Capital Region Cares Capital Region Cares 2017-2018 | Página 114

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Success story
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STANFORD YOUTH
SOLUTIONS
EMPOWERS FOSTER
CARE FAMILIES AND
FOSTER YOUTH
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CAPITAL REGION CARES 2017 | comstocksmag.com
hope
BY Cherise Henry PHOTOS COURTESY OF STANFORD YOUTH SOLUTIONS
A
melia Kelly-Semper and her
husband have volunteered
themselves as foster parents
for nine years in the Sacra-
mento region, helping to care
for more than a dozen foster youth,
ranging from 5-16 years old.
“We know being a foster parent is
not an easy task,” Kelly-Semper says.
“Everybody cannot be a foster parent.
It takes diligence. It takes commit-
ment. It takes understanding. It takes
patience. Literally. When they say, ‘It
takes a village,’ it means everyone in
your household has to be a part of it.”
Stanford Youth Solutions, a
Sacramento-based
nonprofit
or-
ganization, helps to support foster
parents, foster youth and the families
behind them through their foster care
program. The ultimate goal, says Pro-
gram Manager Christina Cagle, is for
the kids to have the opportunity to
go home to their biological family. If
that outcome cannot happen, then
the next best thing is to provide fos-
ter parents with what they need to
achieve guardianship or adoption,
Cagle says.
These goals are achieved, at least
in part, through the layers of support
and resources provided by Stanford
Youth, including 24/7 on-call sup-
port, dedicated social workers with
customized support, free trainings
and more.
“You have to be the holders of
hope for these children, and we have
to train these families to be the hold-
ers of hope for the kids coming into
their families,” Cagle says. “It can be
a rough road, but if you’re willing to