Student Success: A 180 Turn

Amber Lynn Stoppel, Case Manager
I started working with a particular student about a year and a half ago.  I had been told by his previous Case Manager that he stays out of trouble and goes to work and class, but doesn't utilize a lot of ScenicView resources and doesn't come to much programming.   He has been living at ScenicView for a long time and despite amazing work with his multiple teams at ScenicView, has had very little internal motivation to move out.  When I first spoke with this student about moving out, he responded with something to the effect of, "Why would I leave ScenicView, the rent here is great and I get food here for cheap. Unless I can find something out there for the same price, I don't see why I should leave."   After working with the student and the rest of his team we slowly got him to understand why staying was not only not an option, but also not helpful to him.

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We lovingly set a pretty tough plan for the student that each month he was still here, his rent would increase fairly significantly.  Of course he was upset about that but he was also motivated by it as well, which was obviously our goal. The student and I then spent time looking for apartments on multiple websites.   Calling on available rooms was a learning process for both of us, since I did not want to do too much work for him, but we were also struggling to successfully make connections and appointments.  After a few weeks of the student returning to coaching with no work done, I learned that it was not resistance that the student was exhibiting, but confusion.  He didn't know what he wanted in housing or how to talk to landlords.   We then wrote out direct instructions and a script for the student to use.  This resulted in the student successfully setting up an appointment to go see his first apartment.  

When we visited the apartment, the student's attitude about moving took a full 180 turn.  He became excited and anxious to move, and really liked the apartment we saw.  Even though I told him we could look at more options, he was very interested in this first one that we looked at and even wrote a check for the deposit the same day.  We are still waiting for the process to finalize, but we are so excited for the student's change of heart and we are excited for him to be comfortable in a new place where he can transition into full independence from ScenicView.