Orangewood Expands Support for Youths Entering Adulthood

Growing up in group foster homes, Danielle Poland longed for someone to teach her how to be an adult. So when she was a teenager, she attended the Orangewood Children’s Foundation’s Independent Living Program to learn the finer points of adulthood: how to cook, do laundry, balance a checkbook.

Not everything stuck.

“I still don’t know how to balance my checkbook,” Poland said with a laugh. “I have to go online to check my balance all the time.”

The dearth in banking skills aside, the 21-year-old has been successfully living on her own for three years and credits Orangewood for helping her get there. On Tuesday she conveyed her appreciation during the opening of Orangewood’s new Youth Support Center in Santa Ana. The spacious facility will be the foundation’s headquarters, apart from its group foster home in Orange.

“This is the next step for the foundation in providing a broad array of services to youth in Orange County,” said Gene Howard, Orangewood’s chief executive.

“This brings it all together and makes a statement that we’re here to stay.”

Orangewood, established in 1981, last year provided housing for more than 2,000 children at its Orange facility while giving workshops and support for hundreds more throughout the county.

A cornerstone of its work is an independent living program that teaches those ages 16 to 21 how to survive after leaving the foster care system. Last year, the foundation helped nearly 600 youths learn to live independently, and provided thousands more with everything from money for cheerleading outfits to trips to the beach.

The center also helps youths prepare for college and trade school and offers support and mentoring through college and beyond.

“Foster kids are moved around all the time,” Howard said. “They don’t get the opportunity to make lifelong connections. We want to be there for them. ... We’re making that family for them they don’t otherwise have.”

Previously, the foundation operated out of buildings scattered throughout the county. The new center, with a kitchen, conference rooms, computers and a resource library, will be open during the late afternoon and early evening.

The down payment for the new center came from a mysterious benefactor. A local woman named Penny Bolton left the foundation $1 million in her will, even though she had no significant interaction with the foundation. Howard said the woman’s husband may have been a participant in the organization’s annual 10-kilometer fund-raising runs, but beyond that, they have no idea why she gave so generously to the foundation.

Each year, the foundation raises more than $3 million in private donations to fund its operations.

In appreciation for Orangewood’s efforts, many former foster children return as peer mentors. Poland, a Cal State Fullerton junior, devotes 10 to 15 hours a week to teaching the same life skills she once treasured as a teenager.

“Our job is just to keep them motivated,” she said. “We have to just keep being role models and be the best people we can be. That’s the only thing we can do.”

Ana Ramirez, 26, an Irvine Valley College student, provides an additional service. Soon after arriving in the U.S. from Mexico at 14, Ramirez was taken from a violent household and put into foster care. Unable to speak English and confused, she struggled in the foster system. With support from Orangewood, including a bilingual counselor, she broke through cultural barriers and now tries to help others in similar situations.

“Here in America, life is set up so differently,” she said. “I’m glad I can assist them and help them adapt to a new environment.”

Ramirez, who hopes to transfer to UCI or UCLA and eventually get a job in law enforcement, said she will continue to volunteer at Orangewood for years to come.

“It’s not really giving back ... it’s taking back,” she said. “To be able to stand there and give encouragement and guidance for someone who’s lost, even if it’s only for five minutes, helps me to feel good.

“Their success is my success.”