Programs — Rooted Forward Inc.
Resilience & Readiness
A complete 16-session program, one 4-week module at a time.
The Who Am I, Empowerment Program is a workshop organized around four pillars — trauma and healing, stress and the nervous system, relationships and connection, and life skills and career readiness. Together they address everything transitioning youth need to survive and thrive: not just psychologically, but practically.
"This isn't therapy. It isn't a lecture series. It's a space where the science of trauma and resilience meets the practical reality of your life — and where the people in the room become part of your foundation."
Are you eligible?The Cost of Healing
$2,092
funds one 4-week session for 4 participants — facilitation, materials, and long-term support.
Without funding, these young adults navigate the transition alone.
4 × 4
Weeks — One Commitment at a Time
4
Pillars
17–26
Ages Served
Free
Always
Our Foundational Premise
Foster-involved youth are not broken people who need fixing. They are resilient survivors whose experiences require understanding, not pathologizing — and whose transition into adulthood requires real, tangible skills alongside emotional healing.
Free, self-paced online courses for foster care alumni across the United States. Free. Self-paced. Available nationwide.
Inside the Program
The Four Pillars of Resilience & Readiness
Resilience & Readiness · Pillar 1
Healing is the foundation of everything.
Mental Health Support
This curriculum is a mental wellness workshop, not therapeutic. Facilitators are educators and group leaders, not clinicians. If a youth discloses active trauma, self-harm, suicidal ideation, or crisis, facilitators follow Rooted Forward's Safeguarding Protocol immediately and contact the clinical supervisor on call. Warm referral to a licensed mental health provider is always available.
What's Included
- 🛡️Trauma-informed careAll facilitation centers psychological safety. No forced disclosure. Language is non-pathologizing throughout.
- 🧠Psychoeducation firstYouth learn the neuroscience before reflecting on their story. In Pillar 4, this means understanding how trauma affects executive function, working memory, and interview performance — before being asked to practice those skills.
- 🤝Relational scaffoldingThe group is the therapeutic vehicle. In Pillar 4, group members become a practice community — a safe space to rehearse interviews, give feedback on resumes, and troubleshoot real workplace challenges.
- 🌀Spiral curriculumConcepts revisit across all 16 sessions at increasing depth. Practical skills introduced early are revisited with greater complexity as participants' emotional capacity grows.
- 🌱Post-traumatic growth lensYouth are positioned as experts on their own lives. Their foster care experience — the navigation, the adaptability, the resilience — is reframed throughout Pillar 4 as genuine professional and personal capital.
Resilience & Readiness · Pillar 2
The practical tools no one taught them.
Life Skills Education
Aging out of foster care often means navigating adulthood without the informal knowledge most families pass down. Our life skills workshops fill that gap — covering the everyday essentials needed to live independently and confidently.
What's Included
- Money, Housing & Systems Navigation:Budgeting, banking, credit, lease literacy, tenant rights, and utility setup. The practical foundation for stable independent living.
- Benefits, Services & Self-Advocacy:EBT, Medicaid, housing vouchers, extended foster care entitlements, and how to navigate the bureaucratic systems that control access to them — including appeals and documentation.
- Career Exploration & Job Readiness:Strengths-to-career mapping, resume building, and reframing employment gaps without shame. The values work from Pillar 1 becomes the foundation for career direction here.
- Workplace Readiness & Graduation:Mock interviews, workplace culture navigation, and applying the relational tools from Pillar 3 to professional settings. Closes with a graduation ceremony and future self-letter.
The Five-Phase Therapeutic Arc
The 16-session program follows a progressive arc: Safety → Awareness → Processing → Integration → Empowerment. Pillar 4 sits primarily in the Integration and Empowerment phases — this sequencing is deliberate. Youth need the emotional groundwork of Pillars 1–3 before practical skills training will fully land. A participant who has not begun to process shame around their history will struggle to write a personal statement or answer "tell me about yourself" in an interview.
That said, the spiral curriculum structure means that practical skills are not entirely absent in earlier weeks. Light-touch life skills content — budgeting basics, understanding bills and leases — appears as "real world" anchors throughout Pillars 1–3, giving participants immediate practical value while building toward the full Pillar 4 curriculum.
Resilience & Readiness · Pillar 4
Consistent relationships that change everything.
Mentor Community
Research is clear: a stable, caring adult relationship is one of the most powerful predictors of positive outcomes for foster care alumni. Our mentorship program matches participants with trained, committed mentors for long-term, one-on-one support.
What's Included
- One-on-one mentor matching based on goals and interests
- Structured mentor training and ongoing support
- Regular check-ins and milestone celebrations
- Group community events and peer connection
- Alumni network for program graduates
- Volunteer and giving-back opportunities
Who We Serve
Are You Eligible?
Our programs are open to young adults who have experienced foster care and are navigating the transition to independence. If you're unsure whether you qualify, reach out — we'll figure it out together.
- Ages 17–26
- Current or former foster care experience — in-person/hybrid sessions in South Florida, or anywhere for online classes
- Physical location for in-person limited to residents of Palm Beach, Broward, or Miami-Dade counties — other county residents always welcome to attend in-person or join for online classes
- Motivated to engage with programming and support