Foster Care Training

All adults share at least one common experience of oppression: being targeted as young people, or adultism. Adultism lays the groundwork for other forms of oppression, as it normalizes young people being seen as less than human: adultism acts as though young people don’t have fully functioning minds, autonomy, or their own thoughts about or skills to navigate our world thoughtfully. As young people, though, we all spoke up and acted until we were repeatedly silenced or regularly ignored. We eventually began to feel too small and too powerless to make change happen. We were condescended to for being earnest, naïve, and “cute;” lied to about our brilliance and significance; given little to no room to heal from oppression and further targeted when we dared to show our feelings; encouraged to distract or disengage by comfort-seeking and numbing. To be truly successful in our social justice work, we must understand the impacts of and work to decolonize internalized patterns of ageism/adultism. Until we do so, we will continue to unknowingly oppress the youth we support. This day-long workshop will present basic frameworks of oppression and will critically examine our individual socialization with a focus on adultism. Participants will have a safe space to explore our early learnings and will also consider actions that we can take on personal, cultural, and institutional levels to create more equitable organizations, institutions, and communities.