If you want to get Jonathon talking, just ask him about camp.
Not long ago, it was difficult to get the 11 year old to talk about anything. Shy and withdrawn, he’d been in foster care, off and on, since he was a toddler. But then Jonathon joined a new foster family and found a real home after a lifetime of instability.
There’s no motivator like passion. Just ask Delores, whose foster son, Mike, has discovered his: aeronautical engineering.
Not long ago, Delores was at the end of her rope with Mike. His bad grades were matched by a bad attitude and Delores had run out of hope. That was the situation when a Treehouse educational advocate first visited the pair. “You can advocate,” Delores told the advocate, “but this one will not listen. You won’t get through to him.”
On Sunday evenings, the Tran house fills with music. Thirteen-year-old Lizzie plays piano and her 8-year-old brother, Andrew, is on drums. Foster mom, Mimi, is a great fiddler and foster dad, Don, plays piano and electric bass. At regular intervals, their music gives way to chain-reaction laughter. But it wasn’t always like this.
Shaina is thriving in first grade. But when she started kindergarten, things were much different. In fact, Shaina’s first months of school were marked by homelessness and parental substance abuse.
Shaina’s teacher knew the child was moving from shelter to shelter, knew that emotionally she was suffering and that academically she didn’t stand a chance. The day Shaina’s mother was sent to jail, the teacher feared she would lose this student she had come to care for so dearly. At the last minute, Shaina’s great grandmother stepped in as her caregiver.
Foster Care Fact
With every school change, a foster child loses 4 to 6 months of academic progress.
