*  I was living in Oklahoma City for fourteen years when I received a phone call from CPS telling me that my son was currently in the foster care system. I sent my son to live with his biological father in 2004 and had not seen him in 3 ½ years. The only contact had been by telephone. I tried to work with the Oklahoma county department of human services with no success and I ended up moving into my ex-husbands house in Tulare in July of 2007. I started working with CPS in Tulare to regain custody of my son by attending counseling and random drug testing. I complied with all of the requirements but in March of 2008 my services were terminated because I was living in my ex-husbands home and he was not compliant. I had a team of counselor’s that had close ties with the Family Crisis Center and they suggested that I enter the shelter program in Porterville. I entered the shelter program on April 4^th of 2008. I started pulling my life together and regained services with CPS. Even though I never lost visitation with my son, it was a huge wakeup call to be told that the services were terminated. I was traveling to Tulare on the bus three days a week for counseling and visitation of my son. I started the GED preparation course and a computer class at the Porterville Adult School and after three months at the shelter I entered the Transitional Housing Program. I continued to attend school and started having weekend visitations with my son. I still had to travel to Tulare for counseling sessions but I was now working towards the reunification of my son. We went to court in January of 2009 and I was awarded temporary custody on a trial basis. After two court dates I was awarded full custody of my 14 year old son and he was permanently out of the CPS system. I continued to attend school and worked on getting my driver’s license back by paying off past fines. After receiving my license I purchased a car. I have been working on my relationship with my son; he started High School this year. I passed my GED test and I have started College now. I have worked very hard to obtain all of these things in my life and to keep my sobriety. I believe the Family Crisis Center has been there to help me every step of the way. The support in the groups has helped me learn a lot about myself and now I am working towards a career that will help support myself and my son.  I feel very fortunate that my son ended up in a wonderful foster home with a loving family that even taught my son how to speak Spanish. My son still has contact with his foster parents to this day and I feel that it has made for a smoother transition when he came back into my care. I am very blessed that I had a good relationship with the CPS workers and the foster care providers. I thank the Family Crisis Center for all of the support and guidance that I have received from the shelter and Transitional Housing program.   If it was not for the stability that I gained while in this program, I would not have been able to achieve as much as I have. 

Thank You Everyone at the Family Crisis Center.

Sincerely,

One of your client’s of Domestic Violence

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Stories from Transitional Housing Program Manager

Randi Kestner

We have a client and her three children that left the Transitional Housing program recently. The client took the GED preparation classes while she was in the program and recently passed the test and received her GED. This client also started the paperwork for immigration status and is almost in the final stages of receiving her documents. She also left the program with permanent housing. 

 

We had another client with four children that was a real go getter and utilized the program to the most of her abilities. This client worked two jobs and attended English as second language classes the year that she stayed in the program.  Her teen daughter graduated from high school and the client left the program with a substantial amount of money and permanent housing. The client was also able to furnish her entire apartment with donated furniture from our community.

 

I currently have a client that is still in Transitional Housing that was able to obtain her certificate in office management, find employment as an office manager for a trucking company, and she continues to attend night classes at the college so that she can earn her degree in business. Not only has this client been able to save a significant amount of money while in the program, she has also gained life skills thru our weekly groups that will help her stay focused on her goals and maintain a healthier life style.