Success Stories

My name is Kiana, I am 19 years old. I've previously lived in "Paradise Adolescent Home" I resided there for about 4 years. I graduated from "California High School" class of 2010. During my senior year of high school I participated in some of my senior activities and some sports such as Track & Powder Puff.

Towards the end of my senior year I suffered from severe anxiety and some signs of depression. With me not knowing what to do next  kind of scared me, I am very thankful that Paradise Adolescent Home opened up her after emancipation program which is now called "PATH" if not for Maritza opening up her new program I would of had no place else to go leaving my friends and what I called home behind.

I now am attending "Diablo Valley College" I’m a freshmen and I’m trying to major in psychology. I am also looking for work and I’m trying to study abroad in January with "Diablo Valley College" attending a school in London and or Spain.

I spent the most important four years of my life with Paradise Adolescent Home. When I began high school I was Nervous. I was nervous about maintain my grades and graduating on time, about living a normal and fitting in with the other kids at high school with my situation. But the staff at Paradise Adolescent Home put me at ease. They were exactly what I needed in order to get my grades to where they needed to be so I could graduate. They were always supportive of the extracurricular activities I wanted to take up and helped me earn the privilege of taking up both Track & Field and Powder Puff.

However during the end of my stay with Paradise I was suffering from severe anxiety and depression. I was terrified of what lay ahead of me. I was afraid because I didn't want to end up another statistic, yet another group home kid that's left to be homeless, left to be incarcerated.

Maritza showed me that this didn't have to be my future and showed me another way. P.A.T.H., as the program is so appropriately called, has been my savior.  Without it, I would have no choice but to leave all my friends behind along with the only place I know to call home. I'm now attending Diablo Valley College, and inspired by Maritza I'm majoring in psychology and with her help I'll be studying abroad in Spain this January.

I am eternally grateful to Maritza, and Paradise. I would be lost without them. But instead I have a plan for my life and I know where I'm going.