ASuPIRE: A Strengths-Based, Trauma-Informed Counseling Program for Foster Care Alumni attending College

Overview: Campus-based, support programs have emerged as post-secondary institutions seek to advance educational outcomes for students with a history of foster care. This presentation will include a discussion of the development and testing of a new strengths-based, trauma-informed counseling program created to meet the mental health needs of foster care alumni.Proposal text: Colleges and universities are grappling to determine how best to address the increased mental health needs presented by students as they seek to pursue their undergraduate or graduate degrees (Brown, 2020). Emotional and behavioral symptoms associated with anxiety and depression have only increased since the introduction of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This is particularly true for students who enter post-secondary education with a history of trauma. There are aspects of college that can trigger post-traumatic stress symptoms, an experience that is, from our observations, even more common for students who come to college with a background in foster care. Meeting the mental health needs of Foster Care Alumni (FCA) offers a unique opportunity to address trauma and activate the process of resilience. A failure to do so can undermine one’s academic success and future potential.

Similar to other institutions, in response to state legislation that was passed offering a tuition waiver to young people who age-out of the foster care system, a set of faculty and staff created Bridging Success, ASU’s campus-based support program for FCA (Geiger et al., 2016). Bridging Success offers services to support the transition to ASU while also providing coaching throughout their program. Although this program has been fundamental in increasing the recruitment, retention, and persistence of these undergraduate students, it became clear that more was needed to meet their mental health needs. As result, ASuPIRE, a strengths-based, trauma-informed counseling program was created and implemented in 2020.

ASuPIRE is a mental health counseling program that was created specifically for college students with a background in college (Lietz, 2021). Pronounced aspire, the acronym comes from its four primary objectives. First, to prepare (P) for the expectations associated with attaining an undergraduate degree. Second, to imagine (I) one’s potential and combat negative internalized beliefs that can hinder academic success. Recognizing the difficult history that young people experienced while in foster care, the third objective is to help students recover (R) from the trauma they experienced that may be retriggered by the college experience. Finally, the program seeks to help students excel (E) in their academic program by activating the process of resilience.

The program consists of three components: (a) time-limited individual counseling that is embedded within the university’s counseling services program, (b) a set of four one-credit student success courses, and (c) a 12-week text-based intervention.

In ASuPIRE, underpinnings from attachment theory, cognitive theory, trans-theoretical stages of change theory, self-authorship, and trauma theory provide the theoretical foundation. In addition, ASuPIRE is strengths-based and framed in resilience research that describes a process of coping and adaptation that can be activated and cultivated through the presence of ten protective factors (Cheung et al., 2019). ASuPIRE will be presented in a way that allows for other institutions to consider adopting this model as part of their campus-based, support programs for FCA, including a description of early feedback from students and the research plan being advanced to evaluate the effectiveness of the program.