A Crash Course on Life in the Real World

He’s 17 and he’s seen his share of fights.

But a strapping high school senior from San Pedro named Shane acknowledged Wednesday that he faces his toughest battle two months from today.

That will be his birthday--the day he turns 18 and is legally “emancipated” from Los Angeles County’s child-care system, the day he starts providing his own food and housing and leading an independent life.

And that’s the reason the jeans-clad youth was hunched over the gymnasium floor at the MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte, carefully adding a column of numbers on a budget sheet.

“Don’t mind me if I keep working while we talk,” he said. “I’ve got to get this finished. This is important.”

Shane was among three dozen teenagers at the shelter for abused and abandoned children who were in the middle of a crash course on real life, learning how to open a checking account, rent an apartment, order telephone service and other utilities and budget for groceries.

Each had been given $800 in play money and another $800 in “savings” and assigned mock entry-level jobs such as waiter, janitor or sales clerk. They circulated among volunteers seated at tables scattered around the gym who were handing out make-believe applications for such things as health insurance, bus passes and driver’s licenses.

The budgeting and paperwork are the kinds of things that many youngsters who have been taken from their parents and placed in foster homes or juvenile shelters have never learned.

Because of that, emancipation from court-controlled children’s protection programs can be a jolt for many. Some experts calculate that 45% of those leaving foster care end up homeless within a year.

Social workers at the MacLaren center say the 6-month-old role-playing effort they call “Independence City” softens the shock for youngsters such as Shane--whose last name they will not allow to be published.

“A lot of these children need to know how you survive--things that you learn growing up in a family,” said Jerry Watkins, MacLaren’s director. “A lot of these children have not had families.”

A 15-year-old nonprofit group called United Friends of the Children helps run the program. Their volunteers served Wednesday as landlords, loan officers and health insurance workers.

“One of the most important things the kids learn is the importance of having a roommate--especially for sharing expenses for rent and food,” said Dolores Hyams, a West Los Angeles resident who is vice president of United Friends.

That point was driven home to a MacLaren resident--Robert from Arcadia--who was spending his make-believe money on a motorcycle, a sofa and a stereo. His roommate--Taneka from Los Angeles--was quick to rein him in.

“Don’t you want food? You’re gonna starve,” she warned.

At the bus pass table, an eager young woman named Doris said that she has been in foster care since her mother died nine years ago. She was surprised by the amount of paperwork she was facing during the day’s exercise. And she acknowledged her nervousness about emancipation, which is scheduled for June 6.

“I’m really not ready,” she said.

Officials do not release youngsters until they have a place to live, some sort of medical coverage and some income, said Maria Puertas, an administrator with the Department of Children and Family Services. Those who do leave are also eligible to return for additional housing or job-placement assistance through age 21, she noted.

Volunteers helping with the training said it is heart-wrenching to see youngsters who have been bounced among foster homes and have missed out on traditional upbringing.

“With your own child you have the grand luxury of a lifetime to influence him or her,” said Deanne Shartin, a Calabasas resident who is program coordinator for the United Friends group.

Those working Wednesday had only six hours. And even less for Shane--who learned midway through the session that he was immediately leaving MacLaren for placement in a group home.

Shane said he came to the center because of drug abuse and for having fistfights with his father.

“Yeah, I’m apprehensive,” he said. “I won’t be going back to my parents.”

There were hugs and goodbyes as he left the gymnasium.

“You’re going?” asked Marita Reyes, a United Friends volunteer from Santa Fe Springs who runs a performing arts program at MacLaren Center.

“Unless you adopt me,” Shane said.