With your help, Kayla—once without a home of her own—builds her future.

When she was 8, Kayla went to the police and asked them to put her in foster care.

Her mom had made a habit of leaving her alone for days at a time, with no food and no one to look after her. And when she was home, she regularly beat little Kayla.

“It was almost like a hobby for her,” says Kayla. “I was so scared in that house alone, and when she came home, she was super abusive. It was just awful.”

And, her father was in and out of prison. “My dad is the most kindhearted man in the world. He’s got such a good soul. But he has been an alcoholic since he was a kid.”

She thought that putting herself in state custody would give her parents a wake-up call. “They wouldn’t want me to be in a foster home, so what else would they do besides get it together? You know, stop drinking, stop using drugs, stop leaving me. I just thought it would get better.”

Instead, Kayla bounced from home to home to home—at one, the parents treated her so badly that Kayla’s case manager intervened and they lost their license. Once a star student, she fell behind after switching schools again and again.

Finally, when Kayla was in 8th grade, a room opened up in her aunt’s house, and she became a certified foster parent to take Kayla in—the mother that Kayla had never had. “If I didn’t move in with her, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now. It’s a really scary thought.”

Support to build on, thanks to you.

In high school, Kayla’s case manager referred her to Amanda at our Youth Development Program, which helps youth aging out of state custody transition to adulthood. “I remember the initial meeting, when she told me all the things she could help me with.”

“That was the first time anybody had talked to me about college.”

“I thought, ‘This is my opportunity to branch out and even lead myself.’ My whole time in care had proven that I couldn’t rely on my parents to bounce back and give me a solid life or at least a fair chance at being successful.”

Thanks to your support, Kayla began to plan for college. But in her senior year, her boyfriend of three years suddenly died. In her grief, her grades slipped, she struggled to stay in school, and college seemed like a far-off dream.

She wasn’t sure what to do until Amanda suggested our independent living program, which helps foster kids learn to live on their own. We do many of the things a parent might—like coaching, and helping to pay for books, a computer, or rent.

With your support, a home of her own.

Kayla moved out of her aunt’s house and slowly began to build a life—a home—for herself. She got a job, and eventually started taking classes at Community College of Vermont. Thanks to you, Amanda was always by her side, helping her when her laptop failed in the middle of exams, or covering part of her rent when her hours at work fell through.

“I wasn’t used to that, but it really showed how she saw my priorities as her own. I’ve never really had anywhere else to go. She would do anything she could help me to live independently.”

Next, Kayla transferred to the University of Vermont and got an undergraduate degree in social work. Today, she works for one of the family courts, often witnessing cases that are so similar to her own.

Her dream, if she can find a way to pay for it? To go back to school for public policy, focusing on child welfare. “I can’t see myself doing anything else.”

She also tries to give back to the organizations that helped her. “It’s hard to explain how that extra help pushed me through whatever I was going through. It’s helped me be successful with my goals.”

“You guys were with me for a very long time.”

This article first appeared in the Spring 2017 edition of the Spectrum Sun, a print newsletter. Read the full newsletter here.

The post Finding Home appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

Stephanie Ball is a Jump on Board for Success (JOBS) Clinician who helps youth who have multiple barriers to success in an intensive case management program. She works with young people on finding and keeping stable, competitive, fulfilling employment and on working to overcome barriers to successful adulthood. The JOBS program is a collaboration between Spectrum, HowardCenter, and VocRehab Vermont.

Here’s Stephanie’s moving speech about her work from a recent event.

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure going to 3 different high school graduations and watching a number of Spectrum’s young people walk across the stage. For some, this was a moment they never thought they would see.

Can you imagine the perseverance it takes to be homeless but still go to school? To be worried about feeding yourself while keeping your grades up? At one of these graduations, one of the speakers took his glasses out of his coat pocket, looked at the graduates and said “getting old is not for sissies.” And he is right: getting older isn’t for the faint of heart. Neither is growing up, especially when you’re expected to do all that growing up without the supports that many of us take for granted.

As I helped one of my clients write a Father’s Day card for her foster parent recently, I was reminded that it is often adults that are not related to our young people that reawaken their sense of connection and worthiness. People such as our Drop-In staff, residential staff, counselors, mentors, Youth Development Coordinators and of course JOBS Clinicians.

Once a young person comes to Spectrum’s doors, they become a part of a community. I know that at JOBS, if one of my young people is sleeping in a tent by the lake, I can connect with Residential to find them a safe place to begin to get their basic needs met and then focus on all of the other stuff that makes for a happy life.

Before starting at JOBS nearly a year ago, I worked at the shelter where I was able to form relationships with many of the youth I still work with today at JOBS.  One night, while working at shelter, I was on the phone with a staff at one of the other residences and she told me something I’ll never forget. We had helped one of our former shelter youth who then moved on to one of our supported housing programs get a copy of his birth certificate. She handed him his mail and as he opened it, he responded matter-of-factly, “So that’s my mom’s name.” I can’t even begin to fathom how much pain that one sentence contains. That young person in particular came to shelter with very little love for himself or anyone else. He would proclaim that cigarettes were all he really cared about.  I can remember after he moved to the supported housing programs, and after months of all of us working to help him see his potential, I called the residence and asked to speak to him. I was congratulating him for finishing a training program and you could just hear the hope in his voice, the confidence that he’d be able to find a job and save up to be on his own. It was touching.

Then, something happened before he got off the phone; he said, “Love you.” What I heard, though, was that he had begun to love himself. He had begun to understand that there were a community of people at Spectrum who genuinely cared about him.

It does take a village to raise a child, and for many of our youth Spectrum becomes that village, their community. I want to stress that it wasn’t only residential staff that played a part in this young person’s life. Although it could just be one more caring adult that makes the difference in any young person’s life, it’s often a number of people that provide support.  This young person, specifically, has been employed for nearly a year at the same place and will be transitioning successfully from one of the supported housing programs.

These changes took time though. The work that Spectrum does with young people in this community is hard and often messy. No one can magically undo 18 or more years of what these young people have had to experience. For many this means abuse, trauma, loss, and years of hardship.

Our work is about being there when things are hard to help them push through as well as being there to celebrate their successes. To be there for the life-changing moments, we have to be there when they’re not ready to change, to show them that change is possible and to wait for that moment of opportunity.

One of my mentors in this field once told me that youth are like jars, that you can tell them the same thing over and over and feel like you’re not getting anywhere, but that one day it will click and every attempt to get through to them will be worth it.  It’s often in the smallest of moments or smallest of gestures that you really make the biggest impact on these young people’s lives. It’s in the tissues, the laughs, the high fives and the hugs. What it really comes down to is the relationship. When working with our youth, it’s important to keep in mind that although we’d all love to see each of them miraculously overcome their ever-present obstacles, sometimes we’re not able to see the miracles until we look back and see how far they’ve come.

I can tell you from experience these young people are capable of truly incredible things. I’m extremely grateful for your donations and the part you play in our young people’s lives. You provide us with the opportunity to witness the incredible changes that can come about when you make a young person realize they are lovable and they are worth fighting for.

As I said, it takes a village and you are a part of the community that allows our young people to realize their potential and make meaningful changes in their lives. Truly, thank you.

The post “It takes a village…” appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

“When I came into the [Pearl Street Residence],” Chelsea begins, “I was homeless, I had dropped back out of high school, and I had crashed my car. I was in a really big legal situation—I was facing 15 years in prison. I was at a point where I was like, ‘there is no possible way I’m going to get my life back together after this.’”

She was 18 when she moved in, coming from a few months at a rehab facility. “At first, I was not a big fan,” she says. “I wasn’t a big fan of rules and structure. I had a foster home, but I didn’t follow the rules – I just did whatever I wanted.”

“But you’re expected to hold your own at Spectrum. You’re supposed to do chores, follow rules, and go to all your meetings on time. I had to learn how to be responsible. I had to learn basic life skills over again. They literally helped shape me from the ground up.”

Chelsea had dropped out of high school, so first, staff worked with her on getting back in. “They helped me to get to all my appointments, helped me to do my homework, to do the basic things I just needed to do. And I was able to graduate high school, which I thought I would never ever ever do.”

Because she was formerly in foster care, Chelsea also worked with Spectrum’s Youth Development Program, which supports youth aging out of state custody and transitioning to a life on their own. The YDP staff step in where a parent otherwise might, offering coaching and financial support. In Chelsea’s case, they helped her get into cosmetology school and apply for financial aid, and then helped her pay for the clothing she needed for school.

Staff also helped her address her legal situation. “I thought I was going to lose everything, but everybody was by my side the whole time,” she says. Kandi, her caseworker, went to court and then to trial with her. When she was put on house arrest for six months, she thought her life was over again. But she found Spectrum staff there to help her do everything she needed to do.

“I don’t have much family, I really don’t, and they helped to fill that,” says Chelsea, her eyes filling with tears. “Sorry, I’m getting worked up. They taught me how to live life again.”

Now 20, Chelsea is two years sober, lives on her own, and has a job in a local salon. She still comes to Spectrum for counseling and to check in with Kandi once a week.

“I had to be re-taught everything. The way that I was used to living was a dirty way of living. Stealing and doing drugs and no respect for myself or anybody else. It was just a terrible way to live. I guess I got to a point where I was able to look at the way that I was living my life before and really deep down inside decide that I didn’t want that anymore. I have stuff I want to do with my life and even if I didn’t have that much confidence in myself, there was a little part of me that wanted to someday achieve something. I would not have anything I have now without Spectrum,” she says. “That’s real.”

The post Meet Chelsea appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

On Monday, December 8th, Executive Director Mark Redmond was featured on Comcast Newsmakers. He spoke about what makes Spectrum services unique, the changing needs of the youth we serve, and the upcoming Spectrum Sleep Out in March 2015.

In his words:
“We work with young adults who are struggling … We try and focus on their strengths. We believe that with each young person, there is some strength that we can draw upon, and help them build from there. It’s called positive youth development, and I think that’s what makes us unique.”

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“The program and the staff just help you with everything. It’s definitely made me thrive as a person.”

Speaking with some of our clients recently, we noticed that several mentioned how it important it was to them to learn how to budget for food and plan meals for the first time in their lives. “I’ve never been a big spender,” one said, “but I like to make sure I have enough, making sure I have that weekly budget for food.”

We took some time to sit down with Kandi Marlow, one of our Case Managers, and she walked us through how they work with our youth on budgeting and meal planning. For many of them, this is the first time they have been held accountable for their finances and like all of us, need a little help staying organized.

Here’s what Kandi had to say about the process of meal planning and budgeting for food with one young woman:

“So when I first started working with her, we made a plan on how much her budget was, she used the meal planning tool, found all the recipes, scheduled it out and figured out what she needed for each recipe. It’s nice that a lot of our clients can use Drop-In for meals and that really helps them out in the beginning.

“My rules for the first time shopping are: I will drive you there, I will walk around with you and I will help you find things, but the rest is up to you. The first trip always has a learning curve and hers was that the prices in the store were different than the prices online. And while it worked out fine overall, she didn’t have anything left over for snacks or extra goodies.

“A lot of our youth find that their planning doesn’t always work out, so maybe they planned for goulash for three nights in a row and they realize by the second night maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

“On the second week, that’s where the guidance comes in. We went over what she learned from last week, staff worked with her on what the pros and cons were and worked with her to figure out what to change.

“For all of them it takes several times to understand the full process. What I do is slowly back away after I know they can figure out the budgeting piece. So the next time I met her at the store, so she had to think about how much she can carry home and there’s that learning curve of figuring out how to shop without her case manager’s car.

“There is also giving her the reality that even though I’m teaching her these skills, I, myself, don’t do it perfectly each time. In the real world, this is a lot of work, and if you forget the milk, you go back and get it. And they learn things like, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to spend your whole budget on buying pizza for your friends.

“Like most things, it’s a tool for them to use, it’s important for them to know and understand this process, but it’s also important for them to know that it’s not necessarily the reality every day.”

What do the clients think? One young woman mentioned several times how grateful she is for this coaching on  how to live independently. “The program and the staff just help you with everything. It’s definitely made me thrive as a person.”

Special thanks to Walmart for providing one year’s worth of meals for our residences and Drop-In Center.

The post What’s in a Food Budget? appeared first on Spectrum Youth & Family Services.

Kayla is one such woman—she was just 8 years old when she had a neighbor call the police for her to get herself placed in foster care.  Vermont author Chris Bohjalian spoke with her recently about her experience with the foster care system and how Spectrum helped her.

Read more about Kayla’s remarkable story here.

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