TURNING LIVES AROUND ISN'T EASY

But Success Stories Do Emerge From Turmoil, Foster Kids Say

MANSFIELD -- On a sunny August afternoon, Shawntivia Cobb, 13, was doing
homework in the kitchen of the immaculately tidy home of her foster
parents, Roger and Martha Lloyd.

After some prompting, she spoke about how her life has changed under their
care.

"I do the right thing now because I know I don't have to go through all
those troubles anymore. I'm not in that dark hole anymore and I can make
it," she said.

A few days earlier, Johnny Pritchard, 14, sat at a picnic table behind
Richland County Children Services and pitched stone after stone into the woods.

"I'm doing good now. I've come from being beaten, kicked out of my house,
and going on the run. My mom used to let us do whatever we wanted, but then
she started taking good care of us," he said.

In Richland County, 94 children like Shawntivia are in foster homes under
the custody of Children Services, and the agency works with about 300
others like Johnny and his brother Tyler, who live with one or both
biological parents but receive support services from the agency.

Turning around the lives of troubled kids by getting them into a suitable
foster home is not a science. It's more of an art or a craft.

"There's no science to it. It takes a special person to allow a child into
their home. These children have been neglected, mistreated. They don't
trust adults. They may have stopped developing emotionally, become
stunted," Children Services Director Randy Parker said.

Shawntivia wound up in foster care three years ago because of severe anger
that caused her to "act out" in school and elsewhere.

"I was fighting all the time, didn't do my work. I was being bad. And I got
kicked out of school for stealing from another student," she said.

Her social worker, Pat Ludwick, said Shawntivia's mother, Betty, has
problems with drugs and alcohol and was not supervising any of her three
children adequately. Although she was not yet 10 years old, Shawntivia
ended up taking care of her younger brother and sister. Ludwick said the
lack of parental supervision and a feeling of being emotionally abandoned
led to Shawntivia's anger.

Johnny Pritchard and his brother Tyler, 13, had an even tougher life. They
bounced back and forth between their mother's home and their father's. The
mother, Patricia Martens, started to have drug and alcohol problems when
the boys were 4 and 5 years old.

"I didn't get high in front of them. But I was high when they were with me.
I went into another room to smoke (crack)," she said.

Their father was even worse.

"He made these boys into criminals since they were 3 and 4 years old. He
had them rob over 100 trailers at Charles Mill Lake," said Audrey Ousley,
the community services specialist who works with the brothers.

"Away from this environment they're typical little boys. But when they're
in it, they're hoodlums, running with the worst of them."

Their father also beat them frequently, Johnny said.

Johnny said he and his brother were taken out of their mother's custody
about three years ago. They lived in a foster home for a year and with an
aunt for six months before going back to their mother. Martens, 34, said
she lost custody when her drug problems grew worse.

"As the addiction grew I would leave for a day, two days while they were in
the house alone. That's when they were put in foster care. But it was only
for three months. Then I got clean again," she said.

Children Services records show they were in foster care 10 months.

Ousley keeps an eye on the boys and Martens since they got back together,
and helped them move into an apartment near MedCentral/Mansfield Hospital,
away from the West Fourth Street area where the city's drug trade is
centered. She said Martens has turned her life around. Johnny said his
mother spends more time with them and takes them bowling, fishing and on
picnics.

Martens said spending that time together has been a key to turning around
Johnny's life, too. That, and the right kind of supervision and encouragement.

"You've got to encourage them to make the right kind of choices, not just
allowing them to choose anything they want. That was a mistake I made
before," she said.

Shawntivia's foster mother, Martha Lloyd, said much the same thing.

"Discipline and stability are important, so they don't feel abandoned or
thrown away. They need to know what they have to do and not do.

"That's made all the difference in (Shawntivia's) life. Her temper has come
down considerably and she's changed a lot. She's back in regular classes
and getting good grades," Lloyd said.

Johnny Pritchard has calmed down, too, and is doing well in school. But his
brother Tyler is not, and continues to get into trouble. He may be sent to
the state's Department of Youth Services as a last resort.

"It looks like he's going there. I think we've tried everything else,"
Martens said.

Why has Johnny been able to change his life but his brother hasn't?

"My father did my brother a lot worse than he did me. I think that's why
he's like he is," he said.

Ousley said there are times when she has serious doubts about Tyler's
chances of straightening himself out.

But Parker has faith it will happen.

"There is no child that comes to this agency that I don't think can be
turned around.

"But they have to find something in themselves, and that could take years,"
he said.