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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!