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Footsteps To The Future
Fosters Hope For
Lee County Families
News-press 08/08
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Welcome to Footsteps
To The Future Website!
So much of our everyday lives revolve around the comfort, safety
and happiness that we enjoy in our homes. Home is where the
American Dream becomes a reality—where busy families spend
precious time together, where close friends gather, where
wonderful memories that last forever are made. It’s no small
wonder, then, why we focus so much attention on building,
decorating and maintaining our dwellings. Truly, there’s no
place like home.
Children, especially, reap the untold benefits of a living in a
happy, secure household. Imagine, then, the more than 650,000
children in America who currently don’t have a home to call
their very own. They live in foster homes.
Yes, there are many caring families—including those right here
in Lee and Collier Counties—who open and share their homes with
the tens of thousands of children who, for various reasons, are
assigned by the courts to live apart from their natural
families. Too often, though, those kids have already suffered
traumatic episodes in their young lives and have a tough time
adjusting to foster care. That’s why so many of them, often  from
a very early age, are shuttled from foster home to foster home.
Most unfortunately, while they might be provided with basic
food, clothing and shelter, many foster children grow up without
learning the practical skills of how to support themselves in
the outside world.
Now imagine those ill-prepared foster kids who, on the day they
turn 18, “age out” of the foster-care system. Whatever home life
they may have had up to that point—good, bad or indifferent—is
suddenly taken away. Where they go and what they do next can be
a daunting mystery. Beyond simply finding a place to live, too
many of these teens succumb to drug and alcohol abuse, unwanted
pregnancy, unemployment and other social misfortune which can
ironically land them
in an equally dreadful criminal-justice
system.
I first learned of this shameful situation about six years ago.
And the
more I learned about it, the bleaker the picture grew. Finally,
frustrated by the lack of viable alternatives offered to these
children,
in particular the teenaged girls who are so vulnerable
in this
scenario—I set out to create one. Together with several
other
like-minded women in our community, we have launched
a new
program Footsteps to the Future, Inc. dedicated to
assisting local
young women as they make their huge
transition from foster
care to the real world.
Footsteps to the Future’s goal is to inspire and encourage
these young women to recognize their personal power and
potential, to become self-sufficient and to ultimately
themselves
become leaders and role models in the community. We have
developed a unique one-to-one life coaching/mentoring/empowerment program, drawing upon the wisdom and
compassion of a growing list of successful women who
volunteer their time and talents to improving the lives
of “our girls,” as we love to call them. We involve the
girls in
leadership, empowerment, community service
and peer mentoring.
We need Transitional Housing here in SW Florida...
safe and affordable housing where these young woman can stay while they adjust to living independently,
get stable jobs and continue their educations. Footsteps To the Future
and the young women (our girls), who are
involved, will become the “Voice” in our communities for creating awareness of this
enormous need. They too will become ambassadors and
stakeholders as we focus on helping to raise the awareness and the funds to make this Dream a
Reality….it does take a Village…
We have already had a number of success stories, and are daily
encouraged with the progress of many of our young women. Yet the
need to help others who every year age out of foster care is
never-ending. We invite you to learn more about Footsteps to the
Future and perhaps join us, either as a mentor or by getting
involved as a visionary partner. Stay tuned, as you will hear
the details about this and more in the near future.
For immediate information regarding Footsteps to the Future, Inc
Contact: Judi Woods (239) 275-5834 or
email us.
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