Building
Skills for the Future
Tulsa Girls’ Home
Lifeskills &
Prudent Parenting
Today more than ever, youth in foster care suffer from stress, anxiety, depression, anger, lack of self-confidence, and trauma. The girls who come to Tulsa Girls’ Home are currently within the child welfare system — meaning there was a problem of violence, abuse, neglect, or crisis in their former home.
While a healthy foster placement might help a child come to terms with such hardships, poor placement or untimely aging out of the system can leave traumatic experiences unresolved. According to the U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF), by age 21, at least 26% of young people who aged out of foster care in the United States experienced a period or more of homelessness; a third lacked a high school diploma; 25% had no health insurance. A quarter of these youth has already given birth to a child.
Tulsa Girls’ Home offers each girl life skills training, employment, and educational support. One of the keys to our success is our volunteer mentoring program. The girls are modeled healthy lifestyles and choices and are given encouragement, skills, and accountability to reach their goals!
Lifeskills Development
It is our goal to support and prepare each girl, at TGH, as much as possible for adulthood. Tulsa Girls’ Home is committed to providing education, supporting girls’ employment, and ensuring wrap-around services are in place as preventative measures against unplanned pregnancy, incarceration, domestic violence, and human sex trafficking prevention.
We teach and model for our girls that they are able to choose a better, more joyful life for themselves and break the cycles of abuse and poverty in their families!
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Each girl at TGH learns how to cook foods properly - so they can save plenty of money as an adult. We also discuss food safety and good nutrition principle. Plus, we have loads of funning trying new, simple recipes so they can fill their recipe book for the future
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Health and hygiene are essential skills to learn. At TGH, we want to discuss basic hygiene practices and demonstrate how to do them regularly. In addition, we discuss the importance of maintaining regular doctor’s visits even if she’s not experiencing major symptoms!
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Young adults often confuse lust and love, and we want to teach each girl the difference between the two. We talk about what sex should really be about as opposed to what the media and society think it should be about.
We discuss with each girl the importance of respect in a relationship and to learn to avoid domestic violence and trafficking warnings by teaching the Power and Control wheel. We treat each girl how a boy should treat her during the dating phase and after marriage. Ensuring each girl needs to evaluate someone’s character and actions over a period of time.
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Each girl is taught different ways to look for employment and how to build their resume. If a youth at TGH wants to pursue a career that will require college/tech school, we help her seek out colleges that will suit her interests and personality. In addition, we support each youth with resources that are available to her while she is going through the application process.
As for money management, our advocates talk to each resident about the importance of having a budget, helping her open a bank account, and discussing healthy money management skills.
