Statements

Mission

It is the mission of the Foston Foundation to train caring adults to be able to guide at-risk Youth to adulthood by helping them establish all twelve of their identities and go through all three phases of adolescence. At the same time the Guides are finding and nurturing the teens gifts and neutralizing any Invisible Esteem Destroyers (IED) or any Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) that are found along the way.

Background

My father, a biology teacher, could grow luscious green, tropical plants in Gary, IN, a city on a sand dune. I asked him Daddy, " How did you do that? "so he showed me his "Climaterium". ( a controlled environmental chamber for his plants) . He said, "Baby Girl" all you need to do is know exactly what an organism needs to thrive, make sure you put it in their controlled environment, and it has to thrive." I asked " Will that work for teenagers too, and he said "Why yes, Baby Girl.
In 1985 after becoming Board Certified in Family Practice, with an emphasis on adolescents,( an Ephebiatrician), I opened my medical practice for teenagers only and one month later an Adolescentarium, The Foston Adolescent Workshop., a recycling center for human potential.
On December 20, 2020, seven individuals decided to establish a nonprofit foundation to
recreate and improve on this successful model. This new and improved Adolescentarium will be undergirded by the philosophy of Holistic Mentoring which was developed to treat the Addiction to Hopelessness that is still being diagnosing in the community. It's purpose will again be a will recycling center for human potential.
This decision allowed them to pool over 230 years of successful mentoring. They quickly realized that the old adage, "You can't take it with you" is false. The incredible expertise that this group of concerned individuals has amassed in their combined professional lifetimes, can be lost, if they are not intentional about passing on this information in a structured way to the next generation. We hope to recreate and improve on the success of this program

Impact

During this twelve -year model, from 1985-1996, hundreds of at-risk teens wrote and produced the following:
a) wrote and performed 3 original musicals each with a soundtrack with 30
original, copyrighted songs with five live performances of each
b) wrote and produced eighteen television episodes of a fictitious Freeman High
(six episodes were filmed at Murder High)
c) latch hooked a 25 square yard tapestry that said "Don't Do Drugs" (took 18 month)
d) they also made all of their set designs and costumes

The results were
a) decreased school truancy
b) decreased school drop- out rate
c) decreased gang involvement
d) decreased recidivism with Juvenile justice
e) increased parental involvement
f) increased Community involvement
g. increased skills in adults working with at-risk youth

Our goal is to recreate the Adolescentarium, but new and improved from the first one

Needs

In order to recreate the Adolescentarium, we will need assistance in developing all three pillars of its infrastructure:

1. Guide Training,

2. National Advisory Network and

3. Staff Training and Development













Guide Training Learning Management system 100 participants 149/month 1788
Recruiting l Advisory Network A Webinar Series 1362
Equipment and software for 2 webinars 400
Webinar Platform for 2 webinars 800
Webinar Promotion for 2 webinars 550
Internet Connection for 2 webinars 350
Technical/Facilitator for 2 webinars 250
initial staff Program Asst Part time 40 per hour x 4 hrs /week 8000
Gift Library Development How To Videos senior citizens 30/video x 50 1500
Accountant/bookkeeper Monthly retainer 100 per week x 50 weeks 5000
Total 20000
Training and Materials In Kind
Webiinar Hosts In Kind

CEO Statement

My concerns will be focused on how many things are similar and how many things are very different from what was happening between 1984-1996 as compared to now. Both of these answers can impact the success of this recreation. Here is a partial list

1984-1996 Curently
• Teenagers are easily distracted
• Communications face to face only
• Suffer delays in adolescent development
• Suffer losses
• Are excited about finding gifts • Teenagers are more easily distracted
• Teenagers must be engaged digitally
• Suffer delays in adolescent
Development
• Suffer losses
• Are excited finding gifts

Board Chair Statement

Speaking for the Board, we are focused on creating the infrastructure that will allow us to address the improvements to the original project that are needed.

 Deliver program digitally
 Recruit and Train Guides to work one on one with youth
 Organize a National Network of advisors in 12 key areas :
a) Assessment
b) Evaluations
c) Fundraising
d) Gift Nurturing
e) Grants
f) Legal Issues
g) Marketing and Recruitment
h) Merchandising
i) Professional Referrals
k) Research
l) Technology
j) Youth Referrals
 find a gift in every teen but also look for IED (invisible Esteem Destroyers)
 Expand program to other service areas
 Involve the community in nurturing their gifts by cataloging their gifts to share in video Gift Library
 Train staff and adults in philosophy of Holistic Mentoring
 Put research structure in place
 Improve on evaluation techniques

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Arts & Culture
Secondary Category:	Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Arts Education
Tertiary Category:	Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Arts Services

Areas Served

The initial geographical area served will be Middle Tennessee with emphasis on Davidson and Montgomery Counties. We hope to have operational a Youth Referral Network in place where at-risk youth are referred to our program the be assigned a GUIDE as soon as the GUIDES have completed their training. The GUIDES will then assist the youth in finding their gift and noting any potential distractions to their youth development. Once a gift is discovered, the youth will be nurtured

Statewide