Lake County Success Stories
They are beating the odds. Some are young adults born into difficult situations, but thriving. Others are parents whose situations or choices made hope feel distant, but they found the help and motivation they needed to write a new ending for themselves and adifferent story for their own children . Read their stories and be inspired.
Allison was placed in foster care at the age of 18 months. A Lake County foster family picked her up at Children’s Hospital in Oakland on Christmas Eve. She was covered from head to toe with bruises and lacerations and was suffering from a concussion and a lacerated liver. She had been exposed to both drugs and alcohol in utero and at 18 months old her ACE score would have easily been 6 or 7. Read more...
Lyndsey developed a drug addiction to methamphetamines as a young woman and ended up in multiple violent and abusive relationships in order to sustain her access to drugs and avoid being alone. She had a son who was mainly being cared for by her mother when she became pregnant again with a daughter. Her daughter was born addicted to meth and Child Welfare Services were notified. Read more...
Randy and was receiving treatment for a terminal cancer diagnosis and was confined to bed while trying to continue parenting his thirteen-year-old son. During that time his wife became violent and abusive. She left but would return periodically with her partner and they would physically abuse both Randy and his son. Read more...
Angela and her family moved to Lake County when she was eleven years old. They lived in a community without many children or ethnic minorities, and within the Hispanic community they were one of the only Salvadorian families. Her single mother raised her and her two brothers while working and making use of supportive resources like cash aid, food stamps and Section 8 housing. When Angela was in 10th grade, at the age of 15, she became pregnant... Read more
Jasmine Krista was placed in foster care as a baby and was adopted at the age of four. Life in her new family was filled with contradictions. There were camping trips, fun family gatherings, and great memories, while at the same time behind closed doors her adopted father struggled with addiction to alcohol and prescription medications. There were angry drunken nights filled with verbal and sometimes physical abuse as well as ongoing sexual abuse. At the age of ten, she moved with her family to Lake County... Read more
Jaden is a Lake County teenager who was born with a disability called Cerebral Palsy (CP) caused by not getting enough oxygen to his brain at birth. Jaden was diagnosed by six months of age and, because of early intervention, he and his family have been able to face the set of lifelong challenges that CP presents head on. Doctors told his parents he would never walk or have a normal life. Read more...
When Nina’s parents divorced, it was difficult on the entire family. Nina felt she had no solid support system and, as a result, developed anxiety, depression and an eating disorder. She also became pregnant at the age of 14, giving birth to a daughter before her fifteenth birthday. Nina wanted a stable and happy childhood for her daughter and knew she needed help. Read more...
Raeven was born and raised on a reservation where she and her family lived in poverty and without running water. Frequently, as a child, her basic needs went unmet. She remembers feeling hopeless, with no reason to believe she would amount to anything. As an adolescent she frequently got into trouble, skipping school and using drugs. Read more...
Susanna, from a young age, was exposed to domestic violence in her home. Her father struggled with addiction and would leave the family for days at a time with little money. By the age of 13, her parents separated. She was left mostly to herself and began smoking marijuana, then experimenting with alcohol and LSD. Her behavior became reckless in many ways, but at the age of sixteen she was able to test out of high school... Read more
Jaylene grew up in Napa and following her parents’ divorce became a troubled young adult. For fifteen years of her life she felt like she was drifting without the ability to contribute much to society. At the age of thirty, she moved to Clearlake and her daughter was born a couple of years later... Read more
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