Independent Living Conference

The Independent Living Conference is designed to address the needs of both adolescents in foster care and the adults who work with them. Two to three hundred foster youths ages 13 to 21 attend the conferences, and a caseworker, group home provider, or foster parent accompanies each adolescent.

Sessions are geared either toward the youth or the adults. During the morning, youths can choose between workshops on such topics as sexuality, gang activity, and date rape while adults attend classes on cults, teen sexuality, or legal issues in foster care. Other sessions are divided according to age groups.

Panel sessions of former foster youths offer the young participants a chance to ask questions of someone similar to them who successfully made it out of the system.

For more information about this conference or our conference-planning services, contact Margaret Marter at 803-777-8885 or margaret.marter@sc.edu.