PRACTICING LIFE SKILLS FOSTER KIDS PREPARE TO LEAVE SYSTEM.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writerl

CALABASAS - Kalvin Small stood on a 4-by-4 board nailed to a pole 30 feet off the ground.

In front of him, dangling just out of reach, was a trapeze bar. Below, his new friends shouted encouragement, telling him to jump and grab the bar.

``It's easy to grab,'' called out Artwine Harris, 16, of Palmdale, who had just completed the exercise.

``If I quit shaking,'' muttered Small, a soft-spoken 16-year-old from Long Beach.

``Don't worry, you won't fall,'' Harris said.

And he didn't.

Small leaped off the platform and grabbed the trapeze, which slid down a line for a few feet, as those below cheered. Then, supported by a safety harness and line, he let go of the bar and was lowered to the ground.

``You just have to focus,'' said Small, who wants to become a mental health therapist and work with children. Just like achieving his goals, ``you've got to reach out and take a leap for it.''

The leap-of-faith exercise Saturday was part of a two-day Bridges to Independence retreat for about 95 foster teens, ages 16 to 18, who are about to be emancipated from state care. The program set in the Salvation Army Camp at Tapia State Park is a collaborative effort of the Department of Children and Family Services, United Friends of the Children and the Community College Foundation.

The retreat was developed as a way to teach foster kids life skills to help them ``think outside the box'' once they're emancipated, said Denise Prybella, events manager for DCFS.

While there are resources, programs and even some funds available to help guide foster children once they're emancipated, they still face numerous challenges, often without family support: finding affordable housing, getting jobs that pay enough to support themselves, applying and going to college.

The average child in foster care may change homes seven times, said Diane Quast, director of development for United Friends. That means not only a new house, but a new school district, new friends and a new family that may have different rules and beliefs.

In Los Angeles County alone, 1,000 foster care children are emancipated every year, Quast said.

Saturday's exercises were designed to teach them how to communicate with others, work as a team, develop strategic planning skills, look for resources to help them, set goals for themselves and believe in themselves, Prybella said.

In one exercise, aspiring model and actress Tiohn Harris navigated a tightrope suspended 30 feet off the ground with grace and ease, only occasionally using the dangling ropes along the way for support.

Most of the time, she just held on to the safety line on her own harness.

``The climbing was easy but, when you get up to the top, it's like, how did I get up here?'' said the 16-year-old Los Angeles girl, who said the risk-taking program suits her.

``I'm a daredevil, and I like to face my fear.''

In a second exercise, the teens were given a challenge: to get everyone on their team from one location to another by swinging on a rope.

The catch?

There was only a tiny platform on the other side and they weren't allowed to touch the ground once they got there. One girl swung over with a plastic bucket in her teeth, another stood on her sweat shirt, and others stood on tires to keep their feet off the ground.

The children also were taught how to break through a 1-inch board with their bare hands. That exercise, too, was a metaphor, said Alan Lowis, owner of Professional Teambuilding Inc., which led many of the exercises.

If the children focus on the obstacles in their path, all they will see is one obstacle after another, he said. But if they focus on their goals, they can break through any obstacle.

Christy Duplantier, 17, of Sylmar, leaped from the platform, but the trapeze bar slipped through her hands. But as soon as her feet touched the ground, she was vowing to try the leap again.

``I've been told all my life that I can't do it,'' said Duplantier, an athletically built girl who doesn't let her diabetes stand in her way. ``I'm not going to let anything stop me now.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) At left, Tiohn Harris is congratulated by camp worker Chris Dubois after her successful leap-of-faith exercise, above, Saturday at Camp Crags in Calabasas. The life-skills exercise, at the Salvation Army's camp in Tapia State Park, was one of several in a two-day Bridges to Independence retreat for some 95 foster teens, ages 16 to 18, soon to be released from the state's care.

(3) A foster youth must trust the safety harness while crossing high in the sky Saturday in the ``multi-vine'' rope exercise to build teens' self- esteem at Camp Crags in Tapia State Park.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News