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College Bound 2026
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Fayces First Retreat
By Virgo Villajin
“A year ago, we read on the front page of the Union Tribune that San Pasqual Academy was to be shut down – a heartbreaking and devastating announcement for all of us who had come to love SPA,” JIT staffer Simone recalls. It was this unexpected revelation that made it clear to her that former foster youth must be involved in decisions that affect their brothers and sisters still in care. She added, “we are the experts of the foster care experience and are the direct recipients of every policy, practice, and decision made by people in positions of power.”
Simone wanted to establish something beyond a guest panel of youth sharing their stories, she wanted real action and real change. From there, FAYCES was created. FAYCES which stands forFoster Alumni and Youth Community Empowerment Subcommittee, assists the County of San Diego’s Child and Family Strengthening Advisory board by integrating the voices of those directly impacted by the system in the decision making process.
While over the past year, they focused mostly on reacting to the SPA closure and expanding their reach to other initiatives, Simone recognized it was time to convene and strategize. FAYCES organized a retreat and focused on creating an intentional, community-based approach to advocacy and system disruption in San Diego County’s Child Welfare Services to better serve current and former foster youth.
It also served as an opportunity for foster youth alumni to come together and build community. The group of 15 individuals hope to leverage their experience to create a significant impact in policy change. They recently met for an in person retreat to collectively define the FAYCES mission, vision, structure and 2022 priorities.
“I invite every current and former youth to join FAYCES, where their lived experience is treated as fact, as credible information, and will guide the direction to positively improve SPA and CWS as a whole.” Simone, JIT Associate Director of Advocacy & Community Empowerment.
Partnership With Polisnky Children’s Center
by Virgo Villajin
We’ve recently kicked off a new partnership with Polinsky Children’s Center by extending a number of our community members with lived experience in foster care to serve as peer mentors to the youth at Polinsky and share our Coach Approach to Mentoring method of communication.
Marie, JIT Participant and Youth Mentor, shared, “I work with a lot of young girls who have opened up to me almost immediately because of the way I communicate with them. They inspire me to keep learning so I can enhance my tools to help them. I want them to know their background doesn’t hold them back or make them deficient.
An integral part of Coach Approach to Mentoring is to begin by viewing each other as Creative, Resourceful and Whole, taking an effective first step in dismantling the narrative that foster youth are deficient or in need of rescuing. From there, we implement elements of active listening, curious and then powerful questions to help the other person come to their own conclusion about how to resolve their challenge.
We hope that through leveraging our participants’ shared lived experience and this communication style, we can help Polinsky build better relationships with the youth they serve and greatly reduce the number of escalated situations.
The partnership has been well received by the staff at Polinsky and we’ve recently completed their first Coach Approach training for 15 of their staff, which includes members of their leadership team. We’re excited to see how this partnership will grow!
Century Club
By Virgo Villajin
The JIT community participated in a fundraising campaign in collaboration with the Century Club of San Diego. As long time community partners, they offer us a unique opportunity of to leverage our efforts by providing bonuses based on the amount of investors and total funds raised. Jennifer, JIT’s Co-director of Development rallied our staff, volunteers, investors and board members to establish their fundraising pages and led JIT in the competition to earn the bonuses. JIT staff Chris Turner (left) brought in 134 contributors, an all time high for any JIT fundraiser in our history competing, and Ted DeFrank (right), JIT board member brought in $18,175 in investments.
Stay tuned for next week when we announce our ranking within the competition!
“We’re always honored to be chosen as one of the lucky organizations to participate because this campaign allows us to showcase something that Just in Time is known for, which is building community. It’s our community of staff, the board, volunteers, and our youth that drive the success of this campaign.”