Midwestern University OT Students Partner with Foster360 to Plant Seeds of Hope in Aged-Out Foster Care Youth

Before Christopher Trujillo, O.T.D., OTR/L (CHS-Glendale) was the program director of Glendale’s Occupational Therapy (OT) Program, he worked in public schools to help youth in foster care set and achieve goals, determine their interests, and turn their interests into strengths. He also assisted the youth with career exploration, taught them prevocational skills, and helped them expand their worldview. He found the work deeply fulfilling and wanted to continue to share his knowledge of incorporating OT principles into the underserved foster care community.

“I love supporting the youth as they gain employment, independent living, education, or all of the above, which is even better.” Dr. Trujillo shares.

Since becoming part of Midwestern University, some of Dr. Trujillo’s most passionate work in helping foster care youth transition into adulthood includes his collaboration with the non-profit organization Foster360.

Foster360 exists to help youth who are at risk of aging out of the foster care system (not being adopted before they turn 18) and becoming homeless. The organization assists youth by providing housing, trauma coaching, and support services that will help them succeed in life. With over 800 youth aging out of Arizona foster care each year, Foster 360’s impact is immense and necessary.

Since Dr. Trujillo has seen first-hand how much of an impact OT can make in the lives of foster care youth, he thought it would be the perfect opportunity to show MWU students how they can make a difference by using their skills in a non-traditional way. This included students teaching Foster360 youth how to:

• Apply for jobs
• Interact with prospective employers
• Grocery shop within a budget
• Cook nutritional meals
• Establish healthy boundaries in friendships
• Develop healthy habits

Since Foster360 acted as a rotation site, the students were able to use their OT skills outside of a medical setting and observe real-life barriers that were unique to each of the participants. 

Raini Laveen, O.T. (CHS-Glendale OT ’24), got to work one-on-one with the youth involved in Foster360, and remembers her experience fondly. She details her responsibilities by explaining, “Before the first day, I was given a broad outlook on what the program already offered and what goals/skills the residents could benefit from improving on. Each week I would make observations during a group session with the residents and then create a weekly group OT session accordingly. I worked with the youth on skills such as self-exploration, mindfulness, leisure participation and exploration, community involvement, ADLs, planning, and budgeting.”

Raini continues, “The most successful group sessions included having the residents plan, budget, and execute two different community outings. One was a grocery shopping trip to make a meal for the group and the second was to attend a community event for leisure. Over the 10 weeks I began to see progress in all the participants, measured by their amount of participation and their self-reports of benefiting from our time there.”

Dr. Trujillo is proud of the impact the collaboration had on his students, explaining, “Working with the Foster360 youth helped our students learn how to enforce appropriate boundaries because they were similar in age, but were also acting as a professional and a peer. It impacted our students by allowing them to practice in a clinical setting as well as a real-life setting, and to view themselves as professionals and develop self-advocacy. It allowed them to see the youth as people, not just clients.”

Raini agrees that, while establishing a relationship with the youth may have been challenging, it helped her learn to be flexible with how she treated each person. “Because I was so close in age to the participants at Foster360, it was tricky at first to navigate a professional relationship while also gaining their trust and respect as a peer. Once I got to know the participants, this became easier, but I still was able to practice reading each situation and deciding how best to respond to their individual needs.”

Furthermore, Raini discusses how working with foster care youth reminded her to respect and honor each patient’s life journey, “I think anyone working with foster youth should understand that each person comes from a unique background and each person should be treated with dignity and respect. Healthcare professionals should be mindful of letting them practice autonomy, and they should be educated and a part of decision-making. It is not uncommon for this population to experience some level of trauma, so being trauma-informed and practicing empathy are also essential to this population.”

Dr. Trujillo hopes to continue his partnership with Foster360 in the future while he further advocates for youth in foster care.

As for Raini, she appreciates her unique experience and holds it close to her heart. “My time at Foster360 was an invaluable experience to my education and life. I really built incredible relationships with the group and feel as though I will look back at this experience as a pivotal point in my career growth. I would love to see more programs similar to Foster360 because the population of foster youth are at such a great age for learning and growth in their life skills and have the potential to create promising futures with the help of caring, relatable, and forward-thinking professionals.”