the question. What’s our answer?

Wells is chief empowerment officer, a job previously titled executive director, of Just In Time for Foster Youth and lives in Downtown San Diego.

We must fill the most essential gap that exists for young people needing foster care: disconnection.