Here's where we share some stories!
We want to share our stories.
Short stories and long stories.
Stories from former foster youth,
and of course, stories about life at BrenRose House.
Keep watching, more stories to come!
(and maybe a few pics!)
BrenRose
My name is Tutu Anderson. I was adopted from Liberia when I was eight years old into a family in a small town in Western Washington where me and my adopted sister were the only Africans. We felt like aliens in a place that was so different from anywhere we had ever been.
We were very unhappy in our adopted home. We were treated like servants and our adopted dad made us uncomfortable by the way he touched, and looked at us. People called CPS sometimes because they could tell we weren’t being cared for very well but no one really stepped in.
I ran away when I was 16. I tried to live with another family, but I quickly learned that people will step up to care for kids in need, as long as they are "good". I was drugged one night at a friends house, which led to using meth and eventually, a psychotic breakdown. I was at Fairfax mental hospital when I asked to be put in foster care because I didn’t have anywhere to go.
When I was released from the hospital, they took me to a home for teen girls. I had a caregiver there, Tammy Levario, who became the only person I trusted. Even though there were rules, and other adults around who helped Tammy, it still felt like a home. I felt safe there, and that was new for me. I had never felt safe except with my family in Africa, before war came to our village.
It’s been about seven years since I left Tammy’s care, in the therapeutic foster home. I now live in Indiana; have two beautiful children and I am currently working at my daughters’ school. Tammy and I have kept in touch and will forever be family. We talk about the old times and the things we connected around like gardening, cooking, and our love of animals and nature.
All foster kids need adults who believe in them, even when they are hard to deal with. That's when we need you the most.
Voices of lived experience
Destiney will be our first full-time paid peer support, when funding allows.
Hi, my name is Destiney.
I am 23 years old and a former foster youth. I entered foster care when I was 11. I was full of pain and anger from the hurtful choices of my parents, which caused behavior that put me on probation.
I was in and out of juvenile detention and treatment centers because no one knew how to handle my oppositional behavior and acting out. One saving grace was that I went to a therapeutic foster home where Tammy Levario was the live-in caregiver. Even though I was in and out of her care due to running away and stays in institutions, it was Tammy who always took me back, and gave me a fresh start. She showed me what unconditional love looked like, what having a mom felt like.
People should understand that traumatized kids need clean slates and do-overs, as many as it takes, because you can’t just overcome so much intense anger overnight. It took me years of pushing everyone away with my anger and defiance, plus being alone with my consequences, to finally start
having things click for me.
Accountability is an important part of real change. I do think that the system could have tried harder to keep me from going to jail as much as I did, but without consequences and the love of a strong, safe adult like Tammy, I don’t think I would have changed my behavior and would likely have ended up in prison. It takes love, care AND accountability to bring change like that.
I am very proud of the person I have become. I have worked so hard to overcome my early years and it has really paid off in ways I never thought it would. I have worked in a homeless shelter in downtown Olympia for over two years, have a car, my own apartment and a stable social life.
Being invited to work with Tammy to serve youths coming out of foster care and homelessness, is a dream come true! I have seen and experienced what her care and compassion can do, so I know combining that with my lived experience, will bring lasting change to the young people we serve. I am looking forward to showing the world what we can do!
Enjoy our pets at BrenRose!
We got our chickens in May, 2022 as week old chicks. They have been very socialized and follow Tammy like puppies!
The head of the flock is a beautiful Jersey Giant rooster who Emily named Baby Shark!
Eventually, we'd love to hatch chicks for low income families and support them in coop building and maintaining healthy chickens to provide nutritious eggs for their families!
Chickens are also great for consuming food waste!
Our Flock
