Sacramento Children's Home - One Call At A Time

You can't control what happens to you, but you do get to choose how you respond to it. I'm just continually floored when I see kids doing the most with so little. To be able to call on the Source with people that work in The Source, that have that same lived experience. It's incredibly important. Why not be that person that I needed? Why not be that resource that I needed? The Source is a a mental health services hotline for youth up to the age of 26 and their caregivers in need. We do crisis intervention. We do support getting connected to mental health services. And we're also just there to listen and help navigate the mental health services field, which can be really daunting for some people. A youth peer mentor is an advocate who has lived experience dealing with mental health challenges, being in the foster care system, or juvenile detention. I was in some form of foster care from when I was five until I was 24. What we do is we just help the youth bring voice and choice to their care. All right. I'll meet you out there. Sometimes foster care can kind of feel like an invisible problem. You kind of wear it on the inside, and you're discouraged from letting people know what's going on. It's hard to meet other people who are going through what you're going through. It's a privilege that I get to support them and kind of come at it from an angle of like, hey, this happens. And we have unique experiences that not everybody can relate to. But it doesn't make you less valid. I really like to keep the door open and help as many people going through foster care succeed as I can. You know, I came from a single mother household because of a lot of family issues, and I think the recession hit. There was no support. A lot of kids in general don't have someone consistently there. The source has the ability to go out in the field and be hands on a little bit. And we may be just a phone call or a text away, but at least for there. Consistency and being present is probably the best part of the job because you see immediate results to any foster children watching or any children with mental health challenges. You're a really special person and we are a really special community. These things are often seen as a detractor or downside, but the truth is it's just part of life and you're still a valid person and you can still do anything you want to do.