Foster Care Provided Her Seeds of Success

Mar 31, 09:45 AM

Current Headlines: By Andrew Dys, The Herald, Rock Hill, S.C.

Mar. 31--There is a 19-year-old Phi Beta Kappa honor student at Spartanburg Methodist College who is on scholarship and tutors other students. She gives campus tours as part of the campus ambassadors.

Tameka Massey is a foster child, too.

Tameka is a long way from age 13 in Rock Hill, when a home life so brutal took her to the end of the line for many abused and neglected children: York County Department of Social Services' foster care program.

Valinda Jones, DSS foster care supervisor, called the program "the last resort for children abused or neglected."

The people of that program -- and the program itself -- are partly why she is set to graduate May 5 and then head to Columbia College to study social work.

"My family helped me," Tameka said.

Not her blood family. It was that family Tameka was removed from. A family related by something much stronger -- a refusal to let Tameka Massey become a statistic -- helped her.

Tameka was assigned a case worker, a lady named Annette Dye. Dye immediately became, and still is, the friend Tameka needed. She told her foster care offered the support she never had before, the chances at school, the safety.

The courts assigned her a veteran guardian ad litem to represent her interests in the courts. Enter Ron Hoover, an opinionated, tough, father and grandfather whose wife, Carmen, also is a guardian. Through years of court proceedings, Hoover recommended that Tameka stay in foster care. He investigated other options. There were none.

"Tameka that first time we met was shy and scared," Ron Hoover said. "Foster care was her best shot."

Tameka was assigned to a Columbia group home called Epworth, and her life began to flourish. She was taught independent living skills. Dye and the Hoovers were regulars in her life. She began to achieve and excel.

"There were bumps along the way, no different than any teenager," said Jones, the DSS foster care supervisor. "Her determination brought her through."

Tameka graduated from Dreher High School in 2005, then turned 18. Voluntarily, she stayed in the foster program, which she can under state rules until age 21. She can even get college assistance until age 23, through her master's degree.

There are no guardians anymore after age 18. The Hoovers are no longer tied by the courts to Tameka. They remain much more than a court assignment. Carmen Hoover talks of Tameka like she talks of her own children and grandchildren.

"We will be there with her until she graduates and gets married and after that," Ron Hoover said.

Tameka came to foster care with nothing. She is now in possession of the course of her life.

Foster care bought Tameka a laptop computer and gives her a clothing allowance. It helped get her a class ring. It gave her family.

It worked.

"Foster care helped her go to college and make good choices," said Dye, a case worker of 12 years who knew in this case that Tameka's only road to success lay outside York County. Dye is still her case worker. "She's a role model for every child, not just foster children. She is a success."

But Tameka piped up: "I'm not a child anymore. I'm a foster young adult."

And that she is.

A college student who likes to go to movies and go to the beach with her friends, shop at Old Navy and look for a summer job.

"I never went to the beach when I was young," Tameka said.

She didn't do a lot of things.

But she can now.

She only wants one other thing.

"A car," Tameka said.

"DSS can't buy cars," laughed Dye.

But what DSS and foster care gave Tameka can buy more. It gave her a chance. She took it and ran.

She is still running.

-----

Copyright (c) 2007, The Herald, Rock Hill, S.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:GPS,