Raising Young Adults
As we raise children in long-term, loving Acres of Love Families, our goal is to launch self-sufficient adults. Since 1998, we have developed a strategic approach to empower our older teens and young adults to move through this process in a healthy and empowering way. We work to prepare them for launch through developing social, emotional, and independent life skills while also providing opportunities for skills training, workplace apprenticeships and/or university degree programs.
When our young adults begin the launching process, they can start by renting a back cottage at Acres of Love and then fully transition with an independent living space outside of Acres of Love. As our first few waves of young adults have launched, we have learned valuable tools to encourage successful and self-sufficient transitions. While South Africa releases children from care at 18 years old, we understand that a set age of adulthood doesn’t recognize the uniqueness of each child. It doesn’t consider the trauma, educational gaps, or developmental delays they may have experienced before coming to our care. Because of this, we know that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to launching, and we work to see each child uniquely as we help them launch at a pace that works for them.
Through our launch transition plan, we empower our young adults as we help them learn to secure stable employment, save money and use a bank account, pay monthly rent, navigate transport to and from work, cook healthy meals, thrive on their own, and build a network of support.
Our Special Needs Advancement Centers (SNAC), located in the Cape Town region of South Africa and Johannesburg provide a family solution for young adults with disabilities. Our Flagship SNAC in Cape Town is a large home with several small cottages to serve as Family Homes. These smaller cottages provide universal access for our young adults in wheelchairs, and a serene haven where our young adults with disabilities can be launched slowly.
These young adults are extremely stigmatized in South Africa and many are institutionalized or kept away from society. It is our desire to think “outside the box” to offer a better future for the older children in our care. While many of our children will launch into self-sufficient adulthood, some will require a long-term family plan that reaches far into adulthood in order to provide dignity, care, and a chance to live a fulfilling life.
We seek to offer each child in our care exactly what we would give our own. For children with disabilities, we know that this means creating a future where they can live full and inspiring lives outside the institutional setting. We constantly fight the perceptions that children who are orphaned or live with disabilities are “not worth fighting for,” or “don’t need that much to survive.” Open since 2016, we are passionate about offering these young adults a future that will provide them with dignity, individualized care, and everything needed to live an active life.