Kids leaving foster care offered help with transition

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Making your way from childhood to adulthood is never easy. For some, it's even tougher because they have not had parents to guide them.

But now, there is help being offered to foster care kids as they leave the system.

Throughout most of his life, Andre Crumedy was in the foster care system. It left an impression on him even after he aged out.

Crumedy said, "In foster care you move around a lot, I feel now even though I am out of foster case, I still feel like I should move around a lot."

Crumedy is now enrolled at Texas A&M. He knows firsthand how difficult it is for other foster kids to finally enter the world on their own. He said, "We have obstacles that we have to get through in our life and sometimes the first step is the hardest, the start is the hardest, you know when you talk about college, where do I start?"

But Crumedy knows foster kids do not have to make the transition alone. This conference foster care forum with Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and DePelchin is designed to make leaving the system and starting adulthood as easy as possible.

Lynne Spiwak is foster care manager of DePelchin Children's Center. She said, "We even opened up a Tags program, which is a transitional adult living program next door so that is a great resource as well."

Former foster kid Peregrine Chapman is now a graduate student. She, too, is helping others still in the system, determined to show them a better life awaits.

Chapman said, "You are ready to seize the day, you are ready to show that, 'hey, I am not what I was, I can create my own destiny."

There appears to be no end in sight for this type of program. Right now, more than 10,000 kids in Texas are waiting adoption.