Aggie Almanac; 155; Independent City (Leaving Foster Care)

Coming up on Aggie Omnack. It's kind of scary because it is just a word independence kind of, it's kind of nerve-rattling. Hi, I'm Gary Worth, and thanks for joining us for this special edition of Aggie Omnack, CARE WGTV's Weekly Show, all about NMSU.

In today's program, we take an unusual look at foster children in our community, not the ones in need of parents, but the older foster kids who are getting ready to head out into the world on their own. The NMSU School of Social Work teamed up with the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department to hold a special conference for young people, age 16 to 23, who are moving on from the foster care system. In today's special program, we share the experience of one foster teen, Patricia Robinson, as she gets a lesson on how to begin her life of independence. Coming to this conference, I think it would be a big help to me, because I'll give my head start on everything that I'm going to have to do. I am the mayor. It's called Independence City, and the focus we have is to help you learn in a fun, interactive way, how to rent an apartment, all the costs related to that, utilities. If you're going to get a roommate, what's the issue? You get to split your rent, but then you've got to get along with somebody and make decisions. Well, we just find that doing this interactive learning is a much better way than a bunch of adults standing up

and just talking at kids, telling them the information. It tends to just go in one ear and out the other ear, so this way they want to learn, and they find it very engaging. And I enjoy having fun with them, and rather than just standing there and talking to them. Enmancipating out of the system is not easy. Usually when a young person is in foster care, that means that their family was not able to provide basic needs, or there's a history of abuse or neglect, and so the state winds up being the parent, and it's hard for a bureaucracy to be the parent of a child. Many of the homeless in their early 20s are emancipated foster years. Many go on to state hospitals afterwards. They go from a group home setting to the state hospital level when they turn 18. It's kind of scary because it is just a word independence kind of nerve-rattling. I really believe that there is a psychological barrier for many of our foster youth

that happens right at University Avenue, just this idea that I'm not able to go on to college. We want to show them what the college experience is about. We have financial aid here to find out that they can, in fact, get the money necessary, go through the state and through federal programs, and also with the admissions officers to see, you know what, your grades? This is how you can get them up in high school, so that way you can, in fact, attend at an ass year. There tends to be a general bias against our young people. Sometimes adults make it harder than easier for young people to access services, unfortunately. We wanted it to really be experiential, so that we would, in fact, learn how to open up the bank account and find out really how much it costs to your utility bill with cost, your phone bill, your cable, because a lot of youth, and actually my own foster children, when they talk about going out on their own, like, oh, we're going to get a car and we're going to get cable, we really don't understand exactly how much it costs to live on your own. And the fact that minimum wage just doesn't pay for the things that a lot of the youth want.

This is just a clean, safe exercise so that they can kind of get the feel for what it's like out there. It's a little more brutal out there, but we're giving some of those baby steps so that they can learn how to better do it. It'll be the first time that I'll actually be on my own, so it's going to be, I'm excited, I think it'll be good. How much money are you doing there, too? Okay, ma'am, you're looking for, to open up a checking account, a savings account? Very good. Let's get into an application. We have an application. I have those right in there. Oh, okay. What do I do with this so? I'm full boss now.

Thank you. And these checks here, you're going to use these to open up to pay your bills. Okay. Us adults, we know how important money is and we have to pay our bills on time. So, if we don't, there's some dire consequences and so we're wanting to educate our young people about preparing for those consequences and situations where we can avoid those pitfalls, not spending money-wise. I'm excited, I want a little ATM debit card thing. I figure it's going to be a little hard, you know, because I'm going to have easy access to money and everything, but it's the responsibilities that's going to keep it intact so I make sure that I don't mess up. Good luck. Thank you. I got in a lot of trouble there, but like some of my families there, I just want to be close to my family.

Stay out of trouble. Okay, that's the important thing. You know, that's one of the things that independent living tries to teach you is how to make good choices. Because those choices that others make for themselves sometimes will affect you and your kids and your life and that isn't a good thing. You want to be in a position where you're making your choices or you're doing what you need to be doing for you to care you first. I am 19 now and I have four brothers and sisters. One of them is 17, she'll be 18 in January and the other two still have a ways to go. She wants to come in live with me also. She will be on the SIL program and she'll be, you know, she wants to do the independent thing and they don't want to allow her to come stay with me. But I'm wondering if there was any way, you know, if I was able to show extra responsibility, you know, show that I'm doing what I have to do if I can get her five months ahead of time. She's not comfortable with being in foster homes. She's not comfortable with group homes.

You're going to have to show that like I said, you've got your life together. But you have a place for you and you're sibling to live that that is a stable home that you have your your employed or able to provide for you and your sibling financially. Okay. That you're not in trouble. You haven't been in trouble in a long time or never. And that kind of stability that you can provide a home. Are those a mean requirements? We're waiting in line to get an apartment and actually that's definitely how it would be in real life because we will have to wait in line to get an apartment. We have to fill out the application and be approved for it and make sure that we have a savings account and that we'll be able to pay for it monthly. There's a lot of responsibility and titled with it. It looks like your roommates have all of this here.

Yeah, I'm honestly I'm not too fond of this because this is the second time now that I have no idea where they're at. And it just makes me feel like maybe I shouldn't go for the whole roommate thing that I should go for the whole self. You know, one bedroom apartment because this is is already annoying me and it's not even real. Here's one that's open now. Do you also work with apartments? Yeah. Cool. Okay. Wow. Where's your roommate? Getting a phone without a house. Well, you need your roommates here so I can give you an apartment and I can explain the world so that they have apartments with you and your roommates and talk about the deposit and everything else. How about this? How about we go ahead and do a one bedroom apartment? So we come up with the first month rent, the deposit, which is the last month rent and that's what you come up with upfront. So say you found an apartment for 500, you'll need a thousand down.

Okay. Well, I think I'll be able to do it for the fact that I have 2000 saved already. That's including the thousand saved and also my first month paycheck. Here's the one bedroom. Absolutely great deal in a one bedroom apartment downtown. If you have transportation, you could use even the bus. It's a dollar a day or it can be cheaper if you get a pass, you know, for the week. And that's downtown one bedroom, $400 a month with 250 deposit. So that's better on your deposit upfront and that might be better deal. You're saving $50 a month that could be used for food. Things like that. Definitely. Okay. Well, that seems good to me. Let's go ahead and go with that one. But you have nothing in your checking. It's all in your savings? Oh, so what do I do?

So you need to go to the bank and transfer some money over to your checking. And come back with to me with the check for $900. Actually, I didn't put any money in my checking account. So I only had money in my savings. All right, there is just going to be just a few minutes because they're busy with customers right now. Is this something I could start on? Did you already feel this out? Yes, I have this right here. Okay. So yeah. They just, they handle that. All I do is kind of keep set up the appointments and stuff. Oh, I see. So it's going to be just a minute. Oh, are we ready? Oh, look. I'm moving money to my checking account. Oh, so I did. I just didn't write it on the back. Got to make sure.

Okay. So now my balance is not a thousand. Me to the order. I would be here more. Okay. In the amount. You're writing them out there. Okay. Now you're going to write out $900 right here. Now I only have $100 left. And I'm going to have to wait for my next month. Employment check in order to have any money to do anything. And let's go see if I can get my apartment now. I haven't even started getting the apartment yet. Well, I started but I don't have it yet. And they're already looking for house phones and cable TV and things like that. And we don't even have a place to live.

I work good as a TV without a house. So I feel just starting this out that it's not going to work out. I'm looking for independence not to depend on somebody. So I want to be able to make sure that I do this right and to make sure that I succeed in the process. Because it is a hard task. And if I put a lot of thought into it and I truly do what I feel is right, then I think that I will make it. Yes. $800. The other one was $90. That's okay. I'll put an extra $100 down because I know I have it that we have a little bit of a head. I'm finding out anything unusual in the phone. So far. I see no problems. It's the typical... The typical rules of having an apartment, no wild parties, of course. Like she said, let them know if there's any additional...

I mean the additional tenants. I will give you a receipt for your money. Here we go. And here is your key to your... Oh, this is great. Okay. Now not only have I got the apartment and paid for the first one through it and the deposit, but I'm also ahead on the second month's rent. And now instead of $400 for my next one for it, it will only be $1.50. Now we're officially going to the post office and get a change of address. Guess what I got in the apartment? Hi. Hi. Nice to meet you.

Actually, yes, there is something that I would like to do. I'd like to register to vote. We don't have to pause for that. How are you going to live? You spent $900 on the apartment? Well, see, the thing is that I haven't received my first paycheck from work. And I put that much down on my apartment because it took care of a month and a half and the deposit. Oh, sure. When do you get your first paycheck? In a couple days. I have food stamps. Okay. Now I have two choices to either go order a phone or to get my utilities. I feel that the utilities will be the most important.

So I have gas and electricity. So we'll head over there. What's going? Actually, it's going really good. Yeah. Having a lot of fun. Have you gotten around to all the stations yet? No, I'm so working on it right now. I'm going to the utilities. Utilities. Okay. Find out how much. Have you ever had the apartment yet on your own? No, I haven't. That's one of the shockers besides rent. How much utilities can cost? Oh, really? Especially if you're getting it. You probably want an air conditioning department here in Las Cruces, right? Most definitely. Okay. You might want to ask how much more air conditioning costs than just a regular heat. Not just heat, but how much is it cost because usually that costs a quite a bit more a month to have air conditioning. It's nice to have it. Oh, it's nice. But it's going to make you utility bills a lot more expensive, especially when you're having weather like this right now. That's definitely something I'm going to have to check into because I do believe that air conditioning is a must. Yes.

Hi. Hello. How many are you? Chris, nice to meet you. You coming in to the utility department? Yes, I do. Okay. Is this your first apartment? Yes, it is. Have you paid utility bills before? No, I haven't. Okay. So I believe the first thing would be price ranges. Okay. As of the moment, I have $100 that I'm able to spend. I realize that that's probably a small amount starting with. Right. I don't plan on moving in right away. Okay. But if I did, I would definitely make sure that I did have enough to cover everything. So I'm coming to get some price ranges. And if it happens to be that I have enough to open up a utility bill, then I'll show do it. Okay. The thing with utility bills, it's not really about price ranges. You pay for how much you use. So if you use a lot of electricity, if you leave lights on, things like that, your bill's going to be higher. Same with water.

If you run water or water your lawn frequently, your water bill's going to be high. So it's really not price ranges. It's just, it matters how much you use. So since you haven't paid utility bills before, we're going to have to get a $100 deposit. Oh, perfect. Perfect. So that's like just the deposit. It's a one time payment that you pay to me that's just, it's kind of like an insurance. Since you don't have any credit built up, it's just kind of an insurance to the utility company that you're good for your money. And when you move out, you would get that back. Oh, I see. So this is an application. It's just a standard application for the utilities. You don't have to fill it out right now, but just see that you're aware of types of things that are going to be asked of you when you go into the utilities. Now we're going to figure out your bill. Now here is a copy of a bill. In real life, you're going to have it separated. You're going to get multiple bills from multiple different places like the gas company, your electric company, and your water company. But for the purposes of this exercise, it's been all combined. So we're going to figure out how much on average your bill is. This is your gas bill. This is your water bill. This is your sewage bill.

And on the back, you have your electric bill. So you want to go ahead and add those up and figure out how much about how much each month your bills are going to be. Your utility bills? 2113.55%. Okay, so then on this part, you're going to write that number for your average monthly bill. And again, like I said, it's going to change every month. Zero. Okay. And here is my deposit. Do you know what a typical amount would be, would this run around typically what people would usually use? Gas could be that high if you're using heat a lot or if you use your oven a lot. So it really just depends on how much you use. If you water your lawn every day, your water bill is going to be very high. So it just depends. If you, I mean, baths take more water than showers. So it really just depends on how conservative or liberal you are with your usage of utilities. Let's just see. Now, what about air conditioning? Air conditioning is usually run off of the electricity.

It uses electricity. Depending on what type of air conditioning unit you have, depends on how much electricity it will use. There are like swamp coolers that are pretty energy efficient to where it won't use as much electricity or refrigerated air, which is kind of costly to your electric bill. Now with the swamp cooler, it may not use as much electricity, but doesn't it use more water? But not nearly the difference in your bill is not going to be nearly as drastic as the difference between your electric bill and having a swamp cooler or refrigerated air. So you might see the $2 or $3 difference in water. It would be more of a problem if I was to get this idea. It would be a lot of electricity. Oh, okay. I see. Well, thank you. You're welcome. I'm going to have to come over here and figure out my budget, because now I officially have nothing in my checking account. But I do have an apartment, and I do have utilities on, so I think I'm doing pretty well. Let's see here.

Oh, the check numbers don't match. I put two and he put three. So that's the problem. I'm going to have to make sure they match. There we go. I'm going to go ahead and look at the different possibilities that are available for us in life. Hi. Oh, that's fine. I am here to find out what it is that you're able. What it is that you do? We do all sorts of things. If you're going back to school, if you need help, find financial aid, but I'm not paid for work, that sort of thing. We can do that.

If you're looking for a job, we can help you look for a job, do resumes, get clothing, interview tips, all of that sort of thing. Help you find resources in the community. Get care of your needs. You're kind of like a public adult. So in other words, if, you know, us being kids and going out there on our own and everything, and you being older and wiser and knowing what there is that we have to do, we can come to you to find out where we should start. In fact, making career decisions, just negotiating to all the things that come up on the day to day. We're parents, grandparents, so we've been there the most those things. So sometimes things just get a little overwhelming. You need some help deciding where to go or how to handle this and where to find that. What's their schedule?

Because they're all asking about lunch. And I would like to be on Medicaid though, because I happen to have a doctor bill now that is outstanding, that I am unable to pay, and I don't have anything since February. First of all, unfortunately, the Medicaid, we can only go back three months. We can go back, so we wouldn't be able to help you with that bill. But where is that bill at in the hospital? Yes. Okay, they have an indigent program. Which hospital is it? Ultimistos. It must be. Oh, okay, in a way, I'm not familiar with their resources, but a lot of community or county hospitals, they do have indigent programs. So it would be in your best interest to call the number on your bill and ask them, do you have an indigent program? And they can help you with that. And I'm sure it's just an application. See what your assets are, what is your income? It was a penicillin shot. Oh, yeah, it was.

Although just for a penicillin shot, it cost me over a grand. So I was not expecting that. Do you have any questions? No, I don't believe so. I do have the DVT and now I have the information for this. And I'm going to get your recipe book. Yes, I am able to get family planning. But as far as health care, I think I'm going to have to look over the information and get a little bit more of a detailed thing of what there is really out there for me. I believe that there probably are quite a few programs that I can work with if I just go out there and look for them. So it's going to take some work. But I believe in the long run. So it'll be worth it. So let's see where else we can go. Now I'm going to have to go put this in the bank so I can pay more bills. It came out to $1,031 in 20 cents a month.

So what can I do for you this morning? I like to deposit my chat. Okay. Five. Slip? I'm going to put in a thousand. Just make it out and even down to the net well, give me a $31.40 back. Okay. Now go back to this. Now I have a thousand dollars in here now instead of zero. I don't want to put right here. It's another deposit. Let's see, $8.20. I don't know if you want to use the two. But you don't want to, you never play with dates or anything. You want to make sure that it's all active. Because as you get older, you'll find out that like the federal income tax people and stuff, when they audit your records for taxes and stuff, you have to have the exact date.

So you don't ever want to play with dates on this. So you do exactly what you say you're doing on this. That way it's never questioned. I know you've heard about people moving stuff around. Don't do that. Hey. Sounds good. Perfect. Thank you. Come back and see us. Patricia was in foster care for five years as she went on to college and got started with her new independent life. She's also served as a youth advocate helping other foster kids make the transition from foster care. Well, we hope the optimism Patricia shares about her future has inspired you. I'm Gary Worth. Thanks for watching. Thank you.

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ujin W 掷 you time is of the essence with quick desserts today on Bake Decorate Celebrate

Decorate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Celebrate Hi, I am Melanie Glasscock and this is Nancy Seiler and today we are here to solve a very common dilemma. It is five o'clock. Your guests are arriving at six. You got home late and you need a fancy dessert. Well this is when you need shortcuts to impressive desserts that taste great but take only a few minutes. We've got some

key ingredients you always want to keep on hand. The first is refrigerated cookie dough. You will never guess that this is the secret ingredient on your first dessert. Decorating basic features proper measuring. Up next we have really quick cakes from the cake doctor and the secret ingredient is fresh fruit and white chocolate. Today's decorating tip is how to make lettuce. And last up the feature quick ingredient is frozen pound cake. Of course you can bake your own but wait until you see what you can do with a simple pound cake. So times a waste and let's get started on quick desserts. Well you will not be without refrigerated cookie dough after you see what you can do with it besides the cookie. And this is a lovely frozen dessert and the cookie dough is actually the crust. It's the base of it right. You're building up from there. Well where you start with a store bought cookie dough. Absolutely.

You can use your own. I mean the whole thing of this is let's make it quick and easy. So I'm spraying a spring form pan and then we're just going to pat our sugar cookie dough into the base. And you just want to make sure it covers the entire base. You're just using the bag for sanitary reasons. Yeah sugar cookie dough. If you want a good hand cream you could play with sugar cookie dough because I'm telling you that stuff has a little grease in there and make your hands soft and tender. Okay and that's I got one little mess place there. Then as another layer you're just going to put your pecans in there and so that there goes oh pecans right and there was just one container of sugar cookie dough. It's actually a half what's a half okay. You could use a whole one but it bubbles up so much and you really don't want that much so then you could bake out the rest of the cookies for the other thing or make two and you know keep them in the freezer. What makes this nice is that you can make this

ahead wrap it up in plastic wrap or foil and then when somebody comes over you just you have to whip it out you're ready. Now you bake it for about 10 minutes on 350 and this is what it looks like when it comes out and let's make our filling. In the mixing bowl I have a one-can of sweetened condensed milk three tablespoons of lemon juice and just in case you forgot you have orange your paper and pen you can look at the website and find the recipe for this. And then 15 ounces of frozen strawberries that's been thought I'm going to and you're using the the congeal or the pretty cut the syrup also. Oh yeah. And then we're just going to mix that a little bit. You know I could see this this would be perfect for a whole party on a warm summer's night or of course any any time in this spring summer or fall when you're wanting something frozen that's refreshing. If you've had a heavy meal it's always nice to have something to mix much. I'm a tap or because that way it gets it off. Okay. And now you're

going to fold something in. I mean you can use one cup of whipping cream that you've whipped or you can really make it simple and use what topping. You want to pop stuff. I can even eat that out of the bowl and then you just fold it in. You don't have to worry too much of it's whipping cream you know when you fold you lift from above and pour it over the top but with the what topping it's a little more stabilized. Basically you're just kind of stirring it together. And it's amazing how whipping cream changes the consistency of any kind of liquid form. Even peanut butter. Whipping cream is a match for peanut butter.