Voice Our Independent Choices for Emancipation Support, a local nonprofit group that helps local foster care youths on the road to adulthood, kicked off a campaign to address the physical and mental health needs of its clients.

About 200 or more teenagers came to VOICES Saturday to connect with health resources such as Community Health Clinic Ole, Napa County Tobacco Control Program, Planned Parenthood, Aldea Children and Family Services and substance-abuse programs such as Project Ninety. The teens gathered at VOICES’ parking lot on Soscol Avenue to meet with the providers and enjoy the food, games and a raffle.

“A piece of it is building relationships,” said Ruth Belazquez, 31, VOICES’ wellness coordinator. “My job is to bring the providers in to see our youth and build relationships. And have our youth see them.”

Belazquez said it’s a challenge for foster care, probation and group-home youths to get the proper medical coverage as adults and it’s often the last thing that emancipated teens think about when they have other worries such as finding a place to live.

“Usually, they are thrown out (of the foster home) at (age) 18,” said Leslie Medine, executive director of One the Move — one of the umbrella organizations, along with Progress Foundation, that oversees VOICES. “(We) are hoping to be the bridge.”

Napa has about 140 kids in its foster care system and as many as 25 youths will age out of it when they turn 18 this year, Medine said. Since the program began 20 months ago it has serviced 175 clients, ages 16-25 in Napa County.

VOICES launched its Changes program Saturday that will promote the wellness of its clients. Youths will have access to specialized coaches who will support them in identifying and using community-based health resources such as those at Saturday’s event. So far, the program has 16 partners including hospitals, clinics, and children, family and insurance services.

“I think they were really making a public statement (that) wellness is not a silly adult thing,” Medine said. “I think we have some goofy idea that (these) people are going to be able to find services and straighten out their lives (without help). I think we need support and we need to do it in the cradle of the community. If one kid is working toward getting clean and sober but she has 10 other people around trying to do the same thing, I think that’s pretty powerful (support).”

Familiar VOICES

face challenges

Medine said that the success of VOICES is due to the sense of community that its staff has established — emancipated teens and those who are in the process of leaving the foster care system staff and run the system alongside adult counterparts.

One of those youths, 18-year-old Nick Murrieta, was fresh out of a San Francisco-based residential treatment program when he applied for a job at VOICES, he said.

“I dropped my image when I came here, now I’m getting responsible,” he said. “Everyone has to grow up sooner or later.”

For Murrieta, one of the biggest challenges he had leaving behind his negative childhood was refraining from hanging out with his old friends, he said. VOICES helped Murrieta by connecting him with positive teenagers who have had similar experiences, he said. Today, Murrieta serves as the community center’s events coordinator and plans to attend Napa Valley College to pursue a career in sports management.

Amber McCurdy, 20, who serves as VOICES’ PACES (Parent and Child Education and Support) group coordinator, knows a bit about challenges. Her first major challenge came when she became pregnant at 16. At the time, McCurdy was on informal probation for substance abuse and was attending Temescal High School, now called Valley Oak High School.

“(My son) came in a ... (rough period),” she said. “When I had him, it gave me hope. I didn’t know who I was, what my purpose is. He came at the perfect time.”

McCurdy took the positive energy that her son brought into her life and used it to sober up, graduate from Napa Valley Adult School’s New Beginnings Program and get hired as a VOICES staff member. As the PACE coordinator, McCurdy helps young parents like herself get resources, knowledge and support. The young lady was recently awarded an If Given A Chance scholarship and plans to use it to attend Napa Valley College to pursue a degree in social work, she said.

“I have a lot of desire to work with people,” she said.

Emily Jinks was on probation for substance abuse and was in a group home trying to straighten her life out when she first heard about VOICES.

“When I came back from the group home, I still had friends that (I could get in trouble with),” she said. “I came (to VOICES) right after the group home. They provided a safe place to come and get the employment that I needed.”

Jinks helps facilitate the community center’s Changes Program. In July, Jinks will also help facilitate groups that address substance abuse reduction, recovery and support. She graduates from high school in August and is applying for a scholarship to attend Napa Valley College and later San Jose State University, she said.

VOICES’ services range from subsidized housing, which is one of the biggest needs of emancipated teens according to staff, a program that helps them find employment, an education program that also provides scholarships to deserving youths and a family-finding program that helps youths re-connect with their birth or chosen families.

For more information about programs at VOICES call 251 9432.