Providing a Path Forward

Crystal was in the foster care system since she was a little girl, after being removed from her home due to physical abuse and drug use by both parents. She is now 26 years old. She first came in contact with The RightWay Foundation when she was 21 and looking for housing assistance. She had aged out of the foster care system and directly into homelessness. 

When she first showed up to RightWay’s offices, it was clear she was just going through the motions of taking RightWay’s intensive trauma-informed job readiness program. She was offered therapy due to her history with domestic violence. But she wasn’t ready. She rejected the services and went back on the streets. Several years passed and Crystal was in an abusive relationship with a new girlfriend, living with this person and taking the abuse because she didn’t want to live back on the streets. But the abuse became too much. With nowhere to go, Crystal resorted to reconnecting with her family, the same family that abused her as a child. They allowed her to move back home. This time they abused her emotionally. Her family took her money to spend on drugs and alcohol for her father, and if she didn’t pay, they threatened to throw her out. So she paid.  

This is when Crystal made the decision to come back to The RightWay Foundation to see if they would still help her. She showed up, and once again they offered her therapy and services. This time she was ready and she accepted. During her therapy sessions, her case manager said Crystal was ready for work, and RightWay helped pay for her guard card training and secured her a well-paying job as a security guard. Crystal has been working for seven months now.  

She is determined to become financially stable. She knows she has a problem with saving money because she shops for emotional support, since shopping makes her feel good, like she has a bit of control in her life. With the help of her case manager and the rest of the RightWay team, Crystal is on a path to saving her money and building healthy tools to feel in control of her future. In February, RightWay will be moving her into her own apartment and will be paying half of her rent for up to one year. This is the big break Crystal needs in her life. She continues to see her case manager weekly and feels that she is in a much better space in her life right now. She believes every foster youth that leaves the system needs The RightWay Foundation. RightWay never closed the door on her and made sure she knew that when she was ready, they would be here to help her. And they are.

The RightWay Foundation believes that every foster youth deserves the chance to build a stable life. With employment, therapy, housing, and community, Los Angeles’s most vulnerable foster youth can age out of the system and into a healthy, thriving adulthood.