By the time Kristen was 11, her family was already in the child welfare system. Then her stepdad died and her best friend had to move away after losing her mom in a car crash.
“It was really hard for me,” Kristen said.
She said things got more difficult when her mom began seeing someone new.
“We got into loud altercations,” she said. “We fought a lot.”
Kristen said she began running away.
“I remember running away four times in one night,” she said.
Eventually, she ended up in a residential care facility.
“It was traumatic,” she said. “I hardly ever got to talk to my family.”
When she got out, the local child welfare system connected Kristen and her family to Youth Advocate Programs™, Inc. (YAP®), a national nonprofit that delivers community-based services as an alternative to placing young people in corrections or residential care facilities. Kristen will share her story as a panelist at the Nov. 6 50th anniversary YAP® Making Change Happen Summit in Philadelphia.
Kristen said thanks to her YAP® Advocates, things began to change for the better. She said the organization connected her family to resources they needed, worked with them in the home, and provided individualized services outside of the home that helped her develop more confidence.
“They got me away from being cooped up with video games,” she said.”
Kristen said her Advocates learned of her love for animals and began taking her to do volunteer work at the local shelter. Today, she’s saving her money to go to K9 training school and planning for a career doing what she loves.
“I can see the change in myself from when I was 14,” she said. “YAP helped me mature in a lot of different ways.”
Learn more about YAP® and the nonprofit’s 50th anniversary events at yapinc.org/50th.
