A conversation led one North Texas mom to help young women build life skills and find independence. She's this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
Angela Lippans had an encounter that changed her life.
“I met a young woman who had just aged out of the foster care system and just heard her struggles and the things that she had dealt with and how often she had to move around, and how that had really destroyed any ability she had to build permanent relationships,” Angela said. “But it was something that she longed for, you know, a healthy community and friends and a family. Just because they turn 18 doesn’t get rid of that desire to be adopted or be a part of a family.”
It was that conversation that prompted Angela to launch Unfaulted, which is a non-profit that works with young women who have aged out of the foster care system and helps them learn life skills and connect them to resources that can help them build a successful future.
Many kids coming out of the foster care system don't even have a birth certificate, social security card or driver license.
“We have to start there. You can’t get a job or be a successful adult without just basic identification,” Angela said. “We meet once a week and go over everything from how to fill out an application, what to wear to an interview, how to take care of your car. And really developing whatever skills are needed for them to achieve their goals in life.”
And without an organization like Unfaulted many of these women end up homeless or sex trafficked.
Along with life skills, Unfaulted offers hope to what, for many, is a hopeless situation.
“One of our young women, she came to us and she had a 6-month old child at the time and she was about to give her baby up for adoption because she didn’t feel like she had the resources to provide for her,” Angela said. “That young woman now is working and in school and she has her own apartment. Her daughter is not at risk of being a part of the child welfare system anymore.”
We're proud to call Angela Lippens and Unfaulted this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
“We’re seeing it change, you know, the next generation and not only impacting their lives but their children’s lives and just giving them a hope and a future that they didn’t think was possible for them,” Angela said.
If you know someone who is making a difference, send us email at differencemaker@krld.com.