"Rita has overcome incredible challenges in her life and emerged as one of the strongest, most authentic and committed young activists for change in the foster card system that you will ever have the privilege to meet", says Rita's colleague, who works alongside her seeking statewide reforms in California.
Rita is the mother of two vibrant and healthy children, a college student, and a project manager with the Center on Consensus Organization in San Diego—where she oversees a program that provides college outreach and community-organizing skills to current foster care youth. These are accomplishment worthy of national recognition in the best of circumstances, but Rita has not had the best of life circumstances. At the age of 4 years, she lost her father in a violent killing and her mother to drug abuse and entered the foster care system. Years of instability and neglect followed. By age 13, she was arrested for selling crack cocaine.
Yet, upon entering the juvenile justice system, Rita found structure, stability, consistent caring from adults, and received the rehabilitative education, counseling and guidance that she needed to overcome her past and to craft a positive future for herself, her family and her community.
[1]: http://juvjustice.org/award_5.html