2010 Success Stories

The families in the stories below participated in the 2010 Portraits of Opportunity event. Each story is accompanied by photos featured at the event.
To view stories from the 2011 event, click here.

When single-mother Diane’s newborn daughter, Sarah, was crying inconsolably and having an extremely difficult time sleeping, Diane found herself exhausted and sleep deprived. It wasn’t until Diane called the Fussy Baby program for support that mother and daughter were able to get some rest...
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Despite Leslie’s extensive experience with child care and knowledge of child development, she was feeling burnt out and overwhelmed after nearly two decades in the field. It wasn’t until a colleague urged Leslie to enroll in a program for child care providers offered by Southwest Human Development that these feelings would change...
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When their son Jack was 16 months old, Kelly and Greg noticed that his behavior was changing. He seemed to be less alert, less aware of what was going on around him, and he wasn’t playing in the same way. When their son was eventually diagnosed with autism, Kelly and Greg came to Southwest Human Development and began to see exciting changes after enrolling in the Side by Side parent-child playgroup...
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Despite the many challenges the two Phoenix families have faced, educating their children and making sure they started off on the right track in life is not something they were willing to comprise.
This is made evident by the families’ participation in the Raising A Reader early literacy program where parents receive education about how they can build literacy skills in their young children
and prepare them for kindergarten…
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When she discovered she was pregnant, Danielle knew she had to do something. She had a history of substance abuse, was in a physically abusive relationship, and had exhausted the goodwill of friends and family. Danielle resolved to face her problems head on, and checked into a home for pregnant women with drug problems. From there she was introduced to Healthy Families, a voluntary home visiting program that works to prevent child abuse and neglect. Danielle credits Healthy Families for giving her the tools she needed to be a successful mother to her son, Joey…
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Five-year-old Angela loves to dance, draw and sing like any other happy kindergartener. She is, in many ways, a very different little girl from the one who found herself suddenly removed from her parents care and flown across the country to live with her grandparents in Arizona two years ago. With the support of the Kinship Care and Adoptions program, Angela and her grandparents are adjusting to their new lives together…
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When Priya was 15 months old she began to exhibit motor and speech delays, perhaps from the medical condition that caused her dwarfism, perhaps exacerbated by the trauma of losing her mother in a car accident. Priya’s father, Mark, came to Southwest Human Development’s Early Intervention program for help. Today Priya is excelling in her first grade classroom...
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Sherian and Phillip thought moving to Arizona from New York would be better for their family. But it wasn't easy, and what followed was a bumpy two years of jobs and layoffs, homes and evictions, and the birth of two children. Sherian knew that she had to do something to help her family. She contacted the Healthy Families program. What she thought might be a way to get free diapers turned into a rewarding experience for her entire family...
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