Preparing for life in the real world – Program assists CPS youths who age out of system
by Michael Clancy – Jan. 8, 2013 10:15 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Shalla Deatherage is a 23-year-old who has lived in so many places, she has lost count.
She entered “the system,” the child-protection system, at age 4 in California. She was in and out of family homes, including several short stints with her parents, in California and Arizona.
At age 18, she found Jewish Family and Children’s Service. Specifically, she met Gina Harper, who for the past six years has run the agency’s Real World Job Development program.
The program is aimed at young people in the system, helping them prepare for life in the real world. It is one of many social-service organizations that were supported by The Arizona Republic and 12 News’ Season for Sharing campaign in past years.
Harper says that services from Arizona’s Child Protective Services end at age 18 and that most of the people in the system are forced at that time to be self-sufficient.
The young people often are not prepared to be out on their own without family support. Many of them have criminal records in their past or pregnancies or learning disabilities or behavioral issues.
These young people are the survivors.
That is where her program steps in with a variety of services.
Serving young people ages 14-21, the agency offers high-school diploma completion for those who need it, job-training skills and life skills.
“This is an amazing program,” Deatherage says. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.”
Besides enrolling in the programs, Deatherage interned there for two years when she got older.
Through it all, she has found work, graduated from high school and began studies at community colleges, and she even met a man and got married.
She now works at a group home for children in the system, as an assistant manager.
Her avoidance of legal trouble, drugs and other pitfalls faced by many young people in her situation is something of a miracle in itself.
“I saw my mother and my brother both addicted to drugs, and I didn’t want to be like that,” she says.
She still fights her feelings of rejection, a sense developed through the numerous moves and living situations she found herself in.
“Sometimes, I feel robbed of my childhood,” she says. “But if not for my experiences, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Deatherage is one of several hundred young people who have taken advantage of the Real World Job Development program since its founding in 2006. Currently, about 160 young people are taking part in some portion of the program.
One of them is Karen Rivas, 18.
Her parents are deceased, and after she tried to make it on the streets at age 16, she says she “turned myself in” to CPS.
She credits the Real World program with forcing her out of her shyness by having her work in a small thrift shop that the group operates to teach young people about retail work.
Another is a 17-year-old boy. (Because he is still a minor, he could not let his name be used.) He was in trouble with the law and spent time at a group home before coming to the program. He is studying for his GED diploma and awaiting his 18th birthday.
Deatherage, meanwhile, plans to enter Arizona State University in the fall and get a degree in social work.