Foster children leave the foster care system when they reach the age of 18 – an experience the Department of Children and Family Services refers to as “emancipation.” From the age of 18, there is no mandated support for them from the state or county. The state of California is home to 20% of the entire nation’s population of foster children, each year nearly 3,600 youth are emancipated.
With respect to gender, California children are disproportionately female, and are characteristically more wounded, deprived and heavily laden with emotional scars that affect their bodies, behavior and worldview. Their life experiences have left them suffering from severe anxiety, depression, health, nutrition and low self-esteem.
Ironically, just as young women reach the most vulnerable period of their lives, they are cut off from most services. Transitioning out of foster care adds an additional layer of complexity into their lives just as they are trying to make the expected transitions out of adolescence to adulthood. These are not simple processes. They include questions of survival – housing, food, health care, education, transportation, safety and income. Without these anchors in place young people are vulnerable to homelessness, illness, crime and other defeating circumstances.
The good news is that everything we know about development suggests that vulnerable, ill-served young women – even those who carry a decade of inadequate services and poor behavior – can transform their lives when support is delivered comprehensively, consistently and in ways that respect their voices and build on their strengths. The transition to adulthood is not complete until young people are on educational and career trajectories leading to a family wage. The challenge is to prepare youth adequately for the big tasks of the first three decades of life: figuring out who they are, finding a way to be productive, and finding someone with whom to spend their lives. The HerShe Group is meeting that challenge and significantly impacting the lives of young women.
HerShe Mission
The HerShe Group empowers young women in foster care and those that have been recently emancipated to make a successful transition from adolescence to adult independence and to realize their full potential by exposing them to extraordinary experiences through the arts, mentorship, discovery and training.
The HerShe Group empowers young women in foster care and those that have been recently emancipated to make a successful transition from adolescence to adult independence and to realize their full potential by exposing them to extraordinary experiences through the arts, mentorship, discovery and training.
HERSHE MILESTONES
· March 2005 – Held HerShe’s first fundraising event which sold out at the Wilshire Ebell – Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues directed by Penny Marshall, starring Mo’Nique, Tracey Ellis Ross, Marla Gibbs, Loretta Devine, Jillian Barberie, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Denise Dowse and more.
· June 2005 – HerShe benefits from a Kenadie Cobbin & Avery Williams stage production of Medal of Honor Rag directed by Delroy Lindo, starring Heavy D and Paul Schackman.
· July 2005 – Kenadie Cobbin receives the Urban Angel Award at the Sheraton Universal Hotel.
· September 2005 – HerShe files for 501 (c) 3 IRS exemption status (#51-0553656), assembles first active board, and began the strategic planning process.
· December 2005 – HerShe completes its strategic plan and Kenadie Cobbin completed the Executive Service Corps New Executive Directors Institute – a yearlong training sponsored by Wells Fargo.
· February 2006 – HerShe launches the E3 program, Exposure to Extraordinary Experiences. More than 100 youth participate in the first month.
· March 2006 –
- HerShe produces another successful V-Day fundraiser. Vagina Monologues directed by Penny Johnson Jerald, starring Meredith Baxter, Ananda Lewis, Victoria Rowell, LisaRaye, MC Lyte, Terri J. Vaughn, Denise Dowse, Natalie Deselle Reid, Dawnn Lewis, and more.
- Dr. Dre donates 2006 Chevrolet Suburban to HerShe.
- April 2006 – The Los Angeles Chapter of the Links, Inc. becomes an organizational sponsor of summer program, Camp Cinderella and the Cinderella Ball.
· May 2006 – Eminem/Shady Records becomes major sponsor.
· June-July 2006 – HerShe partners with Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke for the summer program, “Camp Cinderella” held at Pepperdine University. The culmination event, the “Cinderella Ball” was held at the Museum of Natural History.
- August 2006 – HerShe Group is featured in many media outlets including the Los Angeles Times (8/14/06) and on Fox Television.
- October 2006 – Kenadie Cobbin Richardson honored with Penny Lane’s Blue Skies award at annual gala.
- November 2006 – House of Blues joins HerShe to raise funds and awareness for girls in foster care.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Duffy Humbert, CEO, Dream Dinners, Inc.
Joyce Guinyard, Program Director, UCLA
Kenadie Cobbin Richardson, Founder & CEO, HerShe Group Foundation, Inc.
Cynthia Oredugba, Program Director, UCLA
Nia Long, Actress
Joyce Guinyard, Program Director, UCLA
Kenadie Cobbin Richardson, Founder & CEO, HerShe Group Foundation, Inc.
Cynthia Oredugba, Program Director, UCLA
Nia Long, Actress
Monica Holt, President, Unisource Insurance Services, Inc.
Barbara Schiller, CEO, Body Conscience
Alexis Crump Davis, attorney
Lynn Stuart, CEO/Joe's Songs, Inc.
Annie Stein, Writer
Annie Stein, Writer
