Devereux Beneto
Success Stories |
| From the heart... |
I’ll never forget the clear sparkling fall day when I first saw Jamie, who is 10 years old standing in front of Pollock Villa. Jamie was a skinny, frightened, angry little girl when she first came to our Devereux Beneto Gateway program. By then she had already experienced more trauma and pain than people had 4 times her age, enough to last a lifetime. Both of Jamie’s parents were habitual crack-cocaine addicts and she had been physically and sexually abused by her father since she was just three years old. At age six she was removed from her home, placed under the custody of our children’s protective agency and all parental rights were terminated. She went on to have TWELVE psychiatric hospitalizations and three failed foster family placements.
 Jamie’s challenges were overwhelming but, we knew that if Devereux Beneto didn’t help this little girl, no one else would .The first 6-8 months Jamie would try to act out sexually and on a daily basis was physically aggressive towards the other girls and the staff. She would look for every opportunity to hurt herself, eating paper-clips, breaking and trying to chew glass, leaving our open campus and trying to run in front of a car, or simply taking one of her socks and trying to strangle herself. Needless to say Jamie required lots of staff time, energy, and intervention. We continued the support and never gave up on this little girl even though she was ready to give up on herself. Every day she said to us “ Please just let me die”.
With incredible determination, patience and true commitment by our staff, things began to improve for Jamie. Through daily visits with her therapist and psychiatrist and countless hours spent by the staff to teach her how to better control all of the anger that had been building up inside of her for years, Jamie improved. Every day her special education teachers at school focused on teaching her to read and write (skills she had never been able to acquire before), and they also tapped into her love of the performing arts and poetry. Jamie began to believe in herself and for the first time saw a future for herself.
After 14 months Jamie was ready to return to the community but, as you can imagine, given her history, we had a very difficult time finding a foster family that was willing to take her. ...and then we found Helen. Helen was a foster Mom who lived on a small farm in a rural community in the Pocono Mountains. So, on a bright, warm, early spring day we drove to the mountains and Jamie held tightly to my hand as we walked up the path to meet Helen who was waiting for us on her porch. Helen is a large, generous woman, with an even larger laugh. She gave us both a big smile and reached down and gave Jamie such a big hug, it was as if she never wanted to let go of her. And, you know what? She never has....
Jamie went to live with Helen the next week and has been with her now for almost two years. She attends a regular community school, loves helping out with the chores and the animals around the farm, has been in all of the school plays and goes each week to her Girl Scout meetings, where she has earned numerous badges, including one in poetry!
We got a Christmas Card from Helen and Jamie this year and inside Jamie had written a note to us saying: “ Hey, you guys, miss you all...thanks for my wonderful new life”!
This is just ONE of the examples of the lives that we change and the miracles that take place at Devereux every day. | |
