(Anita Hassan/Houston Chronicle)
What Gaby Valladares remembers most about many past Christmas holidays is receiving a drugstore alarm clock. Year after year, for five years in a row.
It was not a gift she particularly wanted, but it reminded her of one thing: She was in foster care. The clock was a present from her foster families that was provided to them by a child placement agency. “It’s one of the reasons, to this day, that I can’t use an alarm clock,” she said.
Valladares, now 27, spent almost all of her teens in foster care in the Houston region until she “aged out,” becoming too old to be in Child Protective Services. The one-time foster child went on to make her career as a CPS youth specialist in Harris County, helping teenagers who grew up in the same environment she did.She mentors teens who age out of CPS, trying to help them cope with life after years of foster care.
It is not uncommon for people who went through the system to find careers as adults in the agency or with other social service organizations, said Estella Olguin, CPS spokeswoman for the county. Some, like Valladares, say that working for CPS allows them to use their personal experiences to make a difference in others’ lives.
(Read the full story at Houston Chronicle)
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