Foster care helps student beat odds
By Hannah Drown, Staff Writer
March 19, 2008 | 8 p.m.
Many children in the world today live without homes and loving families. The foster care system is helping these children find a place to belong, and Milestones Foster Care Network is providing quality services to children in Southeastern Ohio. Sophomore Sarah Chambers is just one story.
Chambers is a Milestones foster child who entered the foster care system a week before her 17th birthday. At 14 years old, she was removed from her parents' house because her dad was physically abusive. She bounced around houses of family members, was put on house arrest and even spent eight months in a juvenile detention center.
Once Chambers got out, she went to live with another aunt. Her aunt was Wiccan, and she and her best friend believed that Chambers was the missing third witch to their trio.
"She went in the basement and said all these chants," Chambers said. "It was really scary."
When Chambers did not want to participate in their Wiccan practices, she was forced to move out. She was once again placed in a juvenile detention center where she lived in a cell for a month.
“I felt very safe and comfortable because I knew they were trying to help me, and they weren’t beating me like my dad was,” Chambers said.
After Chambers got out of the cell, there was no family left, so she went into foster care at Milestones. Her foster family was one with whom she finally felt comfortable.
Even with all of her adversities, Chambers is now out of the system and doing well for herself. She attributes a lot of her success to the help that Milestones has given her.
Chambers said that Wendy Shields, the director at Milestones, directly worked with her to help with her future endeavors.
"When I was a senior in high school she was telling me about scholarships, and she came to OU to financial aid and helped me get a work-study job," Chambers said.
Chambers currently is pursuing a degree in psychology and social work. She has a 3.8 grade point average and is grateful for all that Milestones did for her and her future.
“[Shields] feels a drive to change the way things are,” Chambers said.
Everybody who is a part of Milestones, from upper management to the children themselves, feels as if he or she is part of a family.
"We're a family," said Teresa DeVault, a Milestones foster parent. "It's a Milestones family, and we're all team members of that family."
Located in Athens, Ohio, Milestones' theory is to be a nonprofit agency in Southeastern Ohio. It fosters children who feel comfortable in the area, and it has remained small to give each child the quality treatment he or she deserves.
Milestones Foster Care is an agency that is really in the business for the sake of the children.
For more information about the agency, visit its Web site.
---