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What it's like in their shoes

A project pairs ex-foster children with policy makers to forge bonds.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published January 17, 2007

The young woman who had spent four years in foster care sat across from the Pasco school supervisor at an Applebee's in New Port Richey.

"If I saw her at Wal-Mart, I wouldn't ever think we have anything in common," 19-year-old Jennie Sorrentini said of Saybra Chapman, 57.

But they do.

Sorrentini explained that her mother died of AIDS in Long Island when she was 9. Chapman confided that she lost a brother the same way.

That meeting led to a valued friendship.

"When she needs me, and I need her, we can call," Sorrentini said.

That's the sort of empathy that advocates with the Walk a Mile Project hope to elicit by matching policymakers with youths who have left the foster care system after turning 18.

The idea is that by meeting face-to-face and talking by phone each will better understand what it's like to be the other.

The Walk a Mile exercise comes at a time when private and public organizations are expressing interest in creating badly needed services for youths who leave the foster system at 18, advocates say.

Currently, 345 children between 13 and 17 are in the care of the state in Pinellas and another 32 in Pasco County.

"We really need to look at it as a whole community to make sure we don't have our kids becoming homeless when they become young adults," said Ed McBride, who supervises Pinellas and Pasco counties as senior community-based care manager for the Sarasota YMCA, the lead agency in the Safe Children Coalition.

Housing is one of the biggest problems facing foster kids turning 18, McBride said, and it's one of the services being discussed in Pinellas.

"One of the things that has been talked about is some kind of housing, an apartment complex, where an agency would actually buy it, but the only people going into those apartments would be that population," McBride said.

The Walk a Mile project came at a time when stories from such young people could help sway officials from public and private agencies who are currently considering how to address a shortage of services for them, at least in Pinellas.

"In my work I come in contact with people who want to hear what she has to say," Chapman said. "Maybe I can give her a voice for some of the things she has to say."

Former foster kids left to fend for themselves

Sorrentini is studying to become a police officer. Her story helped Chapman see the challenges that many foster children face when, at 18, they "age out" of foster care.

Those who don't go to college or into a formal skills training program often find they are on their own.

Sorrentini attends Pasco-Hernando Community College, thanks to support from Independent Living Services, which gives her $800 a month, free health insurance and pays her college tuition.

Such help can be available to former foster care children until age 23.

Chapman said her eyes were opened.

"I sat there, and I thought, 'I wonder what has made this child, this young woman, so resilient," Chapman said, recalling their lunch. "She is well on her way to being a very autonomous, responsible young lady."

The supervisor of employee assistance programs for Pasco schools, Chapman said she plans to ask Sorrentini to attend some of the meetings of public officials she attends. Sorrentini then can tell policymakers her story - and make her pitch for supportive programs.

Sorrentini moved to New Port Richey after her mother died. She first lived with her grandmother, then a sister. When her sister got arrested, Sorrentini went into state care, she said. She was 14.

She spent more than a year at "RAP House," a runaway protection shelter in Pasco.

When she was 16 and working at a Dunkin Donuts, a friend, Katie Carangelo, stopped by and asked why she had not been in school. Sorrentini said she was a runaway, while relating other details of her life.

The next day Katie's parents, Janet and Vinny Carangelo, came to the doughnut shop and talked to Sorrentini. Eventually they earned the certification to become Sorrentini's foster parents.

"They already had two teen-age children of their own and they took a chance on me," said Sorrentini.

The Carangelos have allowed Sorrentini to live with them even though she is too old to be a foster child. Her life on a promising path and supported by the state aid, she plans to move out this month.

Living facilities, policy changes in the works

Along with possibly creating an apartment complex for young people who have aged out of foster care, another idea is to model an effort in Pinellas after the Connect by 25 program in Hillsborough County.

That program extends the age foster kids are eligible to receive help and brings under one roof a variety of services to help them become productive adults.

The Eckerd Family Foundation is the catalyst for the initiative, McBride said. The hope, McBride said, is that stakeholders such as community service agencies, the county, cities, the school district and others will begin holding meetings soon.

Eight Walk a Mile matches were made last year in Pinellas, Pasco, Sarasota, Manatee and De Soto counties - the area covered by the Safe Children Coalition. It was the first year that pairings in Florida focused on foster care challenges. In previous years, Walk a Mile has paired mothers on welfare with policy makers.

Four of the eight matches last year were made in Pinellas. In one, Jillian Zelano, 21, was paired with Jeanine Evoli, manager of child welfare advocacy at the Juvenile Welfare Board.

"I think the experience was very helpful in terms of my role," Evoli said. "We are kind of in the beginning stage of focusing on the child welfare system."

Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4224.

[Last modified January 16, 2007, 23:21:14]