Stories of Hope - 10th Edition

2025 • ISSUE X

The Hard Way Home Searching for love, finding strength

Strength in Motion

Journey from silence to self-assurance

The Power of Being Seen

How compassion became the courage to change

Finding a Way Out

Strength rising from unexpected grace

Something More

How a mother of seven found strength, stability, and sisterhood through ValleyBuild NOW

Unraveled, Rebuilt

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From a fragile birth and fractured family to a future in engineering

AL EDIT

From Fields to Freeways

Shifting into a new life— one gear at a time

He Followed His Brother

Then He Chose a Different Path

Walk With Me

Becoming the guide he never had

Confusion to Clarity

Education honors the past and shapes the future

Support, Celebrations & Second Chances

FOCUS FORWARD BOARD OF DIRECTORS BOARD OFFICERS PRESIDENT

Joe Olivares, MSW Superior Consulting Service VICE PRESIDENT

Natalie Dodson, MSW Development Director California Teaching Fellows Foundation SECRETARY

John Lorance Economic Development Officer City of Fresno TREASURER

Lorrie Hopper Retired

BOARD MEMBERS

Michelle Engel-Silva Chief Executive Officer Proteus Inc. Fidel Barraza Account Executive Nexstar Broadcasting Group (KSEE24/CBS47) Rick Lopez Branch Manager Noble Credit Union

CREATIVE TEAM Bertz-Rosa Strategy & Creative Suzanne Bertz-Rosa Creative Director, Writer, & Designer Kathy Kinard Editorial Assistant Kendyl Day Photographer† †

Unless noted

focusforward.org

FRESNO COUNTY PROBATION

Dr. Ghada Al-Masri Vice President of Educational Services & Institutional Effectiveness Fresno City College EMERITUS MEMBERS Susan Anderson, J.D. Retired Matt Rosenfeld Senior VP/Regional Manager Broadcasting Nexstar Broadcasting Group (KSEE24/CBS47)

2025 | ISSUE X

BOARD LIAISONS

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP Joanna Litchenberg, MSW Chief Executive Officer Focus Forward

David Ruiz JJC Deputy Chief Kayatana Davis JJC Assistant Deputy Chief STORIES OF HOPE MAGAZINE COMMITTEE COMMITTEE CHAIR

Joe Olivares, MSW Superior Consulting Service MEMBERS

Joanna Litchenberg, MSW Chief Executive Officer Focus Forward Fidel Barraza Account Executive Nexstar Broadcasting Group (KSEE24/CBS47) Julie Jaramillo Staff Accountant Focus Forward

FRESNO COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

Katherine Martindale Deputy Director, Administration FRESNO COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS

Joe Hammond Director of Alternative Education

Nick Moreno Principal II, Alice M. Worsley School FRESNO POLICE DEPARTMENT

Diana Trueba Vega Police Sergeant– Assistant Public Information Officer

4 The Hard Way Home Searching for love, finding strength

28 From Fields

8 Strength

to Freeways

in Motion

Shifting into a new life —one gear at a time

Journey from silence to self-assurance

32 He Followed

12 The Power of

His Brother

Being Seen

Then He Chose a Different Path

How compassion became the courage to change

36 Walk With Me

16 Finding a Way Out

Becoming the guide he never had

40 Confusion

Strength rising from unexpected grace

How a mother of seven found strength, stability, and sisterhood through ValleyBuild NOW

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More

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24 Something

AN

From a fragile birth and fractured family to a future in engineering

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to Clarity

ES OF H

OP

Rebuilt

O

20 Unraveled,

IT

Education honors the past and shapes the future

44

Support, Celebrations & Second Chances

O

For ten years, Stories of Hope has honored the lives of people who faced challenges head-on and chose to keep moving forward. Each story carries personal responsibility and the determination to build something better. Together, they show us that while circumstances shape us, they do not have to define us.

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Dear Readers,

AN

A Decade of Stories.

A Future of Possibilities.

O F S E H I

T I D

Across a decade, certain threads have connected every issue. We have seen people find safety, claim education, and step into work that lasts. Again and again, these stories affirm that hope is not wishful thinking but action: the daily work of creating new possibilities for oneself and one’s family. And sometimes those possibilities lead to outcomes that exceed even the wildest dreams.

PHOTO: MIAKA HARDCASTLE

This year’s storytellers show us what that looks like in many forms.

Nicole finds belonging and a second chance. Gabriela, once silent in classrooms, now teaches with authority. Maria creates stability for her family, drawing on faith and building a business.

Others confront hardship head-on. Debora breaks cycles of violence, and Christian moves from incarceration to higher education.

Some step into careers once closed to them. Lily, featured on our cover, charts a new path from foster care to engineering. Nidia takes her place in labor leadership, and Rafaela transforms her experience in the fields into entrepreneurship and legacy.

Finally, we close with voices of vision and endurance. Darrin reimagines what schools can mean when they serve whole families. And Nancy turns her family’s endurance into transformation, carrying possibility forward for the next generation.

PHOTO: KENDYL DAY PHOTOGRAPHY

Taken together, these accounts show that when people accept responsibility and seize opportunity, they create a future that did not exist before. That is the promise at the heart of Stories of Hope: to celebrate those who have faced hardship with resolve and to inspire others with proof that change is possible.

As we mark this milestone, we honor every storyteller who has shared their truth over the past decade. Ten years of stories. And still, more ahead.

With gratitude and resolve, Joe Olivares Board President and Magazine Committee Chair 2

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

Joanna Litchenberg Chief Executive Officer 2025 • ISSUE X

Empowering Youth.

Supporting Families.

Creating Hope. t Focus Forward, we believe every young person deserves the chance to thrive, whatever their circumstances. We support youth and families involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems through trauma-informed programs that promote healing, learning, and long-term success.

For more than two decades, we’ve partnered with Fresno County Probation to serve every youth at the Juvenile Justice Campus, ensuring each one receives meaningful support. In recent years, additional partnerships with county agencies and local schools have expanded that reach to foster youth and students in need of mentoring.

Headquartered at the Juvenile Justice Campus, Focus Forward now operates a new Community Site at 1241 E. Shaw Avenue in Fresno. The larger, more central space doubles capacity and improves access for youth and families across the Valley.

NOW OPEN:

Focus Forwa r New Commu d’s nity Site 1241 E. Shaw Avenue Fresno

Our Programs REENTRY SERVICES A smoother return, a stronger start Supports youth as they transition home from custody through life skills classes, family engagement, and tailored case management.

Collaboration with probation officers, mental health providers, and social workers helps ensure safe reentry, rebuild family communication, and prepare youth for employment.

IMPACT: In 2023–2024, 129 youth and young

adults received reentry services, including 36 involved in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, along with 42 families.

PIPELINE TO OPPORTUNITY (P2O) Expanding education, changing futures Guides system-involved youth to succeed in college by helping them enroll, plan academically, and stay on track toward degrees and careers.

IMPACT: In 2024–2025, five participants

earned associate’s degrees and six more are expected to graduate in Fall 2025. Studies show higher education can reduce recidivism by up to 43% (eberly.wvu.edu, mackinac.org).

2025 • ISSUE X

FOSTER YOUTH SUPERVISION Providing care when it’s needed most Offers after-hours and weekend supervision for foster youth awaiting placement, ensuring consistency, safety, and connection during critical transition periods.

IMPACT: Each month, staff provide an average

of 500 hours of emergency supervision for foster teens in need of stable, supportive care.

BRIGHT FUTURES Strengthening families through support and education Serves system-impacted youth who are pregnant, parenting, or caring for young children. Through one-on-one case management and parenting education, the program promotes nurturing relationships and family stability.

MENTORING PROGRAM Building trust through consistent relationships Pairs youth with mentors who provide steady, caring guidance during and after incarceration.

Mentors help youth build self-awareness, strengthen social skills, and practice self-care through authentic, long-term connection.

IMPACT: Each year, 40–50 mentors support roughly 250 youth, including one-third through the Parlier Unified School District partnership. University partners include Fresno State, Fresno Pacific, Arizona State, California Baptist, Walden, and Grand Canyon Universities, along with Impact Justice’s California Justice Leaders and Project Rebound.

IMPACT: In 2024–2025, Bright Futures

provided parenting classes to 74 young parents, offered in-custody baby bonding for six youth and their toddlers, and delivered more than 1,000 hours of case management support.

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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The Hard Way Home

Searching for love, finding strength

B

orn in Fresno, Nicole Dowell was five years old when her adoption was finalized. Her mother, who struggled with drug addiction, was not able to care for her.

Nicole’s grandparents, too old to raise the children, reached out to family and friends for help. Nicole and her older brother were adopted by their second cousin, a pastor in Missouri, and his wife. Nicole followed the strict rules, hoping to earn her place.

“I lived for ‘I’m proud of you,’” she says. “That was everything to me.”

Trying to Belong

Nicole joined the praise team, got straight As, and did everything she thought would earn her a place in the family. “For my parents, the Bible had all the answers,” she says. “But I was still searching for something.”

At 15, after getting caught smoking weed, Nicole was sent to live with an aunt in Virginia. The transition was difficult, and she dropped out of high school with just four credits remaining. Nicole started moving around, following the wrong men to San Diego, then Colorado.

“I was running behind guys,” she says. “I thought maybe they’d be what I needed.”

Dallas was different. “I had friends out there, and I just needed a reset,” 4

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

she says. The gym became her outlet, but after she broke her neck at 19, she spiraled into depression. “I didn’t know how to exist without something, or someone, to hold onto,” she says.

“And I got really depressed.”

Looking for Closure, Finding Something Else

In 2018, when she was 22, Nicole returned to Fresno, hoping to reconnect with her mother. “I was trying to find closure,” she says. “I felt like something was missing in my heart.”

She remembered their phone calls as full of love and longing. In person, though, her mom was struggling. “She wasn’t the person I thought she was. While she had quit using drugs, she was still drinking,” Nicole remembers. “That was hard.”

A month later, Nicole learned she was pregnant. Feeling alone and overwhelmed, she called her adoptive parents. They told her to marry the baby’s father. “I didn’t trust myself to make the right decision,” she recalls. “So, I just did what they said.”

Over the next five years, Nicole had two more children. The relationship became more dangerous. Guns, drug dealing, and emotional manipulation were constant. She left seven times, always ending up in a shelter. “I didn’t want to go back, but I didn’t know how to make it work on my own,” she explains.

At one point, she asked her adoptive father, “Would you rather see me dead or divorced?” His response was, “I don’t believe in divorce.” It crushed her. “I almost believed I didn’t deserve more,” Nicole recalls, but her children changed that. “I didn’t want them thinking this was normal,” she says. “Or to feel the way I felt.”

Everything Shifted

The turning point came when she met another mom at the Marjaree Mason Center, a shelter that supports individuals escaping domestic violence. The two connected over shared struggles. When the woman got housing, she invited Nicole and her kids to move in. The apartment was small and crowded, but it was the start of something different.

Ready to take the next step towards independence, Nicole walked through the doors at Fresno Adult School. “I was so nervous,” she says. “I felt like I was too old, too far gone, like I didn’t belong.” But the staff made her feel welcome.

Teachers offered extra help.

Counselors encouraged her to believe she still had a future. “That was the moment I proved to myself that I could do hard things,” she says.

2025 • ISSUE X

“

I felt like I was too old, too far gone, like I didn’t belong. But they made me feel welcome.

”

—Nicole Dowell

Becoming Her Own Anchor

Earning her HiSET was a turning point. Nicole got a job at a car dealership and began building a stable life. She realized she had the power to change her life. “I’ve always looked for love to fix me,” she says. “Now I’m trying to fix myself.”

When her mother became ill and stopped drinking, Nicole chose to move in with her and help with her care. “I see that she’s trying, and I want to be there,” she says. It’s not simple. The pain is still there, and the fear of becoming her mother lingers.

Now, however, Nicole is focused on her education and caring for her kids: Carlisle, six, is in the first grade, Caius, four, is in transitional kindergarten, and Colette, three, is in preschool. Nicole is studying business administration with a focus on accounting.

She works, studies, and shows up in ways she couldn’t before. “I still have hard days,” she says. “But I’m learning how to keep going, one day at a time.”• 2025 • ISSUE X

Nicole Dowell celebrates earning her HiSET diploma from Fresno Adult School.

PHOTO COURTESY NICOLE DOWELL

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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Your Path to Growth...

STARTS HERE Learn. Grow. Succeed.

Fresno Adult School empowers students to chase their dreams from career training to community learning! Our programs are designed for adults at every stage of life, offering a welcoming place to build new skills and confidence for the future.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO REGISTER FOR ORIENTATION

Enroll Today!

• English as a Second Language (ESL), Citizenship, Adult Basic Education (ABE), High School Equivalency

1

Student Orientation (Complete Imago Lesson #1)

2

Register Form

(Prepare to show a photo ID)

3

CASAS Assesment

4

Attend Class

(Receive a Class Schedule)

(First day of Lessons)

• Career Technical Education (CTE)

1

Student Orientation (AM & PM Offerings)

2

Register Form

3

Confirm Eligibility For Pathway/Courses

4

Receive Schedule

2

Student Orientation

3

Registration Form

4

Assessment Test

(Prepare to show a photo ID)

(Attend First Day of Class)

• High School Diploma

1

Obtain Transcripts

(Official Transcripts must be SEALED)

(Complete Imago Lesson #1)

(Prepare to show photo ID)

(Upon completion, meet with Counselor for your Schedule & Attend First Class)

Office Hours: Monday – Thursday 8:30 am–6:00 pm | Friday 8:30 am–5:00 pm (559) 457-6000 | 2500 Stanislaus Street Fresno, CA 93721

Free Classes / Clases Gratis

Career Technical Education • Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) / Asistente de Enfermer Certificado LOW COST! / ¡ BAJO COSTO! • Licensed Vocation Nursing (LVN) / Licenciatura en Enfermería Vocacional LOW COST! / ¡ BAJO COSTO! • Medical Prerequisites / Requisitos Medicos Previos • Custodial / Conserje (Limpiador General) • Office Assistant / Asistente de Oficina • Paraprofessional / Asistente de Maestra • Bus Driver / Chofer de autobús • Campus Safety / Seguridad en el Escuela • Welding & Forklift / Soldadura y Montacargas • Accounting / Contabilidad • Entrepreneurship / Emprendimiento • Hospitality Management & Event Planning / Gestión Hotelera y Planificación de Eventos FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.FAS.EDU

Follow Our Socials

Adult Secondary Education • Earn your High School Diploma / Obténga su diploma de Preparatoría • Prepare for the GED or HiSet Exam / Prepárese para el Examen GED o HiSET

@FASAdultSchool

English as a Second Language • Learn English / Aprende Inglés • Prepare for the Citizenship Exam / Prepárese para el Examen de Ciudadanía

Strength Journey from silence to self-assurance

“

he told me I was S strong. I don’t think anyone had said that to me before. That stuck with me.

”

—Gabriela Sauceda, talking about her fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Fitzgerald.

8

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

2025 • ISSUE X

inMotion Motion G

abriela Sauceda left Santa Maria near the central California coast just before her 18th birthday to study kinesiology at Fresno State. She had a part-time job and lived on her own for the first time.

That’s when she met him.

“He was very outgoing,” she says. “He just knew how to talk.” They started dating, and soon after, Gabriela became pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter, Alexia, at age 20.

“I married Alexia’s Dad because we wanted to be a family,” she explains.

Hidden Struggle

The relationship began to shift, slowly at first. “It started with emotional abuse. Then verbal. Then physical,” she says. Gabriela didn’t tell her parents what was happening. “I didn’t want them to worry. And I was also kind of embarrassed,” she shares.

One of her college classmates began to notice something was wrong. She asked questions and offered Gabriela and Alexia a place to stay. “I didn’t stay long, but just knowing someone cared, it helped.”

She moved into her own apartment to continue her studies. To make it work, she drove six hours round trip to Santa Maria, where her parents cared for her daughter while Gabriela attended class.

“I didn’t say anything to my professors.

I didn’t ask for help. I just kept going.”

Finding Her Voice

Gabriela graduated from Fresno State, earned her teaching credential, and was placed at Parlier Junior High for student teaching. It felt right from the start. “I identify a lot with the students there,” she says. “The families reminded me of my own.”

2025 • ISSUE X

Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrant farmworkers, at home, Gabriela was fire and laughter, but she learned to swallow her voice the moment she crossed from her Spanishspeaking home into the English-speaking classroom. “I never raised my hand,” she remembers. “I didn’t really talk to anyone unless they talked to me first.”

Then came fifth grade and Mrs. Fitzgerald. “She told me I was strong.

I don’t think anyone had said that to me before,” Gabriela recalls. “She saw my potential. She saw my talent. And she just said it one day, like, ‘You’re strong.’ That stuck with me,” she shares.

“I think that’s part of why I’m here.”

Gabriela transitioned from student teaching to being a full-time teacher at Parlier Junior High School. Nearly 23 years later, it still feels like home.

Like Mrs. Fitzgerald, Gabriela uses her words to make an impact. “I try to say those things to my students when I notice something. You never know what’s going to stay with them.”

Pattern Repeated

In her mid-20s, Gabriela entered another relationship. She had a second daughter, Crysta. Her second relationship, too, grew abusive. “I thought I had learned,” she says. “Sometimes you don’t realize what’s not healthy until you’re deep in it.”

Eventually, she severed that relationship, knowing she didn’t want her daughters to believe how she was being treated was acceptable.

the other relationships, it was instant attraction. With him, we engaged in deeper conversations.” They were friends first. She introduced him to her daughters. “My girls liked him right away.

They were comfortable with him from the beginning.” After two years, they began dating, then they welcomed two more children, Ryan Jr. and Raelynn, and navigated Ryan’s cancer diagnosis together before getting married in 2017.

Today, their home vibrates with life.

The family travels together for sports tournaments. “Whatever the kids are interested in, we’re just there,” Gabriela says. “We support them fully.”

The contrast couldn’t be sharper.

“With the older girls, I was doing everything,” she explains. “I was working, going to school, no sleep.”

Now conversations happen freely. “We talk about everything. I want our kids to feel comfortable coming to us.”

More Than a Classroom

Gabriela reflects on the growth she’s experienced through teaching. “It made me more confident, inside and outside the classroom,” she says. She pays close attention to students who seem unsure of themselves, especially the ones who remind her of how she once was. “I tell them, wherever you’re starting, there’s always growth. If you just try, keep going—just do your best.”

It’s not just words. The advice she gives her students is the same advice that guided her from survival to success.•

From Friendship to Family

The idea of romantic love felt both impossible and irrelevant. “I was just trying to raise my girls and keep working,” Gabriela recalls. Then Ryan appeared through mutual friends. But Ryan was different from the start. “With Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

9

Parlier Unified School District Every Student, Everyone, Every Day

District Annual Accomplishments & Highlights Logros anuales y aspectos destacados del distrito

Measure P will be on the November 5th, 2024 General Election Ballot to support future facility projects including the construction of a Parlier High School Athletic Complex.

La Medida P estará en la boleta electoral de las elecciones generales del 5 de noviembre de 2024 para apoyar futuros proyectos de instalaciones, incluida la construcción de un complejo deportivo en la escuela secundaria Parlier.

District Goal 1: Accomplished Students •

Introduction of the Early College Program (PHS students are able to earn an associates degree over the next four years at Parlier High). Two cohorts in place.

•

Rollout of technology devices (IPads and MacBook Airs) for all students, K-12 - Work towards becoming an Apple Distinguished District

•

A total of 33% of English Language Learners (EL) in grades 6th through 8th grade scored a 4 (highest level) on the ELPAC state test, Spring 2024. EL Reclassification rates are up. (Reminder that this cannot be shared publicly yet -we can give info just not numbers)

Meta del Distrito 1: Estudiantes Exitosos •

Introducción del Programa de Universidad Temprana (estudiantes de PHS pueden obtener un título de asociado durante los próximos cuatro años en la Preparatoria de Parlier). Hay dos cohortes en marcha.

•

Implementación de dispositivos tecnológicos (iPads y MacBook Airs) para todos los estudiantes, desde kínder hasta 12º grado: trabajando para convertirnos en un Distrito Distinguido de Apple

•

El 33 % de los Estudiantes Aprendices de Inglés (EL) de 6º a 8º grado obtuvieron un 4 (el nivel más alto) en la prueba estatal ELPAC en la primavera de 2024. Las tasas de reclasificación de EL aumentaron. (Recuerde que esto aún no se puede compartir públicamente; podemos brindar información, pero no números)

District Goal 2: Supportive Environment •

Introduction of Folklorico, Mariachi (SAM Academy), Band, Choir, Piano, and overall expansion of Arts Education Opportunities

•

Continued Expansion of Career Technical Education Pathways; over 70% of graduates from Parlier High completed a pathway like medical, criminal justice, web development, welding, etc.

•

Introduction of grade level field trips to various colleges and universities for grades 3-12 including Stanford, Reedley College, UCLA, UC Merced, and Fresno State

Meta del Distrito 2: Entorno de Apoyo •

Introducción de Folklorico, Mariachi (Academia SAM), Banda, Coro, Piano y expansión general de Oportunidades de Educación Artística

•

Continua expansión de las trayectorias de Educación Técnica Profesional; más del 70% de los graduados de la Preparatoria de Parlier completaron una trayectoria como medicina, justicia penal, desarrollo web, soldadura, etc.

•

Presentación de excursiones por grado a varias universidades y colegios para los grados 3º a 12º, incluidos Stanford, Reedley College, UCLA, UC Merced y Fresno State.

District Goal 3: Empowered Community

Parlier Unified School District

•

Parlier Panther Post bilingual magazine - six editions to date to properly engage and involve community members

•

Introduction of Alumni, Community Empowerment, and Superintendent Student Superstar Awards at Board meetings

Office Hours: Mon - Fri 7:30am - 5:00pm 900 Newmark Ave., Parlier, CA 93648 Phone: (559) 646-2731

•

New Mega Panther Mural on the PHS North Gym for students, alumni, and community

https://www.parlierunified.org/

Meta del Distrito 3: Comunidad Empoderada •

Revista bilingue Parlier Panther Post - Seis ediciones hasta la fecha para involucrar y comprometer adecuadamente a los miembros de la comunidad.

•

Presentación de los Premios a los Exalumnos, al Empoderamiento de la Comunidad y a los Estudiantes Superestrella del Superintendente en las reuniones de la junta

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Nuevo mural de la mega pantera en el gimnasio norte de PHS para estudiantes, exalumnos y la comunidad

JOIN THE PARLIER PANTHER POST COMMUNITY! ÚNETE A LA ¡COMUNIDAD DE PARLIER PANTHER POST!

The Power of Being

Seen

How compassion became the courage to change

12

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

2025 • ISSUE X

M

“

aria Gonzalez was 12 the day a social worker came to the door. She had just returned from running away again, slipping back into routine as if nothing had happened.

She recalls ironing her clothes, expecting her mother’s words, “You’re not going anywhere,” to be the start of a grounding. Instead, a knock at the door signaled something far more permanent: she was being removed from the home and placed in foster care.

present for her children. But tragedy soon tested her strength again: her young daughter was struck by a car. Maria spent nearly a year at her bedside.

“I hated it,” she says of those first placements. “It was scary and uncertain.

But being strong was the only option I had. Those experiences guided me through every chapter that followed.”

Seeking a fresh start, Maria returned to Washington and settled into a small apartment. Just two blocks away stood a church, which she decided one day to walk into. That’s where she met Casey, a woman whose quiet kindness left a lasting mark. “She really took her time with me,” Maria recalls. “She showed me what compassion looked like. That one touch of gentleness and love… it inspired me to want to do that for other people.” For the first time, Maria felt seen. And in being seen, she discovered the compassion to see others.

Struggle & Strength

Maria spent her early teens in foster care, searching for stability and a sense of belonging. At 14, she entered group homes, where she stayed until 16. After a short return to her mother’s home, she moved to Washington to live with her father and stepmother. “I was rebellious,” she admits. “I didn’t listen.”

In her late teens, Maria experimented with drugs. She married young and welcomed a daughter at 18 and a son seven years later. But the shadows of the past followed her into adulthood.

When violence ended her marriage and poor choices led to incarceration, Maria’s life came to a halt.

She served six years, a period she says that became both her reckoning and her rebirth. “Every choice has consequences,” she says.

“But I learned I had the power to choose something different. That realization changed everything.”

Grounding & Grace

When Maria returned home, her focus was on rebuilding her life and being 2025 • ISSUE X

“When she finally recovered, I realized I had been surviving, not living,” Maria reflects.

“My son became my grounding force during those years, a quiet reminder of unconditional love and the legacy I wanted to create,” she shares. “He’s the one who reminds me that even when life breaks you, love helps you rebuild.”

he showed me what S compassion looked like. That one touch of gentleness and love… it inspired me to want to do that for other people.

”

—Maria Gonzalez

“From that season of uncertainty, I found renewal,” she says. Drawing on her creativity and faith, she built a beauty business, Creative Miracles by Maria, offering lashes, brows, facials, cosmetic teeth whitening, and more.

She continues, “Six years later, the business thrives, a living testament to perseverance and grace.”

A New Chapter

By her mid-forties, Maria re-enrolled at Fresno City College, clearing the hurdles of decades-old academic probation, and began to excel. “I want my education more than I’ve ever wanted anything,” she shares.

Today, Maria Gonzalez is filled with hope and purpose. She plans to transfer to Fresno Pacific University in the Spring of 2026 to pursue a degree in social work.

Healing & Reinvention

“I know what it feels like to be unseen, unheard, and lost,” she says. “That’s why I want to build a program for youth, a space where they can be supported, guided, and reminded that their story isn’t over.”

“It was healing for both of us,” she shares.

“I started to see my mother not just as my parent, but as a woman, someone who worked hard, earned her master’s degree in social work, and never gave up.”

Her dream is to create a family restoration center for youth aged 12 to 25, a place that nurtures hope, healing, and belonging. “I’ve seen what happens when families fall apart,” she explains. “Now I want to help create the kind of love and support that holds families together.”•

In 2019, when Maria’s mother suffered a serious workplace injury, Maria made one of the hardest and most healing decisions: she returned to Fresno to care for her.

Then came the pandemic. “I contracted one of the earliest strains of COVID-19 and spent nearly a year fighting to recover. My body weakened, my hair fell out, and even breathing became a struggle. But surrender was never an option,” she recalls.

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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Fresno City College Fresno City College Fresno City College Fresno City College

SPECIAL PROGRAMSPROGRAMS LEAD TO STUDENT SUCCESS SPECIAL LEAD

SPECIAL PROGRAMS LEAD TO STUDENT SUCCESS SPECIAL PROGRAMS LE TO STUDENT SUCCESS TO STUDENT SUCCES

CalWORKs – A partnership between the college and Fresno County Department of Social Services to provide educational services to people on cash aid who qualify for the CalWORKs program.

DREAM CENTER – The Dream Center provides information and academic counseling to new and continuing undocumented CENTER students atDREAM Fresno City College.– The Dream Center provides information and academic counseling to new and continuing undocume ed students at Fresno City College.

DSP&S (DISABLED STUDENTS PROGRAMS AND SERVICES) – Creates an accessible, inclusive campus environment to empower DREAM CENTER – STUDENTS The Dream PROGRAMS Center provides information academic counseling to new and continuing undocumentDSP&S (DISABLED SERVICES) –and Creates an accessible, inclusive campus students with disabilities and provide them access toAND pursue their academic, personal, and vocational goals. environment to empow ed students at Fresno City College.

DREAM Dream their Centeracademic, provides information andand academic counseling to new and continuin students with disabilities and provide themCENTER access –toThe pursue personal, vocational goals. ed students at Fresno City College.

EOPS (EXTENDED OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAMS AND SERVICES) – Offers personalized academic counseling and advising as well as DSP&S (DISABLED STUDENTS PROGRAMS AND SERVICES) – Creates an accessible, inclusive campuscounseling environment to advising empower EOPS (EXTENDED OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAMS AND SERVICES) – Offers personalized academic and as w financial assistance to qualified students.

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Finding a Strength rising from unexpected grace

D

ebora Granum met him when she was 21. “We were out clubbing,” she recalled.

“He was a smooth talker. Attractive.”

The first time it happened, it surprised her. “We were walking along the sidewalk, and he just hit me so hard on the side of my head that I fell. He caught me before I could hit the cement,” she recalled.

The next time it happened was after they had children, their son Bobby was about three and a half, and their daughter Joanna was three months old. He dragged Debora across the carpet. “I had such terrible rug burns on my knees,” she remembered. He left the apartment, taking Bobby.

Nowhere to Run, No One to Call

Bleeding and frightened, Debora grabbed her daughter and fled to the neighboring apartment complex. “I walked all the way to the back. I went into the laundry room and scrunched down behind a dryer.”

After regaining her composure, she began knocking on doors, hoping to use someone’s phone. At the third door, a man answered and inquired what had happened. Debora told him. “He said, ‘You can call Marjaree Mason Center, they will come pick you up. They can help you.’” Before that moment, Debora had never heard of the Marjaree Mason Center (MMC), a shelter for people experiencing domestic violence.

When the van dropped her off, she walked into the Marjaree Mason 16

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

Center with no idea what to expect.

She found support and education.

After 30 days at MMC, Debora began talking to her abuser again. He begged her to return, promising change and a fresh start for their family. Despite knowing from the MMC classes that this was a common manipulation tactic, Debora believed in family and wanted to give him another chance. She returned, and things were calm for about six months.

“I was in the kitchen, keeping my eye on Bobby in the living room,” she said.

Her partner came in and pushed her against the cabinets, choking her until she blacked out. “I woke up on my knees.

He was holding me under my arms, saying, ‘Are you okay? I’m sorry.’”

Debora knew it was the end. Once he left the room, she gathered her children and walked out.

A Stranger’s Kindness

She made it to a small shopping center with a nail salon. The woman working there saw the desperation in Debora’s face. “I asked to use the phone, and she handed it to me without hesitation.”

Debora couldn’t get through to Marjaree Mason Center. That’s when the woman made a surprising offer: “I’m moving

“

out of my house right now,” she said.

“If you’d like, you and the kids can stay there for a couple of days.”

Debora was stunned. “I just couldn’t believe that a stranger was going to let me and my kids stay at her house,” she recalled. She bought diapers and cereal on the way. Debora stayed in that house for two nights, until another friend could help. Each act of kindness helped Debora begin again.

Trying Again, and Facing Consequences

While rebuilding her life and living with her parents, she received a letter: Debora was being charged with misdemeanor welfare fraud.

“It was from when I went back to him for those six months,” she said.

“He was working under the table, and I didn’t report it. I was still getting assistance.”

She was charged in 1996 and pleaded no contest. “I was scared. I thought I was going to jail. I thought they were going

A stranger handed me her house keys and said, ‘You and the kids can stay there for a couple of days.’

”

­— Debora Granum, reflecting on an unexpected act of kindness that helped her begin again

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Way Out

to take my kids.” She completed two years of probation and paid restitution in full. “I just kept going.

I didn’t want that to define me.”

A Life Rebuilt, One Step at a Time

She began working at Fresno Housing in 1998. Later, her job required her to become a notary public. However, when she applied, her misdemeanor nearly disqualified her. “They denied me the first time. But my coworkers at Fresno Housing encouraged me to appeal,” she says. “They said, ‘You’re honest.

You’ve proven yourself.’” She appealed and won. She’s been a licensed notary for nearly 20 years.

Through it all, she never stopped going to school. “Even when I could only take one class at a time, I kept going.” In 2021, she earned her associate’s degree. Two years later, she graduated magna cum laude from Fresno Pacific with her bachelor’s at age 55.

Today, with her children grown and four grandchildren, Debora credits her Christian faith for carrying her through the challenges and shares her story with strength and clarity. “I am a domestic violence survivor of over 30 years,” she said. For the past 15 years, she’s given back to the organization that once gave her refuge, helping strangers find safety, just as strangers once helped her.•

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Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

17

Fresno Housing and the Beyond Housing Foundation celebrate the work of Focus Forward and all who help families move from challenges to opportunity.

When we come together to support our community, we create lasting change for generations.

www.fresnohousing.org

www.beyondhousingfresno.org

Unraveled, Rebuilt From a fragile birth and fractured family to a future in engineering

Lily Drinnon with her adoptive father, Larry Lucio in October 2025.

20

Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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ily Drinnon spent her first three months in the NICU. “I was supposed to be born in December, but I arrived in September,” she says. “One pound, born addicted, and yet here I am.”

Before her first birthday, Lily entered foster care, and at age three, she was adopted by Ronnie Layne Drinnon and Larry Lucio. They were the first openly gay couple in Fresno County to adopt, an event newsworthy enough to appear in The Fresno Bee. Together, the couple fostered more than 200 children.

Their house was always full. “There were babies, toddlers, teenagers, kids coming and going all the time. Some stayed for a week, others longer,” Lily remembers.

“I’m still close with many of them.”

The first time Lily saw her biological father, she was five. “A man knocked on the door and handed me a gift, a snow globe. When he left, my foster sister told me, ‘That was your dad,’” she recalls. “I collected snow globes, and somehow, he knew that. Ronnie and Larry had been keeping him updated.”

Fractured

“Imagine not seeing your kid for a year, and then they just knock on your door: ‘Hey, Dad.’ That’s what I did,” Lily recalls. “Larry was so happy I was home, but he was scared too, not knowing if I was going to run.” The next day, she says, he took her back to juvenile hall because he thought it was the only way to keep her safe.

“In total, I was probably in and out ten times,” she says. “In juvenile hall, we woke up early, we had school, we had rules. I loved books, and for once I could just read.” At 17, she graduated from high school and was released two months later.

ne pound, O born addicted, and yet here I am.

”

—Lily Drinnon

student support programs. Lily applied for ten scholarships and received all of them. She has been on the Dean’s List, earned multiple certificates, and spoken at Clovis Community College’s annual scholarship ceremony.

Back at home, Larry made it clear that adulthood was near. “He told me, ‘You’re almost grown now. You need to start making your own decisions,’” Lily recalls.

It was both freeing and intimidating.

Currently, Lily is on track to complete nine associate degrees and certificates, including those in math and physics, before transferring to a state university.

“I’d love to work as an engineer, project manager, or consultant.”

Abrupt Adulthood

Reconnection

At 18, Lily became pregnant. The relationship with her child’s father was violent. “While I was pregnant, he pistol-whipped me,” she recalls. “Later, he broke my jaw and nearly killed me.

He’s now serving a life sentence.”

Virgo was born in June 2019.

When her adoptive parents separated in 2010, 11-year-old Lily stayed with Ronnie. His death two years later unraveled her world. Back with Larry, she was angry and restless, and at 13, began running away. Each time, the police delivered her to juvenile hall.

Lily raised her daughter alone, working at Amazon and living in her own apartment. “It was the first time I felt some stability,” she says.

“I thought, I’ve always wanted to go to college—why not now?”

At 15, Lily boarded a Greyhound alone, headed to Arkansas to live with her biological father. “He had always wanted to be in my life,” she says. “He just couldn’t when I was little because he was in jail. But he welcomed me, and I got to know him and my little brother.” She stayed for a year before returning to Fresno.

She enrolled in 2020, starting with online classes. When Lily eventually attended in person, she felt nervous.

“The first time I walked onto campus, I wanted to throw up.”

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“

Building Stability

Motherhood has reshaped her perspective and healed Lily’s relationship with Larry. “He and I are close now. He lives ten minutes from campus, helps with Virgo, and we don’t fight anymore. I see now he did the best he could, and he never gave up on me.”

Her biological father remains a constant in her life. “He calls me every day,” she shares.

After everything, Lily says she is grateful to God, her family, and the resilience that carried her through.

“This is the most normal my life has ever been: school, family, a home for my daughter. I’m not surviving anymore. I’m building a future.”•

But she didn’t let fear stop her. She asked questions: “Where is the bookstore? How do I get help? Who do I talk to?” Doors opened. She connected with a range of Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

21

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Something How a mother of seven found strength, stability, and sisterhood through ValleyBuild NOW

Nidia with her seven children. From left to right: Gregory, Nidia, Hazel, Gabriel, Ivory with the dog Roady, the twins Lucas and Matias, and Violet.

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Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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More B

efore she became a drywall finisher, Nidia Chicas didn’t have steady hours, a union card, or a clear direction. She was just trying to make ends meet.

whatever helped cover the bills. I even drove the crew to and from the fields.”

Growing up in Mendota, Nidia would play or nap on blankets in the fields while her parents worked. Years later, she entered agriculture herself.

Taking a Chance on Change

A History of Hard Work

Nidia spent fifteen and a half years in agriculture— harvesting melons and tomatoes, pulling weeds, irrigating, and driving tractors. “Anywhere I could get in, I was there.” When the season ended or the hours were too short, she moved to gas stations, fast food, and the local school district. “Fast food, gas stations —

By the time she was 28, Nidia had seven children, including a set of twins, all under 12. She hadn’t completed high school, yet she believed there was more.

She visited Workforce Connection once before, years earlier, but hadn’t followed through. This time, she walked in looking for information on the truck driving program. A staff member asked if she had experience in construction.

“Just a little, like here and there,” she told them. That’s when she learned about ValleyBuild NOW (Nontraditional Occupations for Women), an all-women’s pre-apprenticeship training cohort.

Nidia signed up. “I was thinking it was something that you would go like after hours or in the afternoon, you know, four hours here.” She didn’t realize it was eight hours a day, five days a week, for eight full weeks.

ValleyBuild NOW required a serious commitment.

She quit her part-time jobs.

By the end of the first week, her van broke

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down. “I didn’t have a vehicle,” she said. “I had to start depending on people, borrowing rides.” Even with help, commuting to Fresno every day was exhausting.

And still, there was no guarantee. “It’s scary. You don’t know the outcome.

People can promise, but if you’re not one hundred percent in it, it’s not going to go anywhere.”

She thought about quitting, but one evening, she came home, and her son Gabriel asked, “Mom, what did you build today?” Then he added, “When I grow up, I’m going to build stuff too, like you.”

More Than a Job

When Nidia completed the program, she joined Painters and Allied Trades Local 294 as a drywall finisher.

“They [ValleyBuild] paid my dues, gave me tools, and had me working the same week. I was amazed.”

For the first time, Nidia had health coverage and a schedule she could count on. “Before, I used to work weekends. I used to work graveyard. I never had time to spend with my kids.

Now I get to go to parent conferences, and I get to go to practice. Now, I’m present.”

Nidia is the only female drywall finisher in her local.

She serves as vice president of the union’s executive board. “I walk onto job sites with 200 men. I go in with my boots, hard hat, and safety glasses. I love it.”

she says. “Even when I had cancer, they were there.”

Over the past year, Nidia has had two surgeries for ovarian cancer and is currently awaiting mammogram results for a potential third diagnosis. Through it all, she has continued to work and lead. “If I have seven kids and cancer and I can do this, anyone can.”

She credits much of her growth to the support system around the program. “Ashley and Beatriz were amazing,” she says. After her toddler was burned in an accident, “They’d ask if the baby was okay, if I needed anything. When I went back, Ashley actually got flowers for my daughter. It was a very beautiful gesture.

Some people take that for granted, but the smallest things make a big difference.”

Nidia credits Ashley Matthews, Senior Manager of Special Projects at the Fresno Regional Workforce Development Board, and Beatriz Lopez, Senior Project Coordinator for the ValleyBuild MC3 Apprenticeship Readiness Program, as instrumental in helping her complete the program and stay connected.

Back home, Nidia is leading by example. Her kids play sports, and she coaches junior high volleyball. “This program gave me a chance to be something more.”•

For Nidia, the union is more than a workplace. It’s a family. “They stood by me through everything,” Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

25

Shifting into a new life— one gear at a time

Rafaela runs United Truck Driving School with her daughter, Darlene.

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Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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R

afaela Escareño grew up just outside Reedley, one of seven children in a migrant farmworker family originally from Michoacán, Mexico.

Summers meant grapes.

Her parents brought her and her siblings to the vineyards, not to work at first, but to keep them close. “We’d just be there, playing,” she remembers.

“They didn’t want to leave us alone.”

By seventeen, Rafaela was a teen mom picking grapes and dumping them into gondolas, large bins used to collect hand-picked grapes for juice.

She rose before dawn and rode to the fields with her aunt, dropping her baby off with the babysitter on the way.

Back to the Valley, Back to the Fields

Over the next few years, Rafaela had three more children. She moved to Los Angeles with her partner, where she trained and worked as a dental assistant. When the relationship ended, she packed up, returned to the Central Valley, and started again. Four kids.

No job. Nowhere to live. She looked for work in dentistry, but no one was hiring.

She moved in with her mom and went back to the fields, taking jobs in packing houses, vineyards, whatever she could find. “I was living with my mom again, just trying to get by,” she says. “But I didn’t want to do that work forever.”

The Proteus Pivot

She had always been drawn to trucks.

As a kid, she shadowed her father while he worked on engines. She liked the tools and the grease and the sound of the engines. When a co-worker told her about Proteus, a nonprofit that helps farmworkers transition into skilled careers, she decided to apply.

2025 • ISSUE X

She walked into Fresno Proteus Service Center in late 2008 with four kids at home, no steady job, and hope for her future. Proteus Case Manager Maria Macedo guided her through the application, helped with assessments and paperwork, and ensured her tuition was fully covered.

She started training at United Truck Driving School that same year and completed the program in early 2009.

“When they told me I qualified, I was like, oh my gosh, this is real,” she says.

“I could finally make more, support my kids, maybe even get my own place.”

She moved out of her mother’s home and into a house across the street. She landed a job at Swift Transportation and worked there for a couple of months, but long-haul trucking wasn’t sustainable. “I couldn’t be gone for two weeks at a time,” she says. “My kids needed me. My mom couldn’t watch them day and night.”

From Student to Owner

Back at the school where she trained, Rafaela asked if there were any local job leads. The owner, Jack Aulakh, had witnessed how she helped other students during class. He offered her a part-time position in early 2009, making her the school’s first woman instructor.

“I just wanted to do the job right,” she says. “I didn’t joke around. I kept it professional. I had to prove I belonged.”

By that summer, she was working fulltime. She showed up early, stayed late, filled in whenever needed, and earned Jack’s trust and respect. Over time, she began hiring instructors herself.

was real.” In 2023, Jack retired and transferred the business to her. He still checks in when she needs support.

Today, Rafaela runs United Truck Driving School with her daughter, Darlene, who also hauls freight and raises four kids, and another female Proteus graduate.

Additionally, Rafaela owns Escareño Trucking, and during grape season, she drives six nights a week, earning in a few months what once took a full year in the fields. She bought a small ranch where her grown children and eleven grandchildren gather, and she still finds time to mentor new drivers.•

The Proteus Truck Driving Pathway

Proteus operates under the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), helping agricultural workers transition into stable careers through job training and support services.

Participants complete a 240-hour, six-week Class A truck driving program in partnership with local truck driving schools. The training combines classroom instruction with behind-the-wheel experience and prepares students to meet federal licensing requirements.

Proteus helps cover tuition, testing, and licensing fees— and offers support with job placement, gear, and even housing or living expenses. Staff work one-on-one with each trainee to guide them toward success.

Jack used to tell her the school would be hers someday. She thought he was joking. “Yes, yes, whatever,” she laughs. “But then his wife told me, yes—he’s serious. He’s giving you the school. That’s when I knew it Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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He Followed His Brother.

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Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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Then He Chose a Different Path.

S

even years apart, Christian Coppedge adored his older brother, Dustyn.

At 14, Dustyn was often left in charge of 7-yearold Christian when their mom, a single parent, was away. Christian saw him as a role model. What Dustyn did, Christian wanted to do. Where he went, Christian followed. “He raised me more than my dad did,” Christian says.

But over time, things changed. The house felt different, and so did his brother. Random people came and went.

There was a distinct smell Christian couldn’t place. He didn’t recognize it then, but now he knows his brother was using and dealing heroin.

The first time Christian smoked weed, when he was in the sixth grade, it was with his brother. He felt cool to be included. It opened the door to more.

Pills followed—Xanax, Percocet, Norcos.

At thirteen, Christian was detained for the first time, not by police, but by medical professionals. He was placed on a 72-hour 5150 psychiatric hold.

“I’d black out on Xanax. I was out of my mind,” he says. “When I woke up, I thought only two hours had passed, but my mom told me it had been days.”

By seventeen, Christian was selling drugs, using constantly, and carrying a gun. “I wasn’t trying to be tough. I was scared,” he says. “I was out there selling dope and walking around with money.

I felt like I had to protect myself.”

April 2019

A little after midnight on a raindrenched morning, Christian, who was partying with friends, got a message from someone claiming to be 2025 • ISSUE X

a friend of Dustyn’s. The man asked to buy pills, which Christian turned down. Later, the man offered to sell Christian some of his own prescription Adderall. They agreed to meet.

Almost immediately, the exchange turned confrontational. There was yelling. Fearing for his safety, Christian pulled his gun. The man charged him, knocking Christian to the ground. There was a scuffle. Christian fired his weapon.

The first shot missed. The second did not. The fight was over. Christian was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Because Christian was just two weeks shy of his 18th birthday, he was detained at the Juvenile Justice Campus.

A Wake-Up Call

In May 2020, just before his 19th birthday, Christian was transferred from the Juvenile Justice Campus to Fresno County Jail. “The whole place was split up by race and politics. I was the youngest person there,” he says of the adult jail.

“I had to fight just to be left alone.”

In November 2022, after more than two years in county jail, a change in state law opened the possibility for Christian to return to juvenile custody.

Under that law, eligible youth could remain in juvenile facilities until age 25, requiring release by their 25th birthday. Christian filed a petition, which was granted. He was transferred back to the juvenile justice campus, where he was ready to make the most of the redemption opportunity.

“

I ’ll never forget what I did. I carry that with me every day. But I also know that it doesn’t have to be the end of my story.

”

—Christian Coppedge

diploma. He leaned into therapy and began to examine not just what he had done, but what had shaped him and what might still be possible.

A Brother Lost

In 2020, before Christian transferred back to juvenile custody, his brother, who was in the process of recovery, died of an overdose while tapering off methadone. The death was sudden and devastating. “It felt like the only person who really knew me was gone,” Christian says. “I just told myself I had to be there for my mom. I couldn’t give up.”

A Future with Purpose

Christian was released in January 2025. Now 24, he earned an associate degree in sociology from Fresno City College with a 4.0 GPA and a spot on the Dean’s List. He has since transferred to Fresno State with the help of Project Rebound to complete his bachelor’s and pursue a master’s in social work.

His goal is to support youth in the system, drawing on his own experience to help them choose a different direction.

“I’ll never forget what I did. I carry that with me every day. But I also know that it doesn’t have to be the end of my story.”•

Christian began to take responsibility for the harm he’d caused and attended classes at Alice M. Worsley Court School, a program of the Office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, earning his high school Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

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Becoming the guide he never had

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Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

2025 • ISSUE X

t 17, Darrin Person lost his cousin Derek, who was killed during a drug-related incident when someone came into his cousin’s house and shot him in the back of the head.

“He was young, like me,” Darrin says.

“Looking at him in the casket, that was scary to me.” In that moment, he began to realize how close he was to the same fate. Friends around him were getting caught up in gangs and addiction. That same night, sitting on a porch with his best friend, Darrin made two promises.

One: he would never join a gang, and two: if he had a son, he wouldn’t leave him.

Today, Darrin serves as Executive Director of Community Schools for Fresno Unified. Born and raised in Bakersfield, Darrin came of age during the crack epidemic of the 1980s. He grew up without a father. The youngest of four, he was raised by a dedicated mother who worked three jobs to provide for her sons. “My mother was amazing,” he says. Still, growing up in poverty came with risk. “There were a lot of opportunities to get involved in selling drugs and so forth,” he recalls.

“But my mother made it clear that wasn’t going to happen in her house.”

The Fight to Find Himself

Darrin still found trouble. “A lot of fights,” he says. “Suspended. Kicked out. Always in trouble.” He moved between schools, never quite settling in. “You grow up without a father, you don’t have identity,” he says. “You have low self-esteem, and it shows up in so many other places.”

At 17, Darrin’s future started to take shape when he met Johnny, a youth leader who ran a local group home.

Johnny pulled up one day in a white Camaro. He was sharply dressed, confident, and unlike anyone Darrin had seen up close. He offered Darrin a job, and more than that, a sense of possibility.

“That was the first time someone told me I could go to college,” Darrin says.

“He mentored me, helped me get into California State University, Bakersfield.”

Darrin attended for a year before transferring to Oral Roberts University.

“I went to Oral Roberts with Iris.”

Love, Commitment, and a Calling

Darrin met Iris when he was 17 and she was 15. They shared lunch every day at school. One day, he told her he was going to marry her. “I told her I’d start a counseling center called Person to Person. I said, ‘You’ll be Person too.’”

It was a play on his last name, but also a quiet promise to build something rooted in connection. What they shared was steady: a desire to help others.

After graduate school, the couple opened Person to Person Counseling, offering individual and family counseling, along with workshops on parenting, relationships, and personal growth. Iris continues to run the practice today.

They’ve been married for 30 years and have two children: a son and a daughter.

In reflecting on how the fear of growing up fatherless can follow a person into adulthood, Darrin wrote a book called Bye Bye Boogeyman. “I had a lot of fear in my life,” he says.

“Fear of failure.

Fear of making the wrong decision.

But I took the leap.

And I found people who helped me.”

He’s also working on a second book, Five Star Service, which explores what it means to be exceptional in every aspect of life.

The Work of Walking with Others

After working for the Department of Children and Family Services, Darrin joined Fresno Unified when the district launched its first mentoring initiative and became the district’s

“

I had a lot of fear in my life. Fear of failure. Fear of making the wrong decision. But I took the leap. And I found people who helped me.

”

— Darrin Person

first mentor coordinator. The program started with 235 students and grew to more than 4,000.

Darrin went on to create the Men’s and Women’s Alliance elective course, which is now taught in high schools and middle schools across the district. In his current role, he oversees 29 community schools, each with a dedicated coordinator and a steering committee that includes parents, educators, nonprofits, and students. “The idea is that we consider the whole child, the whole family,” he says. “We make sure students have what they need: mental health services, food, clothing, after-school programs. And we don’t make those decisions alone.”

He is fully aware of what’s at stake.

“I had about ten guys I grew up with,” he says. “Eight of them are either dead or in prison.”

Darrin’s message to any young person who may be struggling like he once did is simple: “Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. Stop acting like you’ve got everything together. Ask for help.

I’ve needed people to walk with me,” he says. “You don’t have to be perfect.

You just have to keep walking.”•

To learn more about Fresno Unified School District’s Community Schools, visit: fresnounified.org/departments/community-schools 2025 • ISSUE X

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WE ARE

“

et my story L remind you. You can begin again.

”

—Nancy Ruiz

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Confusion to Clarity T Education honors the past and shapes the future oday, Nancy Ruiz is a single mother, a firstgeneration college student, a student employee, and a 2025 graduate of Madera Community College. Her story begins generations earlier, when her grandfather left his home in Mexico with nothing but the American dream in his pocket. He worked in the vineyards of Madera, paving the way for Nancy’s parents to build a life in California. Through long hours and quiet perseverance, they laid the groundwork for a dream, one not just for survival, but for something more.

That dream lives on in Nancy. She sees her education as part of a legacy, shifting her family’s story from endurance to transformation.

Searching for Direction

Nancy started school in Fresno speaking only Spanish. “Kindergarten was singing and dancing,” she recalls.

“But by first grade, I didn’t understand how to properly learn language arts or history. I didn’t understand the language. I was just trying to keep up.”

With no tutors or classroom aides and one teacher for a packed classroom, school felt overwhelming for Nancy. Her parents couldn’t help with homework.

“The questions felt like riddles,” she explains. “Even now, I have to teach my daughter how to read them.”

She made it through high school but just barely. “I wasn’t doing my homework.

I was missing assignments. I didn’t know how much it would matter,” she remembers. “I almost didn’t graduate, but I did.”

After graduation, she went straight to work in fast food, 2025 • ISSUE X

then retail, then customer service.

She thought maybe that was what her parents meant by doing better.

“I held various office jobs and kept going, but deep down, I knew I was meant for something greater.”

Nancy tried college once. Then again.

She dropped out both times. “My heart and mind weren’t aligned,” she recalls.

A Reason to Rise

It took a life-altering moment to shift her course. After a divorce and becoming a single mother, Nancy moved to Madera with her young daughter. “It was a turning point, a moment that broke me down just enough to rebuild stronger.”

“I came here looking for a new start,” she recalls. “I needed to take accountability for my choices. I wanted to give my daughter a better emotional life, a better financial life. And I realized, “If I’m not growing, I’m not truly living.” So, I went back to school.”

Finding Her Foundation

Nancy found more than classes at Madera Community College. She found clarity. “For the first time in education, I knew what I was doing,” she recalls.

“I felt like I had a plan. College didn’t feel so intimidating anymore.”

With support from EOPS, CalWORKs, and CARE, she began to thrive. She earned three associate degrees in psychology, sociology, and social science—and discovered her voice.

As a student ambassador, Nancy visited high schools and helped other first-generation students find their way. “I show them where to go. I tell them about financial aid and workstudy. “I encouraged every student to pursue their educational goals”.

and chosen to speak at commencement.

She stood at the podium and shared the truth behind her success.

“There were days when I went from class to work, from club meetings to housework and dinner, then stayed up late to finish my homework,” she told the crowd. “Through the chaos, the lack of sleep, and the occasional crying in the car, I kept going because my purpose speaks louder than my fears.”

A New Legacy

Nancy graduated summa cum laude, earned scholarships from the Soroptimist and Mask Foundation, and was featured in the college’s “Learn is to Grow” mural. She is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Fresno State and plans to become a licensed psychologist. Nancy continues to work on both campuses and volunteers at community events. And she’s raising her daughter with the same honesty and hope that carried her through.

“I’ve been honest with my daughter,” Nancy shares. “I told her I’m going to school, working, and earning my degree. When they gave me a pen and notebook with the school logo at orientation, I gave them to her. I made sure she felt part of the journey.”

Nancy’s story is rooted in resilience and powered by purpose. It’s offered as an invitation to any student who thinks it’s too late, too hard, or too far out of reach.

“Let my story remind you,” she shares. “You can begin again.”•

In 2025, she was named Madera Community College’s Student of Note Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

41

¡TU PERTENCES AQÚI! YOU BELONG HERE

ਇਹ ਤੁਹਾਡਾ ਆਪਣਾ ਕਾਲਜ ਹੈ|

Peb zoo siab txais tos koj

People with a college degree earn a higher income on average.

Don’t wait any longer to change your life.

Do it for your family.

Do it for you.

Madera Community College offers special support programs for:

• First-generation college students • Students from a low-income background • Foster youth • Undocumented students • Veterans • Students with a disability • Students from a farm working background • and more

“

Madera Community College gave me the tools I need to be successful in the medical field.

I am grateful to the faculty and staff for the support they give me to me and all of the students here. It’s a wonderful place to begin your college journey!”

Julio Mora, Class of 2023

Everything You Need to Succeed

Programs are build with regional jobs in mind. Choose from Madera and Oakhurst campus locations. Check-out laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots for free.

Apply for free financial aid to cover fees, textbooks, transportation, utilities, and more. Many students qualiy for free tuition.

Get the support you need to succeed.

Services include tutoring, career support, academic counseling, and more.

maderacollege.edu

(559) 675-4839 outreach@maderacollege.edu

Support, Celebrations & Second Chances

Youth and Probation team celebrate high school graduation.

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Focus Forward: Stories of Hope

2025 • ISSUE X

Youth enjoying agua fresca and carne asada tacos during a Cinco de Mayo celebration hosted by The Boys and Girls Club.

Cinco de Mayo Celebration: A Day of Food and Fun

The Boys and Girls Club, with help from the JJC Recreation Coordinator, hosted a festive Cinco de Mayo celebration. The commitment gym was decorated, and each unit created its own piñata during Boys and Girls Club sessions in preparation.

On the day of the event, youth enjoyed carne asada tacos, agua frescas, and Spanish music. The celebration included classic games like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” followed by lively swings at their piñatas to win sweet treats.

Probation and Focus Forward team prepares room for youth moving into transitional living.

Probation Placement Unit: Supporting Youth and Families

In partnership with Focus Forward, the Probation Placement Unit facilitates Child and Family Team meetings, completes CANS assessments, develops reunification and transition plans, and connects families to community resources. The team coordinates parenting classes, provides crisis management support, and mentors youth both in and out of custody. They also promote job readiness and pro-social activities, collaborate with schools and service providers to support placement stability, and assist with transition and aftercare services. Specialized support is provided for youth with unique needs, including those involved in CSEC and AB 12 programs. The unit partners with behavioral health and community programs to ensure access to critical supports, including clothing, ID vouchers, and vital documents.

LEFT: Loto Ministries hosted an Easter service for the youth.

RIGHT: Three youth attended Easter service at Cornerstone Church.

Easter Service: A Message of Hope

Loto Ministries, with support from the JJC Recreation Coordinator, hosted a meaningful Easter service for the youth. More than 15 volunteers gathered in the detention gym to share motivational messages, lead group prayer, and provide live worship music. After the service, the youth enjoyed snacks donated by the ministry. In addition, three youth were given the opportunity to attend Easter service at Cornerstone Church, where they shared a meal and experienced the Easter message from the balcony.•

Annual Focus Forward Holiday Event: FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Youth receives certificate for successfully completing his therapeutic program, alongside his Probation Officer and Focus Forward support team. Probation team celebrates the holidays with youth. Youth receives holiday gift.

2025 • ISSUE X

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• The Family Urgent Response System (FURS) is a toll-free hotline available 24/7/365, staffed with caring counselors who provide immediate support to current and former foster youth and their caregivers on the phone and, if requested, in person.

• FURS local Mobile Response Teams are comprised of compassionate, trained professionals who are available to provide support during critical moments of conflict or crisis.

• These teams serve as a trauma-informed alternative to 911 or law enforcement and assist in de-escalating conflicts, stabilizing placements, and connecting families to local support services and resources.

• Let your child know that your love is unconditional and make communication a priority.

• Model a healthy, balanced diet by letting your child see you enjoying fruits and vegetables.

• Teach your child how to use 911 in the case of an emergency; help them understand what facts the operator will need, such as location, the emergency, and who is involved.

• Make sure your child understands water safety, and always supervise them when they're swimming or playing near water.

WE ARE OPEN YOUR

HEART OPEN YOUR HOME

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES EVELOP RELATIONSHIPS HOW INTEGRITY EEK EXCELLENCE

More than 1,600 children are in care in Fresno County and until family problems are resolved and reunification with birth parents can occur, resource parents are needed to open their hearts and their homes and provide the most important service that we can give to children in care.

The Resource Family Approval Program (RFA) is a streamlined approval process for all caregivers that works to recruit, support, and retain quality resource parents who are willing and able to provide the type of parenting that these children need.

RFA prepares families to better parent the vulnerable children in the foster care system, whether it be temporarily or permanently.

Be the Reason Someone Believes Again

Every young person deserves someone who shows up.

At Focus Forward, mentors offer that steady presence, listening, guiding, and helping youth see what’s possible.

You don’t need special training or unlimited time, just a willingness to show up consistently. A few hours a month can change the way a young person sees their future.

Each year, 40 to 50 mentors walk beside more than 250 youth, offering care and connection during and after incarceration. They help youth strengthen social skills, practice self-care, and engage with their communities.

Your presence can be that turning point, the moment someone believes again.

Become a Mentor.

focusforward.org/volunteer

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AL EDIT

Magazine Launch Party OCTOBER 29, 2025 With each new edition of Stories of Hope, we host a Magazine Launch Party to celebrate the release, recognize our sponsors, and honor the remarkable individuals featured in its pages.

Thank you to everyone who made this edition’s launch possible!

WINE

E&J Gallo Winery VENUE

Nexstar Broadcasting Group (KSEE24/CBS47) Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater ENTERTAINMENT

Valley Regional Occupational Program/ Parlier Unified School District Folklorico MASTER OF CEREMONY

Kayla Holt from Nexstar Broadcasting Group (KSEE24/CBS47) MAGAZINE PRINTING

Dumont Printing

Fresno | Clovis | Madera | Selma 559-252-5000 - NobleCU.com Federally Insured by NCUA

DJ SERVICES

Mark Lozada PHOTOGRAPHY

InPower Marketing

Changing Lives Every Day At Focus Forward, we support youth and young adults in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Our services are provided by passionate individuals from all walks of life and experience.

REENTRY PROGRAM For Youth in the Juvenile Justice System and their Families PIPELINE TO OPPORTUNITY Higher Education Program for Current & Former Juvenile Justice Youth MENTORING For Youth in the Juvenile Justice System and Parlier Unified School District

FOSTER YOUTH SUPERVISION Emergency Overnight & Weekend Supervision for Foster Youth

In addition to our staff, our team consists of dozens of interns

BRIGHT FUTURES For Teen & Young Parents with Children 0-5 years

INVEST IN CHANGE. INVEST IN THE FUTURE. INVEST IN FOCUS FORWARD.

PLACEMENT SERVICES For Youth in the Juvenile Justice & Child Welfare System

With your support of time or

and community volunteers. Through partnerships with Fresno State’s Project Rebound and Impact Justice’s California Justice Leaders AmeriCorps program, individuals with lived experience in carceral systems serve as mentors to support our mission.

resources, we can help youth and families disrupt cycles of violence, poverty, and incarceration. An investment in Focus Forward is an investment in our community.

focusforward.org