POLLYWOOD | CHARITY SPOTLIGHT
Fostering Success The Sara Start for Foster Youth helps young adults reach their professional goals BY MARY LANDRIEU
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who cares enough just to ‘show up’ and help you with life’s obstacles, simply because they believe you matter.” The Sara Start Fund works year-round to provide quality programming for young adults like Derrick, but the organization’s value outlasts its workshops. Mentors foster a long-term relationship with their mentees, and serve as reliable resources for professional advice. Throughout its five years, the Sara Start Fund has worked with over 70 current and former foster youth, connecting them with adults who care, and who want to see them thrive. It’s a formula that works – roughly 72 percent of alumni are working in their career field or pursuing an advanced degree. Derrick is one example of a foster youth’s potential, and organizations like the Sara Start Fund offer the assets necessary for their success. Former Sen. Mary Landrieu
homelessness – on the street, instead of on the job. With the help of the Sara Start Fund, Derrick defied the odds. Last month he led his mentee through a full day of career preparation activities during the program’s “Resumania” workshop. Alongside Derrick, Sara Start Fund mentors – who include Hill leadership aides and a best-selling political author – helped their mentees revise their resumes, polish their interview skills and build a LinkedIn profile. One of five workshops, Resumania is also a networking opportunity, where a few years earlier Derrick was able to create his fiveperson circle of support. “You have no idea how important it is to leave foster care and find people who are willing to be there for you – without being paid,” says Derrick. “Everyone needs someone
Mary Landrieu is a former U.S senator from Louisiana and a national leader on foster care and adoption issues. For more information, visit www.sarastartfund.org.
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
Sara Start Fund Mentor Derrick Riggins
| S E P T E M B E R | washingtonlife.com
PHOTO OF MARY LANDRIEU BY MATTHEW LEHNER. PHOTO OF DERRICK RIGGINS BY ZACK MARSHALL
ive years ago Sara Start Fund for Foster Youth met Derrick Riggins, a survivor of abuse who aged out of foster care and made it to college. He was full of potential, having secured a competitive congressional internship. He worked hard. In every way, Derrick had what it took to succeed – he just needed an opportunity. As is the case with most young adults who age out of foster care, he did not have the financial and social resources to transition into the workforce. Without this support, failing could have been a predicable outcome. The Sara Start Fund helped him network, provided professional development classes and empowered him with a stipend for a business wardrobe. Derrick, who benefited from his time on the Hill, got a job in his career field of choice. A promotion and advanced degree later, Derrick is now a mentor for the Sara Start Fund, the program’s first alumnus to do so. He lives in Arlington,Va. and works for a youth empowerment organization as the Director of Community Government Relations. “I firmly believe that all young persons – especially someone raised in foster care – need five key people in their lives who will keep in touch with them, give them a leg up professionally and talk them through life’s tough decisions. Thanks to Sara Start Fund, I have those five people in my life,” Derrick reflects. “Now I want to be part of someone’s five.” The 400,000 children in foster care in our country are at the top of my priority list. Each year, roughly 29,000 young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 “age out” of foster care and enter adulthood alone, unconnected, and unprepared for the challenges ahead. They are less likely to be employed, and more likely to experience public assistance, incarceration,