Kevelle goes back to work.

The commute = three bus trips, 1.5 hours each way. 
wake up
bathe, dress and feed the baby
while she sleeps, shower and dress
tidy up a little
eat
pack the diaper bag
walk 10 minutes (with the sleeping baby) to the bus stop
ride the bus, walk five minutes to the day care
(reluctantly) hand over the baby
walk back to the bus stop
ride the bus downtown
walk to another bus stop
ride the bus across town
wait on customers at the cash register for seven hours
think about your baby
leave work, walk to the bus stop
ride the bus across town
(worry about the news that this bus route may be eliminated soon)
walk to another bus stop
ride the bus to the day care
kiss and hold and love on the baby
walk back to the bus stop
ride the bus back home while the baby sleeps
walk in the door
decide what to make for dinner
prepare dinner, eat
fall asleep
wake a few hours later when the baby wakes
feed the baby
do the dishes
do a load laundry (every day, do a load of laundry)
fold laundry until the baby starts crying
pick up the baby until she quiets, then put her down
start sorting mail or doing dishes or putting away laundry
when the baby starts crying, try to ignore her
when she starts screaming, pick  her up
fall asleep, wake up six hours later
start all over again

It is very hard to leave her at daycare.

A great way to pass a summer evening…

Reading!

Shierra likes to read Maya Angelou poems before falling asleep. She also likes to read – and reread! – books about strong young women. Her current favorite is “Grindin’,” a book by Danielle Santiago about a single mother who raises her cousin’s three children after her death.

What did she like most about it? The main character. “Even though things stressed her out, she kept going,” says Shierra. “She didn’t stop.”

Meet Shierra

Name: Shierra
Age: 17
Occupation(s): High school student, employee at Divine Delectables catering
Where I live: A seven-apartment supervised building in Friendship
Date joined Ward Home:  June 2010
Before Ward Home:  I lived in a private respite home with elderly guardians for nine months.
(One of my) favorite activities: Trying new foods at my job, like catfish covered in pecans and cheesecake with honey and oranges, and cooking steak, salmon, pasta side dishes and my special hamburger recipe.
Short-term goal: Completing 10th grade. This is the third time I’m in 10th grade. I didn’t have a stable home for the past few years and I often didn’t know where I’d be staying at night. I missed school a lot.

A new room and new responsibilities

Moving day is not fun. 

However, RA training can be a blast.

After a busy summer, which included working three jobs, Ivory has moved back to the dorms and is getting ready for her sophomore year. The good news is that, compared to last year’s dorm room, her new living space is bigger, better and has more storage.

First on the schedule was completing a week of resident assistant (RA) orientation with a few hundred other trainees. “It was exhausting,” she says.

As a resident assistant, Ivory will be supervising approximately 30 freshmen on her hall. That includes helping them to adjust to being away from home—for many of these students, it’s the first time in their lives they’ve been away from their families.

She’ll also be busy with work and, during the first semester, with studying for three psychology and one statistics class.

Stephanie moves back home.

Welcoming Mom home from work.

Many foster teens enter the system when family conflicts escalate to the point that no one feels safe. This was the case for Stephanie who, in July 2009, moved out of her Turtle Creek home to a group home in Mars. Two months later, she transferred to the Ward Home building on Negley Avenue in Friendship.

For Stephanie, the best parts of the Supervised Independent Living experience were 1) avoiding fights with family members, 2) receiving the tough love she needed to graduate from high school and 3) being able to buy her own groceries.

The worst parts were the rules, such as abiding by curfews, and the pressure to find, and keep, a job.

So, in late June, after eight months of living at the Friendship building, Stephanie was ready to move home. The family court judge, and her parents, agreed.

Stephanie’s current focus is looking for a job in East Pittsburgh, Turtle Creek or Monroeville. She missed the deadline to enroll in the fall semester at Community College of Allegheny County, so she plans to start nursing school in the spring. 

Good luck to you, Stephanie, as you continue to progress toward adulthood.

It was tough to be away from her puppy.

William takes the GED.

Waiting for the results.

A lot of attention has focused on the Ward Home teens graduating high school this year and moving on to the next stage of their education.

Passing the GED, or General Educational Development Test, is another way to advance to post-secondary education. The test includes five subject areas: mathematics; language arts—reading, language arts—writing (including essay), science and social studies. For some foster teens, this is the most appropriate option for earning a high school diploma.

 William is a perfect example. He entered the foster care system at age 15, and dropped out of school in the eighth grade. When he moved into the East McKeesport building last year, at age 18, he was too old to enroll in the ninth grade. However, William understood that setting and working toward educational goals was mandatory.

That’s why last week, after months and months of study, Will took the GED during two nerve-wracking days. His preparation included taking the bus to attend classes offered through the Mon Valley Bridge program in McKeesport, working with a tutor on Saturdays and, of course, hitting the books.

Along the way, Direct Care Specialists Michelle Pritchard and Tamika Simpson supported his progress.  

 “They found the tutor for me. Sometimes they drove me to the classes,” William says. “They made me study. If Miss Tamika and Miss Michelle are on your back about something, you are going to do it.”

 Just as important, he says, they helped him to “keep my head up. I couldn’t sleep the night before the test and they kept encouraging me, telling me ‘you can do this.’”

Now William must wait for three to six long weeks to learn the results. Once he passes the GED, he plans to enroll at Community College of Allegheny County to pursue a degree in business.

Introducing: Baby Kaydence

 

Welcome, little girl.

 

After 31 hours of labor and a C-section, little Kaydence was born at 8:31 a.m. on Sunday, June 27.

 

She weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 21.5 inches long.

 

After three days in the hospital, mother and baby came home to the Wilkinsburg site and are doing well.

 

Nine months + 13 days …

A very hot month to be very pregnant.

Kevelle’s daughter was due on Saturday, June 12. The baby, apparently, has other ideas.

If all goes as planned, little Kaydence will make her grand entrance today at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, with a little nudge from modern medicine.

Congratulations, graduates!

Now this is something to celebrate!

Nationally, only 50% of foster teens finish high school¹. However, this year, all 22 high school seniors in Ward Home programs graduated!

What’s even more exciting is that 21 are starting college in the fall, and one will pursue a career through U.S. Army Special Operations.

“If I hadn’t been here, I probably would have dropped out of high school,” says Stephanie, who will start nursing school at Community College of Allegheny County in the fall. “I had a very hard time getting up in the morning and going.”

Tonya Howard, her Direct Care Specialist at the Friendship supervised building, gave Stephanie the support—and tough love—she needed to not only get to school each day, but to pass her classes and prepare for college.

That included helping with an especially difficult class, scheduling placement testing and assisting with financial aid paperwork. It also meant taking away privileges, like overnight visits to family, when Stephanie missed school.

There are graduates from the East McKeesport and Wilkinsburg buildings and the WISE program as well. For each teen marking this achievement, there are Direct Care Specialists to thank for their part in helping them take this critical step on the path toward full independence.

When it comes to promoting education, Ward Home gets an A+.

 

¹Casey National Alumni Study, 2003

Perfect dress + best friend = awesome prom!

Everyone agreed that this dress was “the one.”

Spring is prom season for high school students everywhere, and it’s no different for Ward Home teens. Two from the Negley apartment building, two from the Wilkinsburg building and three from the WISE program attended proms during the past few weeks.

For Stephanie, that meant stopping by home to take photos with her family, then travelling to Stratigos Banquet Center in North Huntingdon for the Woodland Hills High School event. One couple made a grand entrance (in a horse-drawn carriage!). However, what made the night extra special for Stephanie was having fun dancing and making memories with her friends, especially her “bestie,” Seleste. To top it all off: The dessert table featured a chocolate fountain!

Meet Kevelle

Age:  18
Occupation(s):  Cashier at Giant Eagle
Where I live:  A seven-apartment supervised building in Wilkinsburg
When I joined Ward Home:  August 2009
Before Ward Home:  I lived in a group home in four months
(One of my) favorite activities:  Sports! Playing basketball (will resume that after my baby is born) and watching the NBA playoffs; women’s basketball; and Steelers, Penguins and Pirates games
Short-term goal: Finish moving my things from the Friendship building, where I had been living, to my new apartment at the Wilkinsburg site

What Kevelle sees from her bedroom window.

 
An unoccupied, unmaintained apartment building

The Wilkinsburg building, like all three that Ward Home operates, is rented. A long-term goal for the agency is to buy its own property in an appealing part of the city, so that the views out all windows inspire hope.
.

Meet Ivory

Name: Ivory
Age: 19
Occupation(s): College freshman, youth ambassador for the University of Pittsburgh Child Welfare Training Program
Where I live: A dorm in Oakland
When I joined Ward Home: Started working with the Ward Independence Skills Enhancement (WISE) program in Fall 2006
Before Ward Home:  I lived with my aunt for three years (and continued to do so for three years)
(One of my) favorite activities: Shopping at thrift stores for myself and friends
Short-term goal: Study for classes over the din of medical helicopters, students and traffic

A+ at the thrift store

A couture coup

There is nothing like a successful hunt to ease the stress of school. This Juicy Couture silk dress was originally priced at $328. Ivory found it at a thrift store marked down to just $7!

Meet William

Name: William
Age: 19
Occupation(s): Job-seeker
Where I live: A 12-apartment supervised building in East McKeesport
When I joined Ward Home: February 2009
Before Ward Home: I stayed at a group home in Erie for three years
(One of my) favorite activities: Rooting for the Yankees
Short-term goal: Take the General Educational Development (GED) test

What it takes to feed 12 male teenagers.

A walk-in pantry with lots of shelves

While the teens at the Friendship and Wilkinsburg buildings have their own refrigerators, grocery lists, stoves and ovens, the East McKeesport site operates differently. The residents share a communal kitchen, two large refrigerators, a deep freezer and a walk-in food pantry. They are given a food allowance every two weeks and encouraged to plan – and prepare – healthful meals.

When asked to name his favorite food, William decided (after a lot of deliberation) that it’s baked macaroni and cheese.

Ward Home helps to raise awareness for foster children and teens

William carries a cut-out sign at the rally

May is National Foster Care Month. On Tuesday, May 11, a group of 16 staff members and teens from Ward Home travelled downtown to a rally held to help draw attention to the issues facing children and teens who live in foster care.

The event was hosted by the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) of Allegheny County program, in partnership with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, part of the national CASA Forgotten Children campaign.

Nearly 70 people participated in the rally at the City County Building on Grant Street. Many carried life-sized, cardboard cut-outs of children and teens that included messages about foster care. Speakers included current and former foster youth, a CASA volunteer and a mentor.

A sampling of signs featuring foster children and teens

Ivory helps to make the annual luncheon an extra-special event.

Ivory shares her Ward Home experience with 100+ luncheon attendees

The venue – the grand, gracious lobby of Heinz Hall.
The food – pasta, chicken and dessert from The Common Plea.
The weather – sunny and warm, a perfect spring afternoon.
The co-hosts – a Ward Home teen (or two!) at each table, allowing guests to meet some of the young people served by, and succeeding because of, the agency.

Many things were special about the third annual Ward Home luncheon, the main fundraising event for the organization, held Friday, May 14. But what most of the attendees will remember is the keynote address presented by a confident, passionate college freshman who entered the foster care system at age four.

Ivory described the longing that she, like most young foster children, had felt for her mother, whose mental illness prevented her from parenting Ivory and her younger sister. She described the challenges of adjusting to multiple foster care placements throughout her childhood and teen years, including the time she attended three different schools in one week.

At age 16, while living with her aunt, Ivory was accepted into the Ward Independent Skills Enhancement (WISE) program. Since then, Direct Care Specialists have met with Ivory on a regular basis to help her develop the academic, career, social and other life skills necessary for successful adulthood.

However, as she emotionally explained to the crowd, the enduring value of her work with the WISE team has transcended their “nine to five” job descriptions. As she developed relationships with the WISE staff, who attended her high school theater performances and graduation and who demonstrate their caring in many other ways, Ivory found supportive mentors whom she expects to count as lifetime friends.

Better yet, she is eager to “pay it forward,” passing on those mentoring skills as a resident assistant in the dorm next year and, eventually, as a mother and grandmother.

Executive Director Leah Reynolds congratulates Ivory as the crowd stands and applauds.