Program helped turn around lives
PICO NEIGHBORHOOD Venus Manuel seldom ponders the “what ifs” in her life, yet is every day thankful for the outcome.
Manuel was 21 years old when she arrived on the front steps of the YWCA Santa Monica/Westside on Pico Boulevard, luggage in tow as she prepared to embark on a life-changing adventure, taking up residency in a two-story house with seven other women, little cash on hand but rich with the determination to succeed.
It had been four years since she was emancipated from the foster-care system but Manuel was still feeling the lingering effects of coming from an unstable household, placed in care at the age of 12, the daughter of drug addicts.
While she was equipped with an associate’s degree, Manuel was seeking more, aspiring for higher learning but unable to afford school, support her younger sister and still put a roof over her head.
All seemed hopeless until she discovered the Housing and Education Program at the YWCA, which provides free shelter and food for women out of the foster care system, providing financial support while they complete their education.
Nine years later, Manuel is now a probation officer with Los Angeles County, a home owner, and eternally grateful for the program.
“If it weren’t for this program, I would be on public assistance with children, living in an apartment instead of my own home and trying to make it rather than helping other people realize their own successes,” Manuel said.
The YWCA celebrated the 10th anniversary of the program on Friday, honoring the program’s founders and highlighting some of the success stories that have come out of the two-story, 1930s era house on the site of the non-profit organization.
The program was conceptualized in the early 1990s when UCLA released a study on the plight of individuals emancipated, or aged out, from the foster care system, young adults finding a hard time reaching stability. The Board of Directors at the YWCA decided to refurbish an old house that was purchased along with the property in the 1970s and had been used to house some of the organization’s programs and activities.
“There was no other program like this at the time,” Sally Young, the executive director of the YWCA, said.
An estimated 20,000 young adults are emancipated from the foster care system in the United States every year, many of whom still need support and services after they leave, according to the YWCA. Only 54 percent of former foster care individuals go on to earn their high school diploma, while only 2 percent graduate from college or a vocational school.
About 84 percent are pregnant when they exit the system.
The program can accommodate up to eight women at any one time, two in each room. The women must be single, without children, between the ages of 18 and 22, working part-time, and enrolled in school full-time. The program includes a life-skills element, teaching women basic home economics. All participants are required to invest 50 percent of their pay check in a savings account.
The women on average have saved about $20,000 by the time they’re done with the program, according to Allison Griffith, the live-in assistant housing director and “house mom.”
Most women spend about two to three years in the program.
“They’re like any other college student,” Griffith said. “They have to balance classes, have boyfriends, figure out who they are and what their journey will be.”
All the women in the house have different stories as to how they arrived at the YWCA, but all are united in their willingness to succeed.
Katrina Walker, 22, joined the program in spring of 2007, placed in foster care at the age of 9 because her mother was suffering from a mental health illness. After emancipation, she began working for a non-profit organization that dealt with foster care youth, but yearned to begin attending school full-time. School was prohibitive because of the demanding hours at work. She left her job and moved into the YWCA house.
Currently a Santa Monica College student, Walker is planning to transfer to a four-year university in the fall, aspiring for a career working with non-profit media, hoping to raise awareness about foster care.
“If it weren’t for the program, I’m sure I would not be in school and would be working two jobs right now,” Walker said.
Walker describes the household of eight women as one close family, sisters that share each other’s belongings.
Stephanie Ortega, who joined the program last August, said the women in the program make up a support-system, encouraging one another in trying times.
Ortega, who has never met her birth mother, was 2 years old when she was adopted by a family that had a drug-abuse history. The 18-year-old said she was physically and mentally abused until she was taken away and placed in foster care at the age of 11. That was followed by years of personal drug abuse until Ortega decided to change.
She is now a student at Santa Monica College and hopes to become a social worker.
“We all love each other in this house,” she said. “We all motivate each other and lift each other up.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 10, 2008. Read the original PDF.