Daisyann Larkins was placed in the foster care system at 3 years old. For the next 15 years, she was shuffled through multiple foster homes and separated from her siblings. As she tells it, some foster parents were kind, others abusive.
“You shouldn’t be a paycheck to anybody,” Larkins said. “You should be family.”
One foster mother always treated her own son “like an angel,” but was often cruel to her, Larkins said.
“I think the lady was bipolar. She was nice some days, and other days she’d beat the hell out of me,” Larkins said. “If she was mad, or her husband cheated on her, I knew I was going to get it.”
When Larkins turned 19, she came across an article about VOICES (Voice Our Independent Choices for Emancipation Support), a local drop-in youth center that helps emancipated foster kids ages 16 to 24 find work and housing, develop life skills and maneuver through public agencies. The article contained statistics about foster youth, and how many end up homeless or in jail.
Larkins said she hung the article on the wall of her apartment and told herself, “I’m not about to be a damn statistic.”
Now 22, Larkins works as VOICES’ independent living programs assistant and attends Napa Valley College, where she takes classes in psychology, business and ballet.
Larkins’ success story is inspirational. Children aging out of the foster care system often have a difficult time transitioning into adulthood.
Once a foster youth turns 18, funding is no longer provided by the state to foster parents. Some youth are allowed to stay with their foster families by paying rent, but many others are told they’re on their own.
“Typically, foster youth end up homeless,” said Mitch Findley, a former foster youth who is now the assistant director of VOICES. “Most of the time, youth don’t want to have anything to do with the system anymore. Most go out and choose their own thing.”
Findley, a 24-year-old sociology major at San Francisco State, was one of 10 youths who were recruited by nonprofit On The Move in 2005 to become founders of VOICES.
Findley said he and other youths knew they wanted VOICES to be different from the system they grew up in — a system that felt “institutionalized.”
“We didn’t want someone sitting behind a glass window telling people to go wait in the lobby,” he said.
The services provided by VOICES are free to foster youth. The youth center receives funding from private donors and government contracts with Napa County, as well as donations from local, regional and national foundations, said Leslie Medine, director of VOICES’ parent organization, On The Move.
VOICES leases its building — located at 780 Lincoln Ave. — from the Napa-based Gasser Foundation. The Lincoln Avenue location is exclusively for Napa County foster youth. VOICES also has a youth center in Santa Rosa that only serves youth in Sonoma County.
What separates the youth center from the foster care system are the dynamics between the kids and adults, Findley said.
“With VOICES, it’s completely different. We’re considered the experts in what happens in our own lives,” Findley said. “It was a complete 180 from the foster care system. I felt like people actually cared about what I had to say.”
Findley said youth often come in with one attitude and leave with another.
Emily Jinks, 22, came to VOICES more than four years ago after her probation officer directed her there for job help.
“I was a brat when I first came here,” she said.
Jinks, who describes herself as “introverted,” remembers walking away and abandoning her first public speaking obligation with VOICES.
“My attitude was, ‘I don’t have to do what you tell me to do,’” she said. “I’m not like that anymore. I’ve become more professional, and I love the people I work with.”
Jinks, who works as an operations manager at the youth center and is currently a student at Napa Valley College, hopes to transfer to a four-year college and pursue a degree in nonprofit management.
Findley said VOICES has high expectations for youth, which is exactly what foster kids are looking for.
“I needed someone to hold the line for me and not let me off easy because I’m a foster youth,” he said.
In addition to having high expectations and much-needed structure, VOICES also provides love and support, according to the youth.
“When I walked away from the presentation, that wasn’t OK, but they gave me the opportunity to make up for that,” Jinks said.
Larkins said she receives “unconditional love” at VOICES — although it does take some adjustment.
“I’m still working and learning to accept the love,” she said. “I’m not used to it.”
