Meet our Successes

Kelly: “I’ve walked in their shoes”

We all deserve a second chance in life. Sixteen-year-old Kelly* was residing at the Woodside Juvenile Detention Center in Essex, Vermont, when Laraway Youth and Family Services offered her a chance to continue her education and live in a therapeutic foster home. Kelly, skeptical from thirteen years in state custody, turned them down.

“I was afraid I wasn’t going to get the kind of education I’d get in public school,” Kelly remembers. Laraway staff’s gentle persistence paid off. Kelly eventually agreed to move in with a foster family specially trained to help her overcome her behavioral challenges. She enrolled in Laraway’s individualized educational program, one that capitalized on her creative talents.

Two years later, Kelly graduated with her high school diploma, a feat neither of her parents accomplished. She will be a first generation college student as she commences studies in Human Services. Her ambition is to become a caseworker, to support at-risk youth, because, according to Kelly, “I’ve walked in their shoes.”

*Names changed to protect confidentiality

Martin: “Laraway never gave up on me”

“People should know Laraway never gives up on kids,” Martin* observed. “Laraway never gave up on me.”

Martin was a thirteen-year-old resident of Brattleboro Retreat, a mental health medical facility, when Laraway staff picked him up to bring him to his new home. Laraway Youth and Family Services offered Martin a chance to continue his education---he’s a computer whiz---and live in a therapeutic foster home.

Up until that point, Martin’s home life had been less than ideal. His mother, a single parent plagued with mental illness, retreated to her bed in utter emotional paralysis. She was unable to bathe, feed, and otherwise care for her four children.

“I was the father figure”, Martin reflected. Beginning at age six, he cared for his three younger siblings. “I’d try to cook. I’d change diapers. I’d put kids to bed.” Martin assumed these responsibilities while getting himself to school each day.

Laraway stepped in after learning Martin had been at Brattleboro Retreat for six months. Four years later, Martin is on track to graduate from high school. He works part-time at Price Chopper. He’s taking classes at the Community College of Vermont. His ambition is to become a computer technician.

Robin: “Teachers are so important”

Robin’s home in a quiet cul-de-sac in Burlington is a world away from the chaos with which she was raised. Her father was an alcoholic. Her mother, overwhelmed by her husband’s bouts of drinking and unemployment, frequently turned to her oldest daughter, still a child, for guidance.

“As the oldest kid, I was the caretaker of the family. My mother was anxiety-ridden,” Robin remembers. “My mother would wake me up in the middle of the night with my drunken father pounding on the door and ask, ‘Should I let him in?’” Robin relays these details not with contempt, but from a place of compassion.

Stresses at home interfered with Robin’s ability to learn at Burlington High School in the mid-1970s. She skipped classes and got into trouble. She entered state’s custody at 17 and was referred to Laraway.

“Laraway was such a loving, compassionate community. I think the staff, the students, the environment they created was so helpful. The teachers were saints given what we put them through. We pushed buttons, testing to see if they’d stand by us. So many people in my life had given up,” Robin remembers. “I didn’t trust anyone to follow through and be there for me. My Laraway teachers saw through my insecurities, fears and distrust and broke down walls. I learned so many things I’d missed.”

Robin laughs when describing her experience with Laraway’s outdoor education curriculum: “I hated the outings. I was lazy. I complained. I was a whiner. We’d go on three or four overnight trips a year---hiking, canoeing, winter camping---carrying these 70-lb packs. At times I didn’t think I could make it. We learned to depend on each other, to offer encouragement. When we finished, it felt so great.”

Robin made a commitment that, if she survived the social service system, she would find a way to give back. For the last 12 years she has worked for the Northeastern Family Institute in their Diagnostic Assessment & Community Based Services Programs, providing therapeutic foster care and assessments.

“I feel like I know most of the kids who come to my home and what they need. A lot of times I can tell them how I got through a difficult time. My experiences, the painful and the good, have been so helpful,” Robin says. “Teachers are so important. They can make all the difference in the world whether or not a kid makes it in life. There have been so many wonderful people who’ve helped me along the way and I will be forever grateful. It is because of teachers at Laraway that I feel this way. Life is good!”