Success Stories

Fourteen-year-old Harper* grew up in foster care, moving frequently and struggling to feel settled. Books became her escape, sparking her curiosity about the world.

Darren spent his early years in a home marked by substance abuse and domestic violence. When most children were learning how to count, say the alphabet, and play well with others, Darren was in survival mode.

When he was seven, Child Protective Services placed him in foster care for his own protection. Like many children who’ve endured trauma, Darren sometimes acted out. He could be aggressive, disobedient, and had trouble controlling his anger. His education had suffered too. He was behind his peers in school.

Kyla plays middle school volleyball, belongs to a circle of friends, and lives with her parents, who love and support her through the challenges of growing up. One might assume Kyla’s life has always been like this. But it hasn’t.

Several years ago, a police officer noticed a young girl sitting on a park swing by herself as dusk approached. The officer searched the park and found Kyla’s mom in the public restroom, unconscious from drug use.

Recently, an aunt and uncle stepped up to provide exceptional care for their two nephews and niece. The county had removed the children from their parents’ custody due to domestic violence and drugs in the home.

11-year-old Janey* mostly kept to herself last year when she was matched with her Wonder mentor, Martha*. Martha would ask Janey about school, her interest in animals, or whichever Harry Potter book she was reading at the time. But Janey’s answers were often short and rarely invited follow-ups. During Wonder group events, Janey would watch instead of joining in. At the ice-skating rink, she sat on a bench rather than skating with the others.

Marisol* lost custody of her daughter because of her alcoholism, which severely limited her ability to parent. It was a wake-up call. She realized how unmanageable her life had become and wanted more than anything to reunite with her daughter. But her sobriety was intermittent, and she struggled to follow the county’s plan to re-establish custody. 

Kayla grew up with parents who dealt and used drugs. Home life was erratic and unsafe. Illegal activity took place regularly, there was seldom enough to eat, and Kayla often skipped school. An acquaintance of her parents sexually abused her several times.

Melanie entered foster care when she was eight years old in 2017. For the next two years, she was placed with several families, some of them kin. However, each placement ended when the resource family was unable to address Melanie’s emotional and mental health needs. Melanie had been neglected before entering care and required special help.

Emily* is a teenager.  In many ways, she’s like her peers. She studies for tests and does homework while navigating deeper issues like identity and fitting in. Emily deals with other complexities too, issues many of her peers don’t. She endured repeated trauma as a child and now lives in foster care.

When Brianna* was six, her mother became unable to care for her, and Brianna was placed into foster care. Her first placement didn’t last long.  When her second placement was about to end prematurely as well, Briana’s aunt Shelly* stepped forward to help.

Josephine*, Lillian*, and Calvin* are two sisters and a brother aged 12, 10, and 7. When their mother became unable to care for them, their aunt and uncle opened their home to them. It was a safer, healthier environment, a familiar one too. Still, the siblings needed help dealing with the trauma they’d endured. They received that care at Stanford Sierra Youth & Families. At Stanford Sierra, the children’s aunt and uncle were also connected with Bianca*, a kinship navigator. Kinship navigators support relative caregivers such as aunts, uncles, and grandparen

When Morgan* was in grade school, her father died unexpectedly. Not long afterwards, a friend of the family sexually abused her. In the following years, Morgan became deeply depressed. She had difficulty sleeping and began harming herself. By the time she entered high school, she was isolating from friends and family and in danger of failing out of school.

There are almost 400,000 youth in foster care in the U.S., with California being a leading state. Recent Federal legislation, designed to help families provide safe and stable homes for their children through culturally appropriate services, has contributed to the declining number of youth in care. While that number has decreased recently, data shows increased mental health challenges for youth, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.

Alex’s* mother abandoned him when he was young, and his father physically abused him.  With no relatives to take him in, Alex was placed in foster care. Still traumatized by the abuse and neglect, Alex was shuffled between four different homes during his first two years in foster care.  The uncertainty compounded the trauma, making life even more difficult and postponing any chance to heal.

My name is Ramona Meza and I am the new Community Engagement Coordinator at Stanford Sierra Youth & Families (SSYAF). I am originally from a small town named Riverbank, which is located near Modesto. I graduated from California State University, Sacramento where I earned my Bachelor’s in Communications with a concentration in Public Relations.

Throughout the African Diaspora, emphasis on the connection between individual and community plays a vital role in improving health and wellbeing, often woven together through ceremony, empathic connection between healer and patient, food, and dance – rich cultural healing traditions are still reflected in Black and African American communities throughout the U.S. today.

In addition to being community-focused, traditional healing methods in the African Diaspora are body-aware and encourage restorative healing of mind, body, and spirit without internalizing illness symptoms!

Jay*, Gilbert*, and Theo* are in middle school. They also live in foster care. For most of their lives none of them socialized much or even knew other kids like themselves, kids in foster care. Sometimes this left them feeling isolated and alone. “No one knows what it’s like,” said Theo, “unless you’re in it too.”  

November is National Adoption Month. It’s a month for bringing attention to issues surrounding adoption. For example, there is a great demand for foster-to-adopt families in our community. This need is particularly high among teens, sibling sets, and LGBTQ+ youth currently living in foster care.

When Corey* was five, he was removed from his mother’s custody because of neglect and placed into protective care. Reunification with his mother was not an option and the county could not find relatives he could live with. Over the next six years, Corey was moved between 15 different foster placements and then placed in a group home. Corey struggled at school and had a hard time making friends.

Hello! I am Maggie Garcia, Stanford Sierra Youth & Families’ new Community Engagement Coordinator! I am currently based in Sacramento, but was born and raised in the Central Valley. I graduated from UC Merced with a Bachelor of Science in Management and Business Economics. During my time there, I was able to create my own opportunities and find my true passions – marketing, design, and anything digital which led me to pursue marketing roles in the health promotion, sports, entertainment, beverage, and renewable energy industries. 

Sean* (15) and Ricky* (14) are brothers. Sometimes they work with their dad, who owns a landscaping business. During the week, their mom drives them to school, music lessons, and team sports. With so much going on, the family often eats dinner separately, but every Sunday night, they sit down together to reflect on the week gone by and discuss the one ahead. Sean and Ricky lead meaningful lives, enriched by family and friends, but it wasn’t always this way.

After many years of trying to grow their family, the Osorios were matched with a pair of siblings, Mackenzie and Noah.  Before joining the Osorios, Mackenzie and Noah had had very little exposure to the outside world.  They were emotionally dysregulated and in need of many forms of care.

Mackenzie often had tantrums.  She would throw and destroy objects around the house.  Noah had never seen a dentist.  Cavities in his baby teeth had spread to his adult teeth, which hadn’t come in yet.  Both children suffered developmental delays.

Erin* was 12 years old when she was removed from an abusive household and placed with a resource family in the foster care system. Like many traumatized children, Erin showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Frequent nightmares made sleeping difficult. During the day she could be irritable and easily upset. She was hypervigilant when around others and preferred to spend time alone in her room.  

Breanna* grew up in an unsafe environment. Her mother was involved with illegal drugs, and her mother’s partner was at times physically violent. Breanna was often left alone for the better part of a day, sometimes with not enough to eat. When she was eight years old, Child Protective Services removed her from the home for her own safety.

We matched Kate about three and a half years ago when Samantha was six years old. Samantha was living in a foster home at the time and the family learned about the Wonder Mentoring Program through their social worker. Five months after the match started, for reasons unclear to us, the child was moved abruptly out of that home. Her grandparents, Raymond Foster and Rebecca Rice, stepped in to care of her. 

Before Daniel was nine years old, he’d been physically and sexually abused, exposed to domestic violence, and removed from his parents’ home for his own safety. Child Protective Services placed him with his aunt and uncle. Daniel suffered tremendously from the effects of the trauma he’d endured. He was depressed, fearful, and occasionally aggressive.

As the holidays draw near, we might start thinking about gatherings with family, festive dinners, and an overwhelming sense of joy. We are also reminded that not everyone has a place for the holidays, especially children in foster care. Children like Skylar*.

Jessie* first entered foster care when she was very young and although she was adopted, she always wrestled with feelings of abandonment from her biological family. When she was 13 years old, Jessie entered foster care for the second time, because her adoptive mother was no longer willing to take care of her. For the next 2 years, she was shuffled from group home to group home, feeling abandoned, lonely, and further traumatized. She suffered from anxiety, had trouble making friends, and sometimes she hurt herself.

When Sam* was growing up, both of his parents struggled with substance abuse. Consequently, Sam’s home life was marked by neglect and abuse. Soon after his tenth birthday, Child Protective Services removed him from his parents’ custody and placed him in protective care for his own safety. 

Like many of the youth in foster care, Mackenzie*, a transition-age youth, had been traumatized at a young age.  Having never had the chance to fully process and heal from this trauma, Mackenzie struggled to manage her emotions. Eventually she was placed in a local group home. 

Hello! My name is Scott Yuki, a second-year student at UC Berkeley studying Business Administration and Public Health. At Berkeley, I am a member of the Cal Dragon Boat team, the Associate Student body, and the Nikkei Student Union. Unfortunately… or fortunately, my spring semester was cut short. Looking at the bright side of our less fortunate situations, I was able to pass/fail my calculus course and save my GPA! But to acknowledge the realities of 2020, this has been and will continue to be an interesting time for all of us.

Going about normal routines and balancing new challenges can be difficult during these uncertain times. Many organizations have been forced to restructure, furlough, or even stop providing crucial services to the community. At Stanford Sierra Youth & Families (SSYF), we have been delivering and will continue to deliver essential services to youth and families within our programs, all while focusing on the safety and well-being of all within our communities. The challenges we face during this time will provide us with invaluable tools and resources for years to come.

As we continue to follow the unfolding COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, our focus is the safety and well-being of all youth and families in our communities. We will continue to provide programs and services to youth and families, and ensure that families are aware of important information and strategies to reduce stress and anxieties during this crisis.

Like most aspects of life related to family and children, adoption is an emotional topic. That might be why foster-care adoption is so ripe for myth-making. At Sierra Forever Families (SFF), would-be parents often approach us with ideas that couldn’t be further from the truth. Let’s clear up four common ones:

February/March of 2017, in a two-part series on how trauma affects children, this blog highlighted a 16-minute talk by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris that has been viewed on YouTube 1.8 million times.

Dr. Burke Harris, a pediatrician trained at the UC Davis School of Medicine, has been hailed as a leading voice in transforming our understanding of how children’s traumatic experiences can trigger serious physical and mental illness.

Sierra Forever Families offers comprehensive pre-service training and ongoing support to its resource families, but no amount of preparation can cover the infinite number of situations that might arise. Here are six you might experience.

Challenge 1:

The feeling when . . . you realize this is real! All the pre-service training in the world may not prepare you for the stark reality of your first placement. Some resource parents are surprised when a child’s behavior is unexpected. And of course, the child has the biggest adjustment to make.

Anyone who has ever waited for their number to be called at the DMV knows that bureaucracy can be crazy-making. Paperwork, meetings, complex chains of command, endless acronyms (CPS? EPSDT?), communication breakdowns—all of it can make impatience flare. When a child’s future is at stake, it can be even more frustrating.

Welcome to foster care and adopting through the foster care system!

Deciding to adopt my children was easy for me.  I have mothered everything around me (plants, animals, other people…) since I was three years old.  I knew from a young age that my family would be formed by adoption.  I was thrilled when my husband and I were ready to begin the adoption adventure.