My husband is a teacher in the North Thurston School District, but before we moved here, he led the high school dropout prevention/credit recovery program at one of the largest high schools in Dallas.
Students there usually had many issues that were thwarting their efforts to graduate (his program had an 80% graduation rate - students earned their high school diploma, not a GED). While I have wonderful stories of students whose lives were changed (and often the lives of their families) my husband tried to keep the saddest stories to himself.
Stories of students who were “couch surfing” (that is sleeping at friends' homes) because they were no longer allowed in their parent’s home. Others had parents who had died or were incarcerated, and the student was left on their own, often having to care for younger siblings. There are a number of local nonprofits whose focus is to provide a safe supportive living environment for young people who have experienced foster care and/or homelessness; one such organization is BrenRose Foundation.
I recently spoke with Tammy Levario, who founded the organization in the Spring of 2022 and currently serves as the Executive Director. “The child-placing agency where I worked for over a decade, closed,” explained Levario. “When it closed, the agency had two homes, the one BrenRose operates, and one next door for teen females.”
Levario has lived full-time in the home for girls for about eight years as their sole caregiver. The model was of a family foster home, so other adults were there to support the “family.” “Several of the young people who were in our homes when they closed were over 18 and in extended foster care. They would have been homeless,” said Levario.
“I quickly started BrenRose, and three of them currently live here.” Levario has two other tenants who are older and not in extended foster care but have had significant trauma, experienced homelessness, foster care, and are from marginalized populations. “I have wanted to create something for this population for years now, and this home opening gave me that opportunity.”
According to Levario, the BrenRose Foundation was for her lifelong friend Brendalyn Rose who passed away in December 2020.
“Bren had some mental health challenges and used to tease me that I was good at working with youth with challenging behaviors, because of my experience with her,” said Levario.
“She said, “You owe me, I trained you!” Levario’s philosophy follows Maslow’s hierarchy of needs by giving her residents a safe, supportive place to live where they have help to build their lives.
“This allows them time to settle in and accept that they will not be hungry, they will not be left on their own when trying to access needed services, helps them move from survival mode, so they can access the parts of their brain they need to be able to show up for their lives and future,” said Levario.
Of course, like the needs of adults that have issues, the support looks different for everyone because they are individuals and on their own paths. “It is NOT about catering to their every need or creating a dependency on me, but instead, supporting them in taking the steps needed, to heal, to grow, and to build community around themselves said Levario. “I live onsite to support them according to their individual needs. It’s done in a very natural, relationship-based way”.
* Connecting to mental health resources, including driving them to intakes as needed. Although they can take the bus sometimes, when you’re dealing with major depression, PTSD, and trauma, navigating those things alone can be daunting.
* Important Doctor appointments: Levario tells that one week she drove to Centralia three times for pre-op medical appointments for a tenant.
* Job support in the form of resumes, applications, preparing for interviews, any clothing items needed for interview or work.
* Extra groceries and household supplies because they have little income and food stamps aren’t always enough. Levario explains that feeling safe requires not worrying about basic needs.
* Support them in conflict resolution and interpersonal skills: “It’s hard to share a home with others and having someone to mediate and offer guidance is growing priceless skills in them.”
*Support for those with developmental delays and autism who need lots of help navigating life in a communal home, navigating community services and activities, and growing into an adult. “They need a lot of guidance that I provide.”
*In addition, tenants learn many aspects of caring for themselves and the home.
The home offered by BrenRose is a huge three-story on a quarter-acre lot and so there are a lot of needs.
Levario needs volunteers with plumbing, electrical, or general maintenance skills. “If we had $3,400 per month coming in, that would cover rent and utilities and then I could start a savings program for tenants and pay for one peer-support staff who would be a former foster youth,” said Levario.
At the time of this writing, Levario has been managing the house mostly alone, surviving on student loans and a small amount of fundraising. She is also looking for an outside job to fund herself, because, as she explains, “although we have received some generous donations, it is not enough to support the house AND me.” “Until we access full funding, the money needs to go to the house and tenants.”
The plan is to create a network of housing that is connected so that tenants have a large community of support.
“As we take over more homes, we will reduce the number of young people landing on the street or worse, when they leave foster care. We are building a community that will still be there, unlike when you “graduate” from other providers. This is about helping build a community around them. Sometimes we don’t have safe, viable family members or long-term friends, so we must build it ourselves, as adults.”
Some of the foster teens that were first tenants of Bren Rose are now grown and are getting involved with BrenRose. Levario hopes to open a second home by the first of the year and plans to start the next home with one of BrenRose’s older tenants who will move in and serve as lead tenant, helping maintain the model they have of a clean, quiet, safe place to live.
The intention is to offer full-time jobs as peer support as clients grow. “My goal is to build this up and have them (former tenants) take over. I want to leave a legacy that not only continues to support young people exiting care but for my “kids” who came through the system. I want my former foster youth to be fully running this one day. Achieving this goal will help me sleep at night when I retire.”
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If you know of a nonprofit that is doing something great, celebrating a success, needs some outstanding volunteers, or hosting an event, let me know! This column (aside from a little education) celebrates nonprofits!
Mary Beth Harrington, CVA (Certified Volunteer Administrator) lives in Tumwater. She travels the country speaking at conferences and to individual organizations articulating issues facing nonprofits. Send your ideas to her at MaryBeth@theJOLTnews.com
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