{"id":2545,"date":"2023-12-06T15:09:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T15:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/?p=2545"},"modified":"2023-12-07T18:43:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T18:43:34","slug":"saysos-young-adult-leadership-council-shares-what-supportive-caregiving-means-to-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/?p=2545","title":{"rendered":"SaySo&#8217;s Young Adult Leadership Council Shares What Supportive Caregiving Means to Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Strong Able Youth Speaking Out (SaySo) is a youth-led advocacy program. SaySo has existed since 1998! Yes, the organization is 25 years old. SaySo is comprised of youth and young adults ages 14-26 who are or have been in out-of- home care.<br>The mission of SaySo is to work to improve the substitute care system by educating the community, speaking out about needed changes and providing support to youth that are or have been in substitute care.<br>When we were told the theme of this issue of Fostering Perspectives was the power of a supportive caregiver, SaySo leaned into our young adults to get their input.<br>SaySo has a Young Adult Leadership Council (YALC) that has 17 members in addition to alumni members that work for the program called SaySo Regional Assistants. These YALC members and Regional Assistants are from Pender, Moore, Halifax, Rutherford, Catawba, Gaston, Forsyth, Orange, Robeson, Wake, Pitt, Edgecombe, Cumberland, Mecklenburg, Durham, and Martin Counties.<br>During their most recent meeting, the YALC were asked about the power of a supportive caregiver, and this is what these young adults had to share:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>What does a \u201csupportive caregiver\u201d mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cSomeone with genuine intentions, they want to see you do well and do not have selfish motives.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cSomeone trustworthy. If you cannot trust your caregiver, then there is no one else you\u2019ll lean on.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cA caregiver doesn\u2019t always have to be the person caring for you or living in your house. It can be anyone in your community. It\u2019s someone being there in your best and worst times.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cA caregiver doesn\u2019t have to be blood.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cSomeone who won\u2019t judge you but will lovingly guide you while giving you space to express yourself.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThey are there when you don\u2019t need them and when you do need them, they will know who to call.\u201d<br>\u201cSomeone consistent.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What does a caregiver\u2019s support mean to you? What power do they have?<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cA supportive caregiver can give you more confidence in yourself. You don\u2019t feel alone.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThey put life into a person. In the past, a person may not have always had that support but now that they do, the individual feels motivated.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThey are not going to pressure you into doing something.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThey can\u2019t make someone do something. They gotta lead them in the right direction.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cA supportive person can encourage you, no matter if you\u2019re right or wrong.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThey introduce you to new things, new ideas, different perspectives.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cGod is my supporter and has kept me going and going and going.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cIt\u2019s having somebody in your corner who supports you and gives you a certain confidence when you get older\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThey help me have more positive outlets for coping.\u201d<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Caregivers play an important role. They help to not only provide the physical needs but the emotional, social, psychological and well-being needs of youth in their care. Caregivers make a significant impact on the lives of the youth and young adults they care for. The companionship, support, and guidance they provide to young people can improve their quality of life and affect their over- all foster care experience. The power of a caregiver cannot be overstated. Their role is one of the most critical roles to supporting youth and families that have been impacted by the foster care system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Strong Able Youth Speaking Out (SaySo) is a youth-led advocacy program. SaySo has existed since 1998! Yes, the organization is 25 years old. SaySo is [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1661,17,24,22,1,21],"tags":[],"series":[1694],"class_list":["post-2545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-additional-content-right","category-promoting-permanency","category-resources","category-teens","category-uncategorized","category-youth-perspectives","series-november-2023-vol-27-no-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2545"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fosteringperspectives.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=2545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}