Success Stories

The Up Center impacts hundreds of lives every year.  We lift people Up in so many ways. We invite you to read some of the stories of the people whose lives we have touched:

Team Up Mentoring

For more than a year, 11-year Dennis Jones has been paired with Navy Pilot Luke Rice & his wife Aimee through The Up Center’s Team Up Mentoring program. The couple serves as role models for Dennis, who is an only child and has an incarcerated father. In the Team Up program, most youth like Dennis are matched with one adult for at least a year. In this case though, Luke and Aimee Rice wanted to mentor as a family, including their three year old son.

The unusual arrangement has paid off. Dennis’ mother says her son is doing much better academically in school since Luke has emphasized the importance of education. Dennis also is experiencing many new things, including tours of the base and time spent in the flight simulator. The result has been a very successful mentoring match that has changed two families.

“We’ve told Dennis he can be a part of our lives as long as he wants to be,” Aimee Rice said. “He is just a fantastic kid.”

Counseling Services

Kimberly Hadzima suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse from numerous perpetrators from her birth until she moved out on her own at age 16. When she started to experience flashbacks as an adult in her 20’s, she sought help, eventually making her way to The Up Center. She spent nearly five years in counseling working through her trauma until she was able to heal. Today she is a wife, a proud mother of two children, an Editing Specialist for Science Applications International Corporation and a student of Animation at Regent University.

“I no longer live in fear
that someone is going to hurt me.”
— Kimberly Hadzima

Parenting Support

Shanette Simpson, pictured left with her Healthy Families Support Worker Letitia Carrington, was honored as a finalist for the Dorian Award. This award recognizes a Hampton Roads single mother who has demonstrated perseverance and resourcefulness. Ms. Simpson had a troubled childhood, but she worked hard to graduate with honors from high school while caring for her infant daughter. After high school, Ms. Simpson became a nurse’s aide, moved into her own apartment and took custody of her two teenage siblings.

Job Training at Spotlight Books

Juanita Rivera turned her life around at Spotlight Books after a 17 year drug addiction. She now helps other job trainees as a full-time employee at the book selling organization that is a part of The Up Center.

“Spotlight Books helps people blossom into the man or

woman they want to be.”

-Juanita Rivera

In-Home Counseling

Danielle Murphy was taken from her birth mother’s home when she was one year old because of neglect. Her path after that point was rocky. Danielle said she was disobedient and lashed out at others when she was moved to new homes. Our agency provided in-home counseling and mentoring to help her. Danielle said her counselor Cynthia Wills never gave up on her like many others did. With her support, Danielle finished high school and learned to manage her behavior without medication so she could enter the military. After completing basic training, Danielle sent a letter to Ms. Wills to thank her for being her “guardian angel.” Today Danielle is married and is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Foster Care/Adoption

Sheila Owens was the first foster mother for the agency when it re-started its foster care program 25 years ago. She used the support of the agency and her mental health background to parent 30 biological, foster and adopted children. During that time, she has taken some difficult children, including boys who have been destructive, and turned their behavior around. In 2008, Ms. Owens stepped up her service by adopting three unrelated boys, who were all thirteen years old. Lonnie, Daniel & Ryan are now enjoying living at home with Isaac, who was adopted more than a decade ago, and the foster youths currently in Ms. Owens care.

Disabilities

The Daulton family has seven members with Down Syndrome living at home. Six of them are adopted, including four from countries where living with special needs is quite challenging. To enhance their summer, the family members with Down Syndrome attend The Up Center’s Camp Horizon program. It serves people of all ages with disabilities and gives many caregivers, like the Daultons, a much-needed break.