What Permanency Means for Residents of Putnam Place

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: achieving permanency is our top priority for every person we work with. But what does achieving permanency actually look like? There could be as many answers to that question as there are people who need help from agencies like CFCS. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a worthy question to explore. In that spirit, we’re starting a series on the blog called “What Permanency Means…”, where we’re exploring what permanency means for the many different people we serve. In this installment, we’re looking at what permanency means for the residents at Putnam Place, our group home in Dorchester. 

Putnam resident Ever learns how to make tortillas during a Putnam Place cooking class.

Putnam Place, like its sister home Teens Learning Choices, has operated for many years as a group home for adolescents aged 16 to 21. Putnam Place houses people who identify as male, and has space for eight youth to live there.  

The residents at Putnam Place are always a diverse group. We care for young men who were born in America and are aging out of the foster care system, but we also care for young men who come to this country as Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, arriving from unstable places all over the world.  

Unaccompanied Refugee Minors come to us through peer organization Ascentria’s Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program, which finds placements for these youth. The similarities and differences between our residents who were Unaccompanied Refugee Minors and those aging out of the Massachusetts foster care system often surprise us, but there are some we’ve come to recognize. 

In foster care, we talk a lot about a youth’s trauma history, but when a Putnam resident didn’t grow up in America, their trauma history can be largely unknown. When we eventually learn their history, after they’ve stayed with us for a while, there are often inconsistencies in their stories because their journey here can be so tumultuous. Before they come to Putnam, young men may travel across oceans, or across entire countries on foot. They may have been imprisoned or tortured. 

One thing many Putnam Place residents have in common is, they come from family circumstances that were not conducive to them succeeding. There are often circumstances outside of the family’s control, such as their socio-economic status, the community they live in or major civil unrest, that can hold youth back. This is true for residents born both in and outside of America – the context for each of them is just different. 

Before they come to Putnam, young men may travel across oceans, or across entire countries on foot. They may have been imprisoned or tortured. 

Most residents who were born here are from the Boston area. They often have a history of their needs not being met by the system: they may have mental health needs that aren’t accounted for, or there’s not a safety net that can protect both them and their families. For a lot of US-born youth, this is not their first placement – they come from places that weren’t meeting their needs, usually a foster home or another residential setting.  

So what does permanency mean for these young men? 

For all our residents, if family circumstances led them to be placed in our care, then we want to focus on those family relationships that can be mended. And often, our residents want to do that work. They like having regular interactions with their adoptive or biological families, and it seems like they often long for more frequent or fulfilling interactions between them and their families. 

For those born outside the US, there are huge geographic challenges to them having a more stable connection to their families. Many of them have escaped serious situations and left family behind in order to come here, who they miss very much.  

When residents arrive at Putnam, the idea of reconnecting with family can seem far-off. A lot of them wonder, how am I going to start my life when I no longer have support from DCF? They think they’ll have to fend for themselves the second they turn 22. So we need to help them find someone to lean on, someone they can depend on as support when they’re starting to live without DCF, independently. We try really hard to find those connections, and often adoptive or biological family is at the center of that. 

And a lot of the time, the challenge in working towards permanency is not in finding significant adults. The challenge is in making sure that fostering those connections is in line with what the resident wants, and in making sure that he – not us – is driving the effort to make those connections. 

The challenge in working towards permanency is in making sure that fostering these connections is in line with what the resident wants, and in making sure that he – not us – is driving the effort to make those connections. 

We often encourage our Putnam residents to invite family members, mentors or other important adults over to Putnam to cook a meal with them. We also go the extra mile to let these important adults know when there are meetings between the resident and DCF. Even if they’re no longer living with them, parents can still go to foster care reviews and participate in and support their child’s case. And our residents get particularly excited about overnight stays with their “approved resources,” who are adults DCF has recognized as an appropriate, supportive relationship. These stays are an important stepping stone towards permanency.  

On top of the many stresses our Putnam residents cope with just by being in the child welfare system —having to move from placement to placement, dealing with disruptions within their families not feeling like you have very much freedom or control over your own situation –  residents sometimes just want to speed up the process of getting through our program, so they can live independently and finally be on their own. But we try to encourage our residents to see the benefits of working on their own permanency and taking advantage of all the resources we offer at Putnam. 

One of the most important parts of the culture we create for our residents is celebration! We celebrate as many victories as possible, both large and small. We have a shout-out board where we recognize residents’ achievements. This recognition is really important for a lot of the young men at our group homes. We shout out tangible successes, like when residents get their grades up or get a new job, but we also recognize their emotional successes. If a resident turns a corner in their relationship with their parents, or if they show more dedication and engagement in their own personal development, that gets celebrated too. Our residents seem to appreciate this holistic approach. 

In some cases – not all – it’s fair to say that this interest from adults in their lives is something youth haven’t experienced consistently before Putnam. So we take our roles as providers in our residents’ lives very seriously. From being positive, consistent role models at the home to advocating for our residents in meetings with DCF and other providers, it all feeds into creating an environment where our youth feel empowered to take important steps towards building the healthy, positive relationships they need. Because ultimately, we all create our own permanency.