New home offfers hope to foster teens

TAMPA - With every shovel of dirt, volunteers work hard to finish the first case managed, aging out foster care facility in the state.

Right now, foster care children turning 18 in Florida, age out of the system and start to live independently for the first time. In some cases those teens fall into trouble.

"Because most of the kids when they turn 18, even if they have a place to go a lot of them are not prepared to handle everyday life," said Tom Atchison, president of New Beginnings of Tampa Bay. "They don't even know how to handle a check book."

So the Department of Children and Families and New Beginnings of Tampa Bay are teaming up to develop New Life Village. It's an 11 bedroom shelter where foster teens are case managed while learning life skills. "Most of these kids are use to institutional living.

"They're used to a building that looks institutional. They're use to everything being that way. So we wanted to create a home environment," Atchison said.

Harley Race is one of several moving in this month. He lost his mother to drugs and never met his father.

"It's just rough all together being out in the world like that. But this has given me a little stability letting me know everything is going to be okay," Race said.

Terrance Dawson also plans on moving in. He's been in and out of foster care shelters for years.

"I think aging out is going to be a good thing for the foster kids in the Tampa area, because it gives them another chance at life and it keeps them on the right note and the right page," Dawson said.

A $350 thousand state grant has funded most of the project. But there's still a lot of work ahead and little money left.

"That doesn't cover the furniture. That doesn't cover the appliances, the TV's the things that need to be furnished," Atchison said. "So we're still struggling to get these things solved."

That's why he's pleading for the community's help.

If you would like to donate call New Beginnings of Tampa Bay (813) 244-4355, or log onto www.nbtweb.org.