Foster Care System Survivor, Author, Public Speaker, Activist is Available for Speeches Before your Organization or Company
This is the true story of a child born to a nineteen year old unwed mother. Placed lovingly for adoption, he is instead thrust into the quagmire of the Michigan foster care system. “Stability” would be a word found in a dictionary, not in daily life, as he is moved fourteen times in eleven years. He is finally rescued and given a “home” at Boys Town. At eighteen, cast into the world of the unknown, without anyone or anyplace to call home, he goes forth with only hope and determination. Growing into adulthood, he searches for birth parents, an unknown heritage and sexual identity. Discovery of “true self” enables him to confront and overcome brutal and emotionally damaging realities from childhood which can no longer stay buried deep within his memory. This is the story of his difficult life battle, but more importantly, his ultimate victory…healing!
There are a number of stories of where these children ultimately end up. Another such story can be found in the book "Choices" by Johnny Jarrell. He never finished high school, and ultimtely ended up in prison with a life sentence due to the results of being molested by a foster parent. Growing up in the state run homes and being passed from foster home to foster home prepared him for his life in prison where he rapidly rose in the ranks of one of the worst racial prison gangs in the country. It has taken him almost 40 years to put together a life for himself and learn to overcome the damage done in his early childhood. He has come to accept that he is virtually unhirable because of his murder conviction at the age of 15. While he doesn't have the fairy tale life that many who have survived the "System" profess to have,he still uses what little he has to try to help others who find themselves in the same kind of situation. He works hard to help them make the right choices to keep their lives on the right path, so that they do not find themselves struggling just to put food on the table as he does today. Through all of his struggles he still manages to accept his reality and not take for granted any of the blessings that he does have. Please check him out at www.johnnyjarrellchoices.com
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