Rocky and Steve

Sometimes life deals people a bad hand and foster children are just one of many people to get the short end of the stick.  Being moved around from home to home, to different foster parents, and being separated from your siblings and parents isn’t what growing up should feel like for kids but for many this is their reality.  Not having a stable home and family support system to go back to at the end of the day has its set of challenges and many children miss out on opportunities in their lives to advance themselves and break free from an upbringing that they didn’t necessarily choose.

But thanks to selfless people like Steve Rios from Florida Reach, former foster child, Racquell ‘Rocky’ Perry, are given the opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons. Florida Reach helps foster children achieve a dream of higher education by mentoring and guiding them to the state programs available such as  free tuition and gratuitous monthly living stipends to help them on their journey on becoming the best versions of themselves.  Along with Educate Tomorrow, Florida Reach and the many people involved in these great organizations are helping make education attainable for foster children and many other disenfranchised kids in Florida.

Rocky is just one of the many success stories of these programs.  She dealt with a lot of adversity growing up but she didn’t want to fall victim to the system and become another statistic.  Through a fortunate encounter with Steve Rios, Rocky began a journey in her life that led her to graduating from FAMU and now she is Racquell Perry, J.D.!

Now Rocky has the tools she needs to give back to her community and help the children in the system she grew up in reach their goals.  That’s called coming full circle.

It was a pleasure meeting Rocky and Steve and learning about foster children, their struggles, and the dedicated people and programs in place to help them succeed in life.

We hope you enjoy listening,

Alex & Jeanette
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Rocky and Steve inside

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SHOW NOTES:

The Combat Hippies
No Meat Athlete- Miami Holiday Brunch
Miami Bridge Youth and Family Services, Inc.
Guardian Ad Litem
Miami Dade College
Florida International University
FAMU

THAT’S WHAT I LIKE…

Alex: Crumbleberry – Sundried Tomato Basil Cashew Cheese
Jeanette: Before the Flood Documentary

WHAT’S ON THEIR NIGHTSTANDS:
Racquell ‘Rocky’ Perry: Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Steve Rios: How to be a President: What to do and Where to go Once You’re in Office by Stephen Williams, The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work by John Gottman

CONNECT:
Florida Reach:  Website Facebook 
Educate Tomorrow:  Website Twitter | Facebook
Keys to Independence:  WebsiteInstagram | Facebook

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One comment on “Episode 34: Fostering Hope with Florida Reach

  1. It was great to meet you both. Thank you for helping to shed some light on a group of young people who are truly “our kids.” You did a super job!