Courtney is quick to offer welcome smiles that melt your heart each time. She’s curious, and asks a lot of questions. Robby, her older brother, is a little different. He’s more of a character, a ham, who plays football. Both have come a long way with foster parents Roma and Cosell. Two years ago, Robby and Courtney were only supposed to stay the weekend, but recently signed an intent to adopt with Roma and Cosell. “Cosell and I weren’t interested in adoption and weren’t going to, but t...
She’d had enough. Jennifer was tired of people asking “Why?” “I was at a store one day and complained to a lady about it,” Jennifer said. “She told me next time I was asked why I was a foster parent to reply, ‘Why aren’t you? Why don’t you do it?’” Jennifer and Brett have a full house, and they make it work. They adopted two of their foster children who are 12 and 14. A little more than a year ago, they took in four more children, ages 2, 4, 5 and 8. “It’s a house of perpetual motion,”...
There was this turtle named Bobby that was rescued…. Chris saw it on the road, rescued it, and gave it to his mother one day during a visit. Chris was in foster care, and Angela, his mother, was working to prepare a home for her son. The moment spoke volumes to Youth Villages family intervention specialists and foster care staff who recently reunited to tell the story of how Chris got to return home. For all of them, it was one of their most difficult cases. “That moment showed me Chris...
Family is tough. Years ago, Angela’s parents divorced and her father re-married. There was a lot of conflict and strife throughout the process, and it affected Angela in many ways. She was depressed, she ran away from home and she hurt herself. She spent a year in foster care. Upon discharge, she decided to live with her biological mother. Jennifer, Angela’s mother, is proud of her daughter. She should be. A sophomore in high school, Angela is doing well and in some honors classes. She p...
The way the Bruces speak of Marqavius, he was already a member of the family. It just wasn’t official. But on a windy Monday morning in Holly Springs, his foster parents, Marvin and Linda Bruce, adopted Marqavius. The Bruces were reluctant foster parents. They have two birth children. One’s at college and the younger is 14. But a friend of the family involved in foster care talked them into it. “The first two weeks were great,” Marvin said prior to the adoption proceedings. “But th...
Tierra, 15, and her mom, Yolanda, always loved each other. But today, after nearly losing each other for good, their relationship is stronger than ever. Yolanda was in an unhealthy relationship fueled by substance abuse. It ended when Yolanda was arrested. Tierra was placed with an older sister who couldn’t care for her. Tierra’s father stepped up to help, but their relationship soon soured, and Tierra ended up in a group home after her father accused her of aggression. Yolanda desperate...
What Fred got instead was a messed up life. Watch how Youth Villages helped Fred find the life he wanted.
You’d never know from her reserved demeanor, but Kyra (pictured, at left) enjoys playing piano and guitar and writing songs. & She has a passion for helping others, and initially pursued nursing out of high school. But she also had problems staying motivated. She didn’t have a sense of direction and lacked a support network to make the jump to independent living. Kyra entered Youth Villages’ transitional living program more than a year ago. & “I didn’t have a car or a job,” she said. “I was...
It’s been one year since Jordan, 14, and his grandmother, Sonya, received services from Youth Villages. Now, both are doing better – much better than before they entered Youth Villages’ program. Like any teenager, Jordan enjoys such activities as skateboarding, playing guitar and listening to music. Upon entering the Multisystemic Therapy program, Jordan was getting in trouble at school, struggling to make passing grades and being disrespectful at home. Jordan was not getting along with hi...
Until recently, all Darrell had to hold on to were dreams of his father, a man he had seen only once, in passing, when he was still a child. But those dreams are what kept him going on his long journey through foster care and group homes to the place he always wanted to be: home with dad. Darrell knew the chance he’d ever live with his dad was slim. After all, his dad didn’t even know Darrell existed. But to Darrell, the sliver of hope that one day he could meet his dad, get to know him and...
Tonya just turned 18 and recently graduated from high school. Suzanne is a former volunteer for Court Appointed Special Advocates who now works there full time. She sought a way to reach young people, one-on-one, like she did as a volunteer. And two years ago, Tonya and Suzanne began a mentoring relationship built on shared experience and support. They generally meet a few times each month. “We’re both introverted, so we don’t talk much,” mentor Suzanne said. “It made the first visit int...
Stormi is settling in nicely. Stormi lived with relatives until being placed in a foster home following incidents of abuse and inappropriate behaviors. Stormi was only supposed to stay temporarily with the Mattie and Alex before she moved on. But she grew to like their home. They also liked her staying there. She sings in the church choir and participates in school activities while maintaining an A/B average. So when talk of adoption started, Mattie, Alex and Stormi considered making the...
There are things about her childhood Kendra would rather not remember. Her home life was chaotic. A well-meaning family member took her away to help ‑ only to place her into equally troubling circumstances. By 13, Kendra’s hurt had built up to frustration and anger. All she wanted was to leave. She got her wish and was placed into a group home. At 13, Kendra moved again to a Youth Villages foster home. Living with Ms. Tate, her Youth Villages foster mother, Kendra experienced peace and stabi...
Mariah is ready for college and preparing for life as an adult. She was accepted at North Carolina A&T State University and is ready to begin her life in what she calls “the real world.” Mariah was referred to Youth Villages’ transitional living program because she didn’t have the supports and skills to interact with adult figures. She needed assistance enrolling in a post-secondary institution, obtaining employment and learning money management. Also, she showed symptoms related to an...
Mersediez and her mom, Michelle, finally have the relationship they always wanted. They talk, laugh, roll each other’s hair and share both the trivial and important events in their lives with each other. Sometimes, Mersediez, who leads the band at her high school, plays the flute for her mom. She plays so beautifully, it can make her mom cry. But mom and daughter weren’t always so close. Just a couple of years ago, being a family could be painful. There were loud arguments, plenty of the...
Ellis was born with autism and developmental delays, and his mother did not want to raise him. At 7, he ended up in foster care. Ten years later, with the state of Georgia under a lawsuit for letting children linger in foster care, Youth Villages began working for the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services to bring children like Ellis home. Ellis was Angela White’s first Youth Villages case – and her toughest so far. Ellis had spent 10 years in foster care and his behavioral iss...
This is the year Jessicca decided to grow up. Just 17, the young woman from Tampa, Fla., has faced many challenges. Struggling with mental illness of her own, her mother often couldn’t care for Jessicca and her siblings. Sometimes the family lived in shelters; sometimes the older children were taken into the child welfare system. “I didn’t want to live my life in foster care,” Jessicca remembers. She often ran away. Jessicca craved the freedom, but ended up in trouble battling substance...
For the Ryan family, things seemed to go from really bad to worse. Mom Robin was a paramedic in Florence, Ala. Injured twice on the job, she developed a dependence on prescription pain killers. As she faltered, her husband, Mike, a plumber, was laid off. He began to drink. Their sons – Shaun, 16; Jacob, 15; and Taylor, 13 – seemed to be in trouble all the time, at school and in the community. In just a few months’ time, the boys had 47 juvenile charges against them, mostly for vandalism....
No one expected Moseline to end up in a cap and gown. The Everett, Mass., girl burned a lot of bridges early in her life. She walked out of her mother’s home at age 13; exhausted the support of an aunt who tried to help her; then bounced through emergency foster homes. “I was just doing whatever I wanted,” she said. “I didn’t follow any rules. I didn’t go to school.” As she neared the time when state support usually ends, her last foster family didn’t want to keep her because of her cont...
At 6 feet 3 inches tall, 14-year-old Teon towers over his peers and often is mistaken for an adult. Dealing with family problems in an environment that lacked structure sometimes caused Teon’s anger to flare, and he became verbally and physically aggressive. Arrested for unregistered vehicle charges, fighting in school and theft, Teon’s first month in the Youth Villages Multisystemic Therapy program was spent in a detention center working with his counselor during her frequent visits. While c...