Sara’s Story
Afflicted with a serious degenerative disease, Sara required intensive care that her impoverished, struggling parents did not feel able to handle. They had a hard enough time as it was, living in a local motel, her mother battling a substance abuse problem, and her father a recovering alcoholic. After spending nine months at a shelter, Sara’s caregivers couldn’t find another group home that would take her – until they contacted South Coast. Now, Sara is in a loving, caring environment, and there’s hope of her even being able to develop strong bonds with her relieved family members.
Garrett’s Story
When Garrett came to South Coast, he was just eight. His father had physically abused him and he bears a scar across his forehead from a time when his dad tossed him through a glass window. Along with his traumatic childhood, Garrett had been diagnosed with autism. He spent several years in an SCCS group home. Today, he’s living on his own and leading a productive life. While he has no contact with any of his family, he never fails to telephone South Coast every year on his birthday to bring them up to date, and also because he knows it’s a tradition for an SCCS staff member to take him out to dinner. Garrett puts on his best clothes, always shows up early, and makes a point of saying that he’s doing well now, not to worry.
Collette’s Story
Before Collette came to South Coast Children’s Society, she had been in a psychiatric hospital for nine months. She’d lost contact with her parents, who were living in Las Vegas, and, at age14, she was beginning to come to grips with the impact of a life-time of sexual abuse. She had been deemed a danger to herself and possibly others. Wait–we have great news. After a year of intensive counseling and living in a loving group home, she was able to work through her intense anger. Collette is well and truly on the path toward healing and recovery.
Susan’s Story
Susan was a mother of five when her husband was sentenced to a lengthy prison term, essentially making her a single parent. Then, she lost her job, she became distraught, and the family began showing signs of severe distress. After a year in the wraparound program, in which Susan and her family were connected with community resources for counseling, academic tutoring, and transportation, they are intact, working hard, and taking small but definitive steps of progress – and, Susan recently expressed to her wraparound team how thankful she was because she could finally “see a light at the end of the tunnel.”
