"My name is Natasha. My life started out rough as a child. At the age of four or five my sister was sexually abused by my father. My mom went to Texas at that time because her mother was sick. When she arrived back home all three of her kids were placed into foster care. We were taken out of school. My father served five years in prison for his crime against my sister. My mother was supposed to get herself together in order to get us children back, but she began to get more into drugs and alcohol. She began to miss visits with us in foster care and we rarely saw her anymore. At the age of nine, my Mom became missing and we put out missing persons reports all over. At the age of twelve, my aunt surprised me when she told me she I would not be in foster care anymore and I could come and live with her under a relative placement agreement. Years went by and on April 7, 2000 my father died of cancer. I was 17 years old. I had dropped out of school, but a counselor from High School talked me into going back to school at an alternative school. I successfully completed my High School diploma in 2001. I graduated with a 2.9GPA, I was senior class president, and was a part of a club.

After graduating, it became even tougher for me. I had no home, no car, no nothing. And to this day I am living in and out of different people's homes, with so called boyfriends who take advantage of me, and paying to stay in hotels for weeks at a time. We never found my mother and I heard she is probably dead because she owed money to a drug dealer. I'm still alone, but trying my hardest to have a strong mind and will to do more. I'm still trying to deal with my father's loss."

This young lady came into contact with our program through a referral from Wake County Human Services Foster Care. Her former foster worker told her about our program. At the time she came in, she was working at several underground strip clubs and doing private parties and had several friends who were doing it with her. We assisted her with obtaining legitimate employment at a grocery store and we helped her obtain her own market rate apartment in our scattered sites program. We helped her get furniture, provided her with food and bus tickets and assisted her with obtaining food stamps and Medicaid. This young lady was very thin at the time we met her and she seemed very depressed and tired.

As a result of our services, this young lady was able to remain in the same market rate rental apartment for over two years and she was able to maintain it with her own money after receiving six moths of financial support from our program. She was working legitimate jobs and was no longer working in strip clubs. She was very proud of her accomplishments and smiles much more than she did when we first met her. At this point, she hopes to be able to attend cosmetology school and start a career in cosmetology. This young lady is now a role model for her younger brother who is incarcerated and writes her frequently from prison. She hopes to be a resource for him when he gets out of prison. She is also actively involved in outreaching other youth who need our program and she has donated some furniture and households items back to our program to be used with other clients.