VIRGINIA BEACH

Like many 18-year-olds, Darnell Simpson was dropped off at college in the fall of 2005.

The difference was, he was a foster care child. So instead of his parents taking him to Ferrum College in southwestern Virginia, Simpson went with two social workers in a rented van loaded with dorm-life essentials that had been donated by a local church.

He remembers it as the start of a great adventure, knowing there aren’t a lot of happy endings for foster care children “aging out” of the system at 18.

“There are very few that make it on their own,” said Simpson, now 21 and a psychology major at Ferrum. He grew up from age 10 in foster homes in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. “They go paycheck to paycheck; they’re mostly homeless,” he said.

For 35 years , Terry Jenkins watched that cycle. The former head of Virginia Beach’s human services division had some tools at her disposal – mostly the good graces of churches and the extra mile that foster families and social workers were willing to go.

She retired in January, and now she wants to do something more. She’s starting a foundation.

“Foster kids have the least amount of advocacy of anyone,” Jenkins said. “One minute, they’re in the custody of human services; the next, they’re identified as adults.”

The foundation, in its formative stages, will be called Yes I Can and will focus first on the plight of those aging out of Virginia Beach foster care.

In the city, 293 children live in foster care , 80 of them nearing the point of aging out – which occurs at age 18, or 21 for those enrolled in school.

Despite the wealth of statistics on foster care children, they drop off the radar when they leave the system. Much of what’s known about the fate of the 20,000 people nationally who leave foster care each year is anecdotal, collected through surveys with field workers.

They’re less likely to have graduated from high school, more likely to have a mental disability and more likely to have committed a crime – or to have been the victim of one.

They’re good bets for unemployment, poverty and homelessness.

“They are very poorly prepared to become adults,” Jenkins said.

Her group has about 12 members , including clergy and a former city councilman. Once she wades through the IRS paperwork to gain the coveted nonprofit status, Jenkins aims to undertake a multipronged attack:

nEnlist volunteer help from the faith community and retired teachers.

nSet up an apartment program. With staff assistance, ex-foster children can learn how to budget time and money.

nAsk businesses to help with summer internships and by providing essentials such as clothing for job interviews.

nEnlist the help of colleges – working through the state – to pay incidental expenses, such as for books and clothing.

nLook for corporate donors and grant money.

“If we don’t pay now,” Jenkins said, “we’ll pay later.”

On the day those vanloads of moms and dads were dropping off their children, Simpson said, “It was good to know I had people supporting me; the problem with a lot of foster children is they feel so alone.”

It’s a problem Jenkins believes Yes I Can will help solve.

“'Yes I Can’ is a phrase I hope will become a statement of affirmation,” she said. “A phrase that gives a sense of hope.”

John Warren, (757) 222-5114, john.warren@pilotonline.com [1]