Anastasia’s Story

Jul 14

Where others saw obstacles, Anastasia saw opportunities.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 South Carolina children and youth are in foster care at any given moment. The lucky ones are safely housed with loving foster families. The others bounce from one foster family to another, often ending up in group homes where survival can be traumatic, even treacherous.

At 18, they age out of the system — often with nowhere to go, no life skills, and no one in their corner. Sometimes they end up at Transitions. Often, their Transitions case manager is the first person who has ever paid real attention to them.

Meet Anastasia.

Anastasia was born in Germany, where her mother was serving in the Army. When she was a month old, her mother sent her to live with another family member. From then on, she was bounced between family and friends, stints with her mother, and foster care.

"When I was 13, my grandma sent me to a facility and then to a cousin who was doing drugs," she said. "I called my mom, and she came and got me."

Anastasia moved in with her mother in Greenville and at age 15 got a job. She and her mother argued about money.

"My mom said she didn't want me," she said, "and told me to leave."

She spent the rest of her teens in foster care, mainly in group homes.

"A group home is full of other troubled girls. I was in one for two years," she said. "I fought a lot. I fought everything. For a while, I was with a foster mom and was very happy, but then the system sent me to another facility."

Able to qualify for a year's extension, she stayed in the group home until her 19th birthday in August — at which point she was told to pack her belongings and leave. Her mother wouldn't take her back. She spent days going from place to place, ending up in Columbia at Columbia Housing, where a social worker was unable to find a shelter bed for her.

"That night I had nowhere to go and just sat on a bench in the dark in front of the center. I thought I would jump in a lake and kill myself," she said. "The next day, I told my social worker, and she got me a hotel room for two days."

Can you imagine being a 19-year-old girl suddenly alone in a strange city, with no life skills, no money, no contacts, and nowhere to go?

Determined to no longer be vulnerable, she called every shelter in Columbia. Transitions was the only one able to give her a bed.

We gave her an emergency bed as part of our outreach program. Surprisingly, instead of seeing herself as a victim of insurmountable obstacles, Anastasia saw Transitions as offering her the first opportunity she'd ever had to gain control over her destiny.

She now has two jobs and her own apartment, thanks to a housing voucher from Columbia Housing's Foster Youth Independence program. She has a set of achievable goals — one of which she'll reach by starting cosmetology school in January.

She credits her case manager, Keri Wilson, for her progress.

"Keri is my mother. She's always been supportive. She's straight up with me. Talks to me like I'm a grown woman."

The feelings are mutual.

"As much as I'm the light in her life, she's the light in mine," said Keri.

Still only 19 years old, Anastasia is on the path to the stability most of us take for granted. Keri will remain her case manager for the first year of her independent living — giving her the security of knowing that someone who cares about her is just a phone call away.

For 19 years, Anastasia faced obstacles beyond her control. Thanks to a combination of compassion and services found nowhere else in the Midlands, she turned those obstacles into opportunities.