Departing Students Write Home to Make Commitments for Life After FFS
By Lee D.
Exit letters are the last stage of the program at The Family Foundation School. Students who are in their last six months actively prepare to graduate and venture off into the world. Exit letters precede all destinations whether it be going home, to college, or to another country.
Susan Runge watched over the seminar and the process of writing the exit letters to teach the students what the letters should contain, and gave them an outline of how to compose them.
The exit letter contains 1) an in-depth description of an experience the student had at home which sums up their old way of life, 2) a piece about how the student has changed since arriving at FFS, 3) what the student would like the future to be, and 4) any commitments and requests they might have for their parents.
After this stage of the process is done and the parents have received the letter, there will be either a Family group or phone conference with a counselor. The parents will then have an opportunity to state their commitments and expectations for their child once they leave the school.
Commitments that are made by the students usually relate to dating, curfew, old friends, cigarettes, drugs, and other behaviors. Parents may commit to going to AA meetings, being open-minded to their son or daughter’s decisions, and other considerations. The parents also will set guidelines that are expected to be followed if the student is to be allowed to live in their house, or to keep in contact with them.
This process will be ongoing until there is a solid set of guidelines for both the student and parents. By the time the students leave there will be few if any unanswered questions.
The exit letter is not all good news though. There is a section that is specifically designated for students to state to their parents what they would like to happen if a relapse or old behaviors occur after leaving the school. Some students fail to think about the downside of things, but the reality is once students leave The Family School for good, their whole thought process could change and all the life lessons and skills learned could be thrown out the window.
“Writing my exit letter made me realize that my time here is limited and I must learn as much as I can before I graduate,” said Brendan O. “I wrote my exit letters keeping in mind my parents and what they expect from me, I want things to run smoothly when I return home,” said Erika C.
In the end things usually work out. The students will graduate and move on with their lives. The exit letters are the beginning of a whole new life for most students outside of FFS.
