Dyana’s Story

Dyana’s wish to be reunited with her siblings came true!

More than three years ago, Dyana’s family was disrupted. The trauma of neglect and abuse left her and her three siblings with behavioral and emotional issues that required different levels of care. Like most youth in crisis due to family dysfunction, they needed a safe place to live but these siblings were not able to move into traditional foster care because a foster home was not available. They were also not ready for traditional foster care because their trauma had triggered behaviors that would prevent them from being successful in a home where the provider may not have the training and experience to handle their destructive actions. VHBG was specifically selected by Dyana’s social worker who pleaded “we need you to help get these siblings back together.” VHBG was the level of care they needed and had the ability to keep these youth together with a plan to reunify them with their mother who was in counseling to learn how to provide a healthy family environment for her children. These youth could have been spread out all over the state of Virginia limiting their communication and visitation with each other which would have put reunification further away. Keeping them together at VHBG was also a more trauma-informed approach to their care. The fact that most of these siblings were stepping down from higher-level programs and had been separated for years also meant that they needed a transitional living experience. Unlike other group homes without a campus environment, VHBG is able to care for boys and girls of varying ages in separate homes while keeping them within walking distance of each other. Imagine how much easier this was for family meetings, caseworker visits, and the siblings. And, two of these siblings were able to attend our on-campus John G. Wood school to catch up to their grade level and all of them were able to benefit from our on-campus therapeutic resource center. VHBG transitioned these siblings from a higher level of care that they no longer needed to their forever home.
This holiday season, please choose to make a gift to VHBG to support our youth and the place they call home. CLICK HERE TO GIVE.

This story is real but names and images have been changed to protect the youth’s privacy.