A Chance For Matthew

Recently, Matthew was referred to Ettie Lee for his drug use. Although he never knew his father, his mother has raised him and his two sisters with some help from her mother and her brother-Matt's uncle. Matt, age 17, has always felt sad and alone, he says, until he started using marijuana. When asked "what does the marijuana do for you?" he replies with "Happy" and a big grin. Using marijuana made him forget about his anger, his loneliness and his problems. When his uncle died a year ago in a car accident he started smoking a lot more marijuana. His mom too became mad and upset with everything in her life after the accident. Matt's mom began to direct her anger towards Matt.

At Ettie Lee, Matt said his goals were to build a better relationship with his mother and to learn how to communicate instead of leaving the house, which is what he often did to escape conflict. Matt is so glad that Ettie Lee wants to work with him and his mother. Since arriving at the Mt. Jurupa Group Home he has shown much improvement. He is enrolled in our on-site school, has seen our psychiatrist and is in our Intensive Day Program. He and his mother now feel like they have a strong chance of resolving their grief and angst and are excited to be moving forward.

Sergio's Story

Sergio H., age 16, arrived at Ettie Lee's Robertson Memorial home in March ('10). On arrival, he seemed to have no intention of doing anything but gang bang for the rest of his life. Sergio was involved in several serious confrontations and altercations with other residents over their disrespect of his "hood."

Shortly after his second month at Ettie Lee, Sergio received his first Rock Star award for completing many credits at school. Sergio took great pride in his achievement and began to focus more on school and less on gang banging.

Sergio later told a staff member that he knows he can be whatever he wants to be, "but where I come from you have to have somebody to have your back because it's very dangerous in my neighborhood." Even with those obstacles, Sergio still decided to make a serious attempt to stop gang banging.

In June, Sergio found out that he was having a son. That seemed to have a major (positive) impact on him. He started to do extra chores to earn money to help buy a crib for his baby while continuing to excel in school.

A few days before Sergio went to court to be released from Ettie Lee, he tearfully told a staff member the story of his brother who was killed several months prior. It will be especially hard on Sergio now that he is back in his old neighborhood. "My brother was from the same gang as me and those people in my hood didn't do nothing about my brother's death - they didn't do anything to show that my brother died for the hood." Sergio says that he does not want to gang bang and he knows that if he continues to do well in school he can get out of that area.

Sergio has learned a different way of seeing things. In the beginning, gang banging was the only was he knew to survive. After realizing when he applied himself he could graduate from high school made a huge difference in his life. Sergio went home on September 8.

Sergio H., Robertson Memorial Home, 2010