Guidebooks On The Transitions Framework

Bridges to Independence
(Developed by Walden Family Services, San Diego, CA, 2005)

A ten-session curriculum for guiding teens in foster care through the transition of leaving the system and preparing for life on their own. The program is developed for groups and includes journaling exercises, art projects, experiential activities, and games.
Facilitator Guide
Participant Workbook

Engaging Youth in the Transition Framework
(Published by the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service Institute for Public Sector Innovation, University of Southern Maine, Februrary 2008)

A useful resource for engaging youth in foster care as Transitions Framework trainers. The guidebook provides a summary of the process that the Muskie School’s Youth and Community Engagement team experienced as they worked with youth to develop training techniques and a curriculum for residential group care providers. It also includes valuable insights about how youth absorb the framework, challenges to developing youth as trainers, and a complete training curriculum that can be used with youth and/or service providers.
Engaging Youth in the Transition Framework

Mentoring Youth in Transition
(Published by the Community Mentoring Program of the University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Social Work, Fall 2004)

A helpful resource for mentors working with youth in foster care. It explains the Transitions framework as it applies to youth leaving care and provides specific examples of how mentors can guide youth through each stage of transition.
Mentoring Youth in Transition

Mentoring Youth in Foster Care
(Published by the Institute for Public Sector Innovation of the Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, Spring 2006)

A comprehensive guide for developing and implementing a mentoring program. In addition to providing technical information regarding the nuts and bolts of running a mentoring program, such as staffing, mentor screening, and youth referrals, it also includes a section on integrating the Transition framework.
Mentoring Youth in Foster Care

Transitioning from Foster Care
An Experiential Activity Guidebook
(Published by the Institute for Public Sector Innovation of the Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, April 2006)

A series of experiential activities developed to help youth understand and apply the Transition framework to their lives. The book includes facilitator notes, lists of materials, and step-by-step instructions for carrying out the activities and guiding reflection.
Transitioning from Foster Care

2008 UPDATE of Transitioning from Foster Care
A Facilitator’s Guidebook for Transition-Specific Experiential Training
(Published by the Institute for Public Sector Innovation of the Muskie School of Public Service, University of Southern Maine, March 2008)

An enhanced guidebook on experiential Transitions activities that incorporates by youth inputA series of experiential activities developed to help youth understand and apply the Transition framework to their lives. The book includes facilitator notes, lists of materials, and step-by-step instructions for carrying out the activities and guiding reflection.
Transitioning from Foster Care – 2008 Update

Exercises for Endings

Acknowledge and Sort Losses
Facing a loss is critical to coming to terms with change. Allow yourself to mourn a loss, then try to uncover what is and isn’t over and what you will or will not have to let go as a result of a change. These reflective exercises can help move past denial – a common pitfall during Endings.
Personal Loss Analysis
Offsetting Losses

Get Closure
Rituals can help mark a clean break from the past. Although these exercises might feel contrived, physical actions can trigger the emotional and psychological separations that we need to make during Endings.
Let it Go Exercise
Life Books
Goodbye Letter

Seek Support
Endings can be one of the most challenging phases of transition because there is so much loss. This is the time to reach out to people who have supported you in the past or might be helpful now. It is also important to recognize who might keep you stuck in the past.
Circles of Support
Support Letters

Identify Continuities
We don’t have to scrap everything when we are faced with a change. Part of the work in the Endings phase is to identify what has served you well in the past – friends, attitudes, behaviors – that can continue to work for you as you adapt to your life after the change.
Assessing Strengths
Shipping Labels

Exercises for the Neutral Zone

Regain Control
In the Neutral Zone, we can feel like we’re treading water with no land in sight. Creating structures in your daily routine, work, and relationships can help reestablish a sense of order. Setting short-term goals or initiating weekly rituals are two ideas for creating rafts to get you closer to the shore.
Rituals to Create Order
Goal Ladder

Develop Understanding
Information about the changes that you are facing may counteract the feeling of helplessness that sometimes accompanies the Neutral Zone. Reach out to others who have faced a similar situation or gather information from books to learn more about this in-between time.

Perhaps, most critical, seek information from yourself. Mine your past experiences for other times when you have felt in limbo and identify what helped you get through. This reflection can also help unpack past baggage that may be making it more difficult to adapt to the present change.
Life Maps
Transition Sculpture
Assessing Strengths

Strengthen Support
The Neutral Zone can make us feel isolated and disengaged. While it is important to give yourself space to be alone, it is also critical to create a web of support to get you through this turbulent period. Identify those in your life who have been supportive in the past and reach out to new people who might help you with this new change.
Circles of Support
It’s All in the Asking

Clarify Your Purpose
Transitions give us an opportunity to reexamine our priorities. Identifying what we want to accomplish can help focus us during the confusing time of the Neutral Zone.
Four P’s Worksheet
Neutral Zone Journal

Explore
When everything feels like it is up for grabs, you are sometimes more inclined to “go for broke” and try something different – new relationships, new identities, new experiences. It is when we engage in this exploration that we unleash the transformative power of transitions.
Challenging Perceptions
Learn Something New

Exercises for New Beginnings

Celebrate Your New Identity
Find concrete ways to mark the transition that you have made. Expressly articulating who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and where you want to go can help keep you on track.
Letter of Recognition
New Beginning Ceremony

Shore up Social Support
Just as in Endings and in the Neutral Zone, finding people who can support you in your New Beginning is key. These people should be able to reinforce your new identity, help you celebrate your transition, and stand by you as your New Beginning gets tested.
Relationship Check

Set Goals
The best way to reinforce a new identity is to put your new values, behaviors and attitudes into action. Look over some of the goals you may have developed during your time in the Neutral Zone and lay out a specific plan for achieving them. Start small and use your successes to build toward larger goals.
Action Plan

Exercises for Managing Group Transitions

Transitions Map of Stakeholders
Risk/Loss Analysis
Guide to Diagnosing Stages of Transitions in Community Changes
Transitions Forecast

Videos

Video Training Session:
Explaining Transitions Concepts in a Community Setting
The Transition Framework can be a valuable behind-the-scenes tool for change leaders as they plan and guide a community through change. Change leaders can also share the framework explicitly with all participants to give everyone a common language for understanding the group’s transition as it adapts to the change.

This video, explaining the framework in the context of a community’s environmental conflicts, gives viewers a basic understanding of Transitions as applied to group settings. It is a good primer for teaching both change leaders and all participants about Transitions.

Books

Read an excerpt from Linda Mills' new book that explains how the Transition framework helped families and communities struggling with intimate abuse in Nogales, Arizona. Mills is director of NYU's Center on Violence and Recovery.
Violent Partners - A Breakthrough Plan for Ending the Cycle of Abuse Linda G. Mills (Basic Books, 2008)

Articles

Resistance: A Primer for Advocates and Change Agents
© 2009, Roger L. Conner, Adjunct Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School

A must-read for change leaders and the organizations that support/fund them. Conner uses the Transitions Framework as a tool for unpacking the concept of resistance and for helping change leaders become self-aware of their individual transitions.

Music

Music can be a powerful way of teaching Transitions concepts, particularly to youth. Through the use of creative lyrics, rhythms, and key changes, songs allow you to absorb ideas in a way that words alone cannot. Identifying your own Transitions songs is a good way to assess your understanding of the framework.
“Dead Man’s Rope” Sting, Sacred Love
“Closing Time” Semisonic, 20th Century Masters – The Millenium Collection
“Keep Your Head” Mary J. Blige, Share Your World
“The Heart of Life” John Mayer, Continuum
“Stop this Train” John Mayer, Continuum
“Unwritten” Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten

Youth Writings on Transition
(Represent Magazine, Youth Communication, September 2006 – April 2007)

A youth-authored explanation of the Transition framework, complete with strategies for managing each phase, a guide for keeping Transition diaries, and essays written by youth who completed a 14-week seminar on interpreting and applying the framework to their own lives. This is a great resource for individual or group work with youth.

The guides and essays are listed separately below.

Progress is a Process: A step-by-step approach to change
How to Keep Your Own Transitions Diary
The Transition Framework – YC Style
A Method to the Madness by Natasha Santos
Flipping the Script by Hattie Rice
Getting Back My Joy by Erica Harrigan
School Daze by Natasha Santos

Evaluation Tools

Here are a few measures that may be useful, with or without adaptation, in assessing the impact of Transitions in your work:

Youth Experience of Transition
- Useful for foster care youth moving toward independent living

Community Experience of Reconciliation & Transition
- Useful for communities in conflict