Jake is among the dozens of Wisconsin Foster Care teenagers referred to us monthly. He has been in a Wisconsin residential facility for 7 months and is eager to move in with a loving foster family. Jake needs a well-structured environment with adult supervision, consistent expectations, and fair rewards and consequences.
Finding a flexible foster home for a teenager like Jake is a challenge. This is partly because many foster parents are afraid of teens and thus wish to help younger children. Also, it can be difficult for working foster parents to provide the necessary supervision and attend appointments. Jake has therapy sessions twice a week, which are essential for his progress and transition back to a family environment. Individual and family therapy will help support his development and adjustment.
Jake desperately needs emotional nourishment and support to feel valued and secure. He has endured significant trauma due to his abusive family background, having been exposed to drug use, domestic violence, and physical abuse. He felt adrift amidst the turmoil of his home life and the previous foster homes he lived in before the group home failed to provide the stable environment he needed.
Jake hopes to connect with a friendly couple or single foster parent who won't give up on him. He feels that people judge him quickly because he is an older teen in foster care. Living in a group home has taught him a lot, but he admits that he still needs to work on healthy relationships, managing his anger, and making better decisions.
Jake is eager to acquire new skills that will help him become independent and care for himself once he leaves foster care. He is fearful that he will fail once out of foster care.
Jake will need the following from a foster family:
During visits with his family, Jake quickly becomes annoyed and verbally aggressive. When his older brother intervenes, he can become physically aggressive. Family therapy seems to be helping Jake with his anger and aggression towards family members. His parents struggle with mental health and drug use. Jake reports that his family home was chaotic and overwhelming. Consequently, he would like a foster home that is laid back yet has some structure.
Above all, he hopes to have foster parents who are calm and don't yell too much. He feels that nobody listens to him or cares what he thinks. 
Jake is polite, helpful, and considerate of others. He doesn't mind helping with household chores and is eager to learn new things. He acknowledges that he struggles with managing his anger and is open to trying new methods to control it. He enjoys being around family pets and assures his new foster parents that they can count on him to be kind to their animals. Jake wants his new family to give him a chance to prove that he is changing and making progress.
With structure, patience, and a calm home environment, Jake has enormous potential to heal from his trauma. He is currently receiving mental health services and will need the support of his foster parents to stay on a path of growth and healing.
Youth like Jake are referred to CCR daily. Unfortunately, CCR did not have a foster home in the right location to accommodate Jake.
Regardless of the county you live in, we encourage you to consider fostering older children. We desperately need homes in all corners of the state. Please contact us to explore how to become a foster parent.
* To protect the identity of all children, real names are never used in any CCR blogs or social media posts.
