Independent Living Pre-Independent Living The CHARLEE Pre-Independent Living Program utilizes a house parent model in a rather unique setting to allow the teenagers in the program a certain degree of freedom while, at the same time, teaching them responsibility. The apartment-style facility used for the CHARLEE Pre-Independent Living Program allows two or three teenagers to share a studio efficiency apartment (complete with bathroom, stove, sink, and refrigerator). However, house parents live on the premises to provide needed supervision, guidance, and support. Over the years, some very practical, parsimonious, and logical interventions and routines have been developed to teach the teenagers independent living skills and economic self- reliance. Here are some examples of techniques that have proven to be successful: Weekly Budgeting Each week each child is given a certain amount of money to spend on groceries. Through trial and error children learn that buying "junk" and preprocessed packaged foods is much more expensive than preparing meals from scratch, where as, making meals from scratch takes a lot more time. The lesson of cost over convenience is stressed in a very experiential sense. Group Meal Preparation Each teenager must prepare the family dinner meal one day each week. This requires that teenager to put forth thought and effort, because if they don't, their peers will certainly let them know ("what goes around comes around"). Many lessons are taught in this practical experience including: budgeting, meal preparation, and a sense of community responsibility. Weekly Life Skills Group Each week all the teenagers in the CHARLEE Pre-Independent Living Program participate in sessions that cover independent living skills topics aimed at preparing youth for life after foster care. Examples of some of these topics include: Apartment hunting, job hunting, budgeting, and food management.