Foster care in Massachusetts is a many-layered, complex institution. Today, we want to focus on how our agency, Bridges Homeward, serves youth in foster care by taking a closer look at our Intensive Foster Care program.

Our Intensive Foster Care (IFC) program serves children and adolescents from ages 0 to 22. Our social workers collaborate with foster parents to provide a high level of structure and supervision for the youth who come into our program. We interviewed our Intensive Foster Care Program Director Laqunda Nystrom about our youth and the impact we strive to make in their lives everyday.

“Our IFC clients, our kids, have higher needs, whether that’s behavioral, medical needs, or developmental delays,” says Laqunda. “They need a higher level of structure and more supervision. Our social workers and foster parents collaborate to play that role and advocate for them, making sure they’re receiving wraparound services.”

Intensive Foster Care Program Director Laqunda Nystrom

Here, Laqunda is drawing the distinction between Bridges Homeward’s foster homes and the foster homes overseen by the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, commonly known as DCF. “Our kiddos need a little more support [than foster homes run by DCF],” she continues. “So in addition to DCF going into the home once a month, our IFC team goes out weekly. Our foster parents receive more intensive training around trauma-informed care, and we provide a monthly support group to them.”

What unifies youth in foster care?

“One thing all our kids have in common is loss and some sort of experience with trauma,” says Laqunda. “We understand this and work hard to ensure our foster families understand that as well. But something else they have in common is, all our kids are super resilient. Being able to go into a foster home, a place you’ve never been before, with people you don’t know, and being able to adapt to it – you're probably going to a new school, your whole environment is new. The resiliency we see in our kids is amazing.

“In our program, we are advocates for the whole child. We understand that all kids need permanency,” continues Laqunda. “We’re not just looking at one part of each child’s life. We want to ensure we are thinking about physical and emotional safety. We have learned that a huge part of kids feeling emotionally secure is knowing we are not trying to remove their connections with their biological families.”

What difference does our approach to supporting youth in foster care make for them?

“The biggest difference is the majority of our kids leave our program with permanent connections,” says Laqunda. “When kids come to our program, a lot of times they’ve moved around a lot. Most of the time they’ve had a few different foster care placements and some residential or even hospital stays. In that movement, we know kids lose contact with people they value and love. Our role is to reconnect them with those people while understanding physical placement may not be an option. We often find ourselves asking families what they can provide. Sometimes that looks like an aunt taking her niece to visit college campuses, a stepfather attending graduation, or a mother taking her child prom dress shopping. If that is all these family members can do that’s exactly what we want them to do.:

On a day-to-day basis, our dedication to our youth manifests in many ways. When our kids start to feel safe physically and emotionally, we start to see them thrive and become open to exploring new things. We get to see them be curious about the world around them. Laqunda shares one story:

"We have a young man in our program who is really interested in film. He is in his school’s film club and is working with his school to do these different short film projects. Our foster parents got him a green screen, to allow him to explore this interest. They are currently looking for jobs in film for him, for the summer. I believe he feels a certain level of comfort with his foster parents not only because they’re supporting his interest, but also because of how open they are with his bio family. His foster family lets him know in many different ways that they are on his team and are here to support his goals.”

How we make an impact

The beauty of our program is that our foster parents understand that supporting a child’s permanency will always create a safer space for that child. The youth can be comfortable in their new environment because of all the advocacy work we and our foster parents do for the “whole child,” not just for a child’s physical safety.

Ultimately, the impact of our Intensive Foster Care program relies on the fact that we know youth in foster care want their biological families to be involved in their lives. Coming into foster care and not knowing where your family is and what will happen to you can be scary. But in our program, we show kids that we are here to advocate for all their needs. That includes helping kids to connect with people they love or create new connections. When we support youth in this way, we don’t just see them make progress – we see them thrive in their communities and go on to reach their goals.