FOSTER TEENS LEARN LIFE SKILLS : SIMULATION OFFERS YOUTHS TASTE OF INDEPENDENCE BEFORE COUNTY RELEASE.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

After just three hours of simulated life experiences such as buying car insurance, renting an apartment and opening a bank account, 17-year-old Julio said he'd learned an important lesson.

``It's all about money,'' said Julio, as he handed over a play-money deposit to hook up telephone and cable TV service at his new home in the fictional town of ``Independent City USA.''

He was one of 60 foster youths, most of them 16 and 17, who took part in a daylong workshop Saturday at Los Angeles Mission College to help prepare them for the paperwork, the hassles and the budgetary balancing act of living on their own.

``At first I thought it was hard, but now I'm enjoying it because it's like a lesson,'' he said of the Independent City program. ``Later on, it's going to be real.''

Reality is not far off.

Like Julio, all the youths attending Saturday's workshop (they spoke on condition that they be identified by first name only or remain anonymous), are wards of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services who live with foster parents or in a group home.

On their 18th birthdays, however, they will be considered adults. Ready or not, they will be responsible for taking care of themselves - getting a job, paying the rent, buying their food and clothes and, hopefully, continuing their education beyond high school.

And they face the rigors of the real world at a decided disadvantage.

Many have been a part of the foster care system their entire lives and all were victims of child abuse, neglect, abandonment or early exposure to drug abuse, said Janice Heather, a county social worker taking part in the program.

``We're trying to give them life skills,'' Heather said. ``Imagine not having any family, any support system. . . . This program provides hope. They don't have to be homeless or live off the street or live off the county welfare system.''

Wendy Perlera, 23, a peer counselor and Cal State Northridge senior, said she knows from personal experience what the teen-agers at Saturday's event are facing.

``I was scared,'' said Perlera, a former foster teen who ended up homeless for two months during her first year at CSUN. ``I didn't have a place to go after high school. I wanted to go to college, but I didn't know how expensive it was going to be. I didn't know where the money was going to come from.''

The workshop Saturday began with each of the teen-agers, most of them from the San Fernando Valley, assigned a fictitious job, a monthly salary, and an envelope full of play money.

Each also received a folder full of mock paperwork to fill out, including a personal budget, a rental application and lease, a driver's license application, a credit application, a telephone customer service agreement and an automobile insurance form.

The participants then spent the next six hours battling the imaginary bureaucracy of Independent City USA as they opened bank accounts, signed up for utility service, established credit, purchased cars and home furnishings and found a place to live - not necessarily in that order.

Lending a real-life dimension to the exercise, social workers and counselors playing the bureaucrats would periodically close up shop, or send applicants to another agency for more information.

There was even a mock police officer to issue citations for ``loitering,'' as well as a mock court and government center where cases were heard and ``fines'' were paid.

The day marked the culmination of a 4-1/2-week independent living program sponsored by the department and Mission College in which foster youths attend nine three-hour classes to learn life skills ranging from finding a job to balancing a checkbook and buying groceries.

The program, now in its 10th year, saw its first participants graduate from college two years ago, Heather said.

One 17-year-old participant compared the experience to ``climbing a ladder,'' and said he wasn't naive about the difference between a workshop and the real world.

``I know it isn't going to be this easy,'' he said. ``It takes time and patience.''