Former Foster Kid Building Bright Future With Help Of Non-Profit

PHOENIX, AZ — Tysheria Harrell has faced some fierce challenges in her 20 years. When she was in elementary school, her house burned down. She made a cross-country move and was later placed in a foster care group home. After aging out of the foster care system, she got pregnant at 19. Then her son Ka’Shun was born 3 months premature, forcing her to drop out of college.

But even in the face of so many individual challenges, and with the odds stacked against all young people who age out of foster care, Harrell remains optimistic, committed to surpassing her goals and ensuring her son's success.

“It’s looking pretty bright,” Harrell said of her future.

With the help of Arizona's Children Association, Harrell has been living on her own in a Phoenix apartment for the past two years. She's working full-time as a care partner at Shadow Mountain Memory Care and is back in school at Phoenix Community College working toward her associate degree in nursing.

Arizona's Children Association, a not-for-profit dedicated to helping Arizona children in foster care, has assisted Harrell along the way. The group helped to fill out financial aid paperwork for college and made sure she had everything her son needed before she'd had a chance to have a baby shower.

“It was so scary,” Harrell said of her son's premature birth. Ka’Shun spent two months in the neonatal intensive care unit and was still tiny when he finally came home, she said. He's now around 11 months old.

Elizabeth Kasen, youth support specialist for Arizona's Children Association, said it is a joy to help out young parents who have aged out of foster care, especially those like Harrell.

"She’s a great mom," Kasen said of Harrell. "She's really motivated and she tries really hard."

Ka’Shun had some delays in things like fine motor skills because he was born so early, but Kasen said Harrell keeps a close eye on the milestones he should be meeting.

Children who age out of foster care — those who turn 18 without being adopted or returning to live with their biological families — face some harsh realities.

About 20 percent of them become instantly homeless on their 18th birthday, according to the National Youth Foster Institute. Only about half find employment by the time they turn 24. They have less than a 3 percent chance of ever earning a college degree, and 70 percent of girls who age out of the system will become pregnant before they turn 21.

Even so, Harrell has her sights set on some big goals. She wants to become a registered nurse and someday open her own group home to serve children in foster care.

“When you talk to a lot of people my age about group homes, they all say that theirs was bad, but my group home was really good,” Harrell said.

Harrell moved into a group home when she was 15 after being removed from her mother's home. She and the other girls in her home went on weekend trips to places like Disneyland, Six Flags, and the Grand Canyon. After school, they went on picnics or to the movies and took bike rides.

“It was really fun and I want a lot of kids to experience that,” she said. “What’s the point of taking them from one bad place and putting them in another?”

When Harrell's younger siblings were placed in foster care, they were sent to Canyon State Academy, a school for at-risk youths, even though they had never been in trouble. The state simply didn't have anywhere else to put them. Harrell doesn't want that to happen to other foster kids.

Kelsey Shores, program administrator for Arizona's Children Association's young adult services, focuses on helping foster kids and former foster kids from 14-21 years old successfully transition to adulthood.

According to Shores, former foster kids who moved around a lot as children might have a hard time maintaining connections or may have missed out on some social skills.

"Supportive connections are what we as successful adults thrive on," Shores said.

The association also helps young parents like Harrell employ positive parenting techniques with their children. Many young parents, especially those who ended up in the foster care system, grew up in cycles of trauma, Shores said, and may not even know what appropriate parenting looks like.

Although the association doesn't have its own housing program, it refers participants to shelters and affordable housing options and can help with rent when money is tight.

A few months ago, Harrell got help from the association to pay some of her bills after she lost her job because her son kept getting sick. She had no one else to look after him, and he wasn't allowed at daycare because he was contagious, she said.

Harrell said things in her life might have been much different without the help of Arizona's Children Association.

“I’m so thankful I have the help that I have,” Harrell said, adding that she appreciates having the support of a caseworker.

Kasen and Shores both said that it was the former foster kids they help, not themselves, who deserve credit for their achievements. The association just helps give them the support that many other young people already have and might take for granted.

Kasen said she hopes that Harrell continues on a path toward achieving her goals and lives a happy, fulfilling life.

Even though being a single mom without much support from her family is hard, Harrell said she is "proud that I still have a positive attitude about everything."