Programs give direction to foster kids
Twin extra long.
They're three words most every mother who's sent a child off to college knows. The nonstandard sheet size is the standard in college dormitories across America. Buy a sheet too short, and the mattress bows up or the sheet corners rip. It's twin extra long for a good night's sleep. But not every child has a mother obsessively shopping for twin-extra-long sheets to outfit a dorm room bed.
Too often it's left to others to provide the care, the nurturing and the love to raise a child. An aunt, a grandmother, a foster parent may be charged with a mother's usual duties, but sometimes the need is greater. Proper care requires a home.
Presbyterian Home for Children shelters 35 to 40 youths and another 10 older teens about to age out of foster care and face the world as adults. The Transitional Living Concept, which serves high school seniors and younger students who return to PHC even after they turn 18, is nurturing not only body and soul, but also intellect. Several PHC graduates go to college, some are getting ready for the fall semester, another plans to enter the Job Corps, and one woman already has graduated from college.
"Here we're trying to build an environment kids can come to," said Arnie Padilla, who with his wife, Melanie, are home teachers at PHC, located at 3400 S. Bowie St. in Amarillo.
Young people in foster care are among those who often don't have home support to go to college or advance their training. Unfortunately, grim statistics blacken any discussion about the future of kids in care. Sixty percent of men in jail were foster children. Another 60 percent of foster children are pregnant or parenting within a year of leaving a group home. And just as discouraging, only 1 percent of foster youth earn a four-year college degree, compared with 28 percent of all adults who hold a bachelor's degree.
Despite that, some children who grew up in care succeed because of solid relationships with others, life skills training and a future-oriented perspective that reminds them to look beyond today.
Samantha Haley is among the 1 percent of former foster children who've earned a four-year degree. She graduated from West Texas A&M University earlier this month and plans to begin a nursing career. Haley, 24, is the first college graduate at PHC familiar with the Transitional Living Concept, a program begun in 2002 that trains teens about to leave foster care or graduate high school.
Haley was in college when the program began and credits some of her success to it and long-term relationships that anchored her life. "I am excited. It's kinda crazy to sit there and say, 'Hey, I'm a college graduate,'" Haley said.
PHC is not the only philanthropy to care for children through their teen years. High Plains Children's Home and Boys Ranch are other institutions that also see kids through high school and provide for physical, spiritual and emotional needs.
Several older teens and early 20-somethings live in a PHC cottage dedicated to transitional living that is open to them through the year. Besides being a full-time home for high school seniors, it is a temporary pad for college students between semesters or on holiday. Emotional support and development of personal skills are part of the drill.
Brianna Charles, 18, wants to be a chef. In the fall she'll begin training with Job Corps, a free federal education program that helps young people learn a career. Charles will live in a dormitory with three roommates – a change from the single room she enjoys at PHC and a challenge to her quiet nature. "People have been pushing me, and even though I may not have been the smartest kid in school, people are there to help me get through that," Charles said.
"Help me get through that" are the operative words. For Maria Reza, 19, who attended WT this summer as a fresh high school graduate, getting through was a challenge. She didn't want to be in school, though she said she didn't know where she wanted to be instead. Adjusting to a roommate and learning new professor-pleasing ways to study added to her discomfort. "I just did it," she said. "It made me glad I did it."
Hunter Blashill will live in a WT dorm this fall. Although he's not concerned with twin extra long, Blashill, 18, is anxious about the future based on his intent to make something of his life. "I really don't like roofing too much. It's too hot," he said.
As WT college students "home" for summer, Shawntae Anderson, 21, and Ashley Herrin, 20, spend days and nights in the PHC house. Anderson is a rising junior at WT studying social work, while Herrin's eyes light up when she talks about art and architecture. Both young women, as upper-level students and veterans of the foster care system, have advice for children who are where they were. "You can't give up," Herrin said. "Deal with what you have and keep going."
As for Anderson, she believes social work provides myriad career choices. "It feels like you can be anything out there," she said.
Cheryl Berzanskis
19 August 2009
