Love Dove’s N.E.S.T. was founded based on my personal experience in the LA County Foster Care system. After just under one year of foster care, and two failed attempts of being paired with families, at age 17 and 10 months I was emancipated to begin living as an independent adult. This was intimidating and though my time in the system was short-lived, I witnessed the disparities of youth who aged out of the system without the essential life skills to survive firsthand through the eyes of my peers and my own life experiences. Through many trials and errors, I’ve learned how to survive independently and though life has not been easy, I managed to strive to complete many goals including graduating from Job Corps which allowed me to gain a successful career in the medical field to recently graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in business.
From the Founding, Executive Director
After dropping out of high school in the 9th grade and getting a GED at 17 years old, earning my degree is one of my greatest accomplishments. Over the years of navigating life after foster care, I’ve gathered many tools and strategies to share with youth on their journey to success. I understand the importance of having a family support system, know the difficulty of living life without it, and how it affects youth well into their 20s as many have frontal lobes damage due to trauma; therefore, statistics show that it may be more difficult for these youth to succeed. It is my personal experience that drives my compassion to provide youth from my background with all the success principles my journey has taught me and more. Love Dove’s N.E.S.T. provides critical tools, training, and tactics for youth to utilize so their success stories can come sooner rather than later with great impact to last a lifetime.
Donate To The Cause:
The Essential Life Skills Training Program requires one instructor to provide training throughout LA County. The program budget is $250,000 per year to serve 50 youth, provide a salary to the instructor, and pay all administration fees to run the program optimally.
