PHILADELPHIA (AP) – At last, Destiny Jackson, then 13, said to herself.
After the abuse and the torment she’d endured over time, someone had called representatives from Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services into her family’s West Philadelphia home.
Now they’ll see what I’ve been through, she believed. Now I’ll get out.
But it didn’t happen. “The house looked fine,” said Jackson, now 18. “And when the house looks fine, DHS thinks everything is fine. But sometimes people can put on a show and make it all seem all right. DHS didn’t remove me from the home. So, I ran away.”
After that, Jackson couch-surfed in the homes of friends and family, lived in foster care or group homes, and spent three years in a homeless shelter. Through it all, with the help of caring others, she used the sheer force of her considerable will and a preternaturally honed self-confidence to grow herself up.