Tai-Lyn Parboosingh

Professor Wright
ENC 3331
1 December 2016

A Universal Life Skills Program for Orlandos Foster Care System

In 2016, Community Based Care of Central Florida (CBCCFL) accepted a Public Allies
(an organization partnership with the AmeriCorps to train Central Floridas young leaders to
focus on a just and equitable society for all) member to help with the implementation of a new
life skills focused program into Seminole, Osceola, and Orange County foster care homes.
Although, CBCCFL has successfully administered 1,000 adoptions, doubled the number of
accessible foster homes, and reduced the child removal rate by 25% since 2004, it is time that
they focus on the life skills and personal and professional development of these kids. Many of
these foster care kids, who often come from broken families, and/ or are impoverished or abused
are often stripped of their basic life skills such as manners, character development, etiquette, and
communication (Community Based Care of Central Florida). A partner foster care home funded
by CBCCFL, Friends of Children and Families, has been working to address this issue as they
recently just hired a case coordinator, Alicia Dowdy, who will specifically focus her attention on
the life skills enhancement within the home. Her job description entails reaching out to outside
partners to present various life skills and personal and professional development workshops. She
is also charged with the tasks of outreach programs and college preparedness. This year, the
home had visits from the Child Protection Investigation, which spoke about internet safety and
human trafficking, and they also had a visit from High School High Tech who taught the kids
about the importance of successfully completing school and the importance of resume building.

What is my focus?
For the purpose of this paper, I will take a closer look at this life skills plan, its means of
communication, and analyze the rhetoric it uses for communication. Moreover, I will offer a plan
of action. After I talked to a representative from CBCCFL, she mentioned that the foster care
homes alongside CBCCFL have been trying to focus on the life skills programming for the kids,
but a clear and effective method to do so has been very hard to accomplish over the years.
Although, one of the problems is the lack of synergy and consistency between CBCCFL and the
foster care homes, I believe the biggest issue is the lack of effective communication to the kids.
After visiting a few homes, talking to representatives from the homes and CBCCFL, and
attending CBCCFL student related events, I have concluded that the life skills presentations,
workshops, events, and or other means of communication, are not fully effective for the kids and
do not appeal to them. Often times, the kids cannot relate, lose interest, and/or simply do not
understand the material. Another issue is that there are not enough of these activities presented
throughout the year for all the kids.
Problem 1: General Need for a Universal Life Skills Program
Individual homes are indeed making an effort to enhance their life skill programs within
their respective homes, but it is simply not enough. Some homes may work extensively on the
implementation of these programs and resources, while others may continue to neglect this vital
concern. Therefore, CBCCFL has decided to construct a life skills program that will be
implemented and administered throughout the three counties that fall under CBCCFL. This life
skills program would essentially address the importance of womens empowerment, confidence
building, character building, communication, career preparedness, and much more. As mentioned
earlier, it is important that the community work together to help our children; we overall need a

synergetic system that will yield results. Initially, foster care homes did workshops and
presentations and they still continue to do them, but it was not a natural process; thus, the hope is
that this program can establish not only synergy but also a natural environment for growth.
Problem 2: Means of Communication
Currently, CBCCFL has devised a youth advisory board composed of a few foster care
kids within the three respective counties to focus on life skills but also to serve as a focus group
as they address the issues of the foster care system from their personal experiences and lens.
After attending one of the youth advisory board meetings, I saw that throughout the meeting,
they did worksheets, presentations, and icebreakers. Also, outside organizations came to do a
survey of the kids to assess what are the strengths and weaknesses within the foster care system.
In regards to the worksheets, two of them focused on self-discovery, reflection, and the
assessment of learning from your mistakes. In regards to the survey, many questions were asked
about the kids experiences, such as what challenges do you face? Which of your current needs
would you say is your number one priority? What service or resource is most lacking in your
community? Why are life skills important?
Also, CBCCFL has partnered with many other community partners in an effort to be a
part of the development and growth of the foster care kids. For example, this year, Toastmasters,
which is a professional development and public speaking enhancement organization, will be
hosting a meeting and gratitude workshop for the kids. This year, they will also have members of
CBCCFL host workshops and events geared towards the importance of budgeting, etiquette, and
knowing how to pump gas, finance a home, and attend college. Moreover, the kids will also
attend an array of life skills based conferences that also focus on character.

These current forms of rhetoric do indeed sound very effective, but in actuality they have
the potential to yield much more results. The kids often complain that the life skills related
events, workshops, conferences, and presentations that they attend are either boring, redundant,
uninformative, and/ or not relatable. They also feel as though many of these individuals pity
them for being in the foster care system and thus some of them see these activities as just
something these speakers just check off their list, but do not really care to invest in them. In
many of these cases, the rhetor fails to use rhetorical proofs to persuade the audience, which are
the foster care kids. Although many of the speakers may have the credibility and utilize ethos to
persuade the kids, their credibility resides in their area of study but not necessarily in their
character. After hosting a foster care womens empowerment conference last year, the girls who
attended were very attentive to one of my guest speakers who actually was in foster care herself
when she was younger. This trait gave the rhetor great levels of credibility and allowed the girls
to relate. Overall, the girls trusted the rhetor and were as a result very receptive to the message.
However, conversely, if an audience does not trust the rhetor, then the rhetors use of other
rhetorical proofs such as logos and pathos would be ineffective. This is simply the issue that
resides in the CBCCFL life skills program as they struggle to find rhetors who have the
credibility and experience to relate to the kids.
Communication scholar Celeste Condit argues that the process of convincing overall
requires a given vocabulary or set of understanding be integrated in the public repertoire
(Palezewski et al. 48). Rhetors must add to or emphasize the existing vocabulary. Ideographs,
characterizations, narratives, and metaphors are some of the key elements of the public library
according to Condit. In regards to the characterizations aspect, the foster care kids tend to have
differences among characterizations in comparison to the rhetors. These kids come from different

backgrounds and experience very different things than the average person would go through, and
thus their characterizations of things is different. Therefore, when stories or narratives are told to
them they may characterize it differently than the rhetor had intended which thus results in
disagreement, lack of understanding, and a failed call to action.
Lastly, if rhetors can create virtual experiences for audience members, they might be
able to alter their perception, or at least introduce them to new perspectives ( Palezewski et al.
21). The rhetors fail to create a virtual experience for the kids and allow them to in a sense
experience what it would feel like if they accomplished their dreams, learned these vital life
skills and made an impact in their communities regardless of their situations. If the rhetors could
in a sense create virtual experiences for the kids, they may indeed be able to alter their perception
and or introduce them to new perspectives. The presentations, workshops, and events that the ids
attend currently do not fully take these ids on a virtual experience and thus an issue arises were
the kids are not able to change their current ways and learn basic life skills.
Plan of Action
1-Year Universal Life Skills Program
After reviewing these issues in great detail, I, alongside CBCCFL have worked to devise
a one year, monthly, life skills program. If given more time and resources for the project. I would
create a thorough weekly and subject based program which would entail having speakers,
workshops, and conferences. Each foster home that falls under the three counties that CBCCFL
presides over would be required to implement this program and have assessments to assure that
the students have learning objectives. The program will include individuals in foster care from
the ages of 13- 23. The life skills assessment would include items such as:

1.) Money Management: Students would learn and get hands-on experience with money and
banking. They would learn about credit, loans, interest, and taxation.
2.) Health: Students would learn about proper hygiene and health insurance.
3.) Education Planning: Students would learn about the education process, resources, and
career development.
4.) Interpersonal Skills: Students will learn how to introduce themselves, make simple
responses, and learn professionalism.
Each of these subjects would be a monthly assessment. Therefore, each week the foster home
would be in charge of teaching these items. Also, in order to add a bit of creativity to the
program, on specific months such as, February, the assessment could be learning about the
importance of relationships, love, and sex education.
Moreover, there will be required workshops to manage that include fun and interactive
worksheets, field trips and group activities so that the foster care individuals get a hand on
experience and retain more. In order to finally assesses the students retention of these
assessments, there would be a end of the month two- day long conference that brings together the
kids from the three different counties. The conference would essentially be very group orientated
so that the kids are able to learn from each other and have a fun group dynamic experience, while
also being aware of professionalism. Lastly, the conference will take place in a university setting
so that the students get more familiar with the university setting and environment.
Staffing and Hiring
As a student who grew up with two parents who taught her life skills without her being
fully conscious of it and take it for granted, I now see the importance of the natural process of
learning life skills. Therefore, I believe that the foster care parents and case managers should be
heavily involved with this program. These are the individuals closest to the kids and who in a
sense serve as their parent figure. Also, mentors who would include college students should each

be assigned either one foster care kid or more. By doing this, it create a natural family and
supportive environment for the kids to prosper. This showcases that who teaches what matters
and is very vital in these circumstances. As far as the end of the month conference, the
facilitators and speakers should consist of professionals who have experienced being in foster
care or whom share similar experiences with the kids, which may include abuse, homelessness,
and pregnancy. This allows the kids to identify more with the speakers of these workshops and
events, which as mentioned earlier, allows the students to gain greater insight and listen to the
rhetor.
Conclusion
Although, this is a very extensive plan that requires a substantial amount of time, effort,
and resources, I do believe it can be done effectively. I think this plan would help resolve many
of the issues the homes face with rude behavior and lack of life skills. Often times, many
organizations and individuals fail to analyze rhetorical elements, but in this project, I saw the
importance of these elements and how it creates meaning and substance. It allows audiences such
as foster care kids to identify more with their rhetors if the rhetors have an identification factor
they share with the kids. Overall, by properly utilizing rhetoric and analyzing its uses, it can lead
to many solutions for our communities social issues such as, hunger and homelessness, youth
and mentoring, as well as education.

Works Cited
FOSTER. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://www.cbccfl.org/

Palczewski, C. H., Ice, R., & Fritch, J. (n.d.). Rhetoric in civic life.