What Julio remembers most about the twenty days he spent canoeing and trekking with 10 other at-risk youth in the Florida Everglades were the swarms of mosquitoes.
“They were thick, like clouds,” says Julio, speaking in his typical soft-spoken manner.
After three weeks of healthy eating, hearty exercise and life-skills training, Julio returned from his Outward Bound adventure a changed young man. The old “friends” are gone. He’s in bed early, up at dawn to catch the bus to a different school in Homestead where he’s doing well. He’s spending more hobby time drawing, and intends to develop his craft.
His mother, Antonia Vazquez, who’s raising Julio and two other siblings on her own, couldn’t be more grateful for the transformation.
What a change some solid support can make. Not long ago, Vazquez was at her wit’s end: her teenage son was spiraling out of control and she didn’t know where to turn. Someone told her about the South Dade Safe Families Partnership Network (SFPN), a program funded by The Children’s Trust that coordinates the provision of services to families in crisis. In addition to Start Off Smart, enFamilia and Mujeres Unidas collaborate in SFPN.
[For more of this story go to https://www.thechildrenstrust....d-a-new-look-at-life]
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