One year ago several teens were enrolled in an independent-living class. The Deseret News wrote about them then. They were learning to budget, learning to cook and learning to interview for a job.
Learning these tasks, so necessary for any young person, was especially vital for these particular young people. They were foster children, about to go out on their own, with no parents around to provide money and advice during the launching years.Now they are launched.
Before we said goodbye to them after the interviews for the first story, we asked to talk to four of them after a year. We wanted to know how they were doing, we said. They were so bright. So eager. And so young.
What we learned, a year later, is that they are still in the process of launching themselves. They're 18 now. Still young. Still bright. No longer receiving foster-care grants, directly or through their foster parents.
Orlando Lay says the class he took through Social Services helped him to be more responsible. "I learned some mental stuff in that class, like how to keep myself in reality when my temper blows up. And I learned to budget. Like I know how much I can spend on clothes each month. Budgeting is the hardest thing when you are growing up.
"I'm doing pretty good," he says. Lay, though 18, is a senior at Cyprus High School. He is still living with his foster parents, an arrangement that is working so far.
"I worked at McDonald's for three months. They weren't giving me enough hours, and I have to pay rent. So I quit." His immediate hopes are to find a part-time job, play on the school basketball team, graduate from high school and either get some financial aid for college or join the military service.
There was another young man we wanted to talk to. But when we called the number he left us, his foster mother didn't know where he was. "He's gone. He got into quite a bit of trouble when he was living here," she said, hanging up abruptly.
Chalk up one troubled transition into the adult world.
Anke Hofler's made a big transition. She got married a month ago. She's Anke Lewis now, proud owner of a brand-new car and a checking and savings account.
She attended night school, working on a high school diploma she hopes to have after taking the final test this week.
"I just got out of debt," she adds. She quit one job but has started another, with Roto-Rooter. She got the job through the Job Training Partnership Act, a program of Job Service that she learned about through the independent-living course.
The statistics aren't promising for Lewis. She knows that the average length of time an 18-year-old keeps a JTPA job is three months and that more than half of young marriages end in divorce.
The teachers of the independent-living class, Kay Harrison and Jeryne Webb, talked about sobering statistics. "They knew I was seeing Brad," Lewis says. "They kept telling me to take my time and be sure."
She thinks she can beat the odds, both on the job and in the marriage. "Brad is a good person to talk to. He's my friend. My other boyfriends didn't really care about me. But I'm important to Brad."
Meanwhile, Lewis still goes to see Webb and Harrison when she needs advice.
So does Orlando Lay.
So does Caryn Griffiths, who is working at Annabelle's restaurant and planning on getting married herself - to Eric Hofler, Anke's brother.
"He has a job," she says. That's important. Griffiths isn't so young as to think you can live on love.
Her hopes are to graduate from high school. Someday soon she'll start night school. She'd like to own a little home with Eric. Someday, too, she'd like to have children.