grown from a promise
YouthAbility is a nonprofit organization that PROVIDES job learning opportunities for at-risk youth.
In 1991 Rose Baker made a promise to her
19 year old son who was dying of cancer.
YouthAbility has grown from that promise. As Rose shepherded hundreds of foster teens into adulthood over the years, she was dismayed to see the lack of opportunities for entry into the job marketplace for these underserved youth. Their experiences were not the kind you could build a resume on. She saw the need for a place for them to learn work ethics, to practice staying on schedule and on task and to improve their social skills.
With her long time associate and friend, also a therapeutic foster parent, Lisa Callahan, Rose founded YouthAbility, which emerged organically out of the work they were doing with youth.
Since the inception of YouthAbility in 2006, the response to their work-based job training has been extremely positive. Rose and Lisa worked with several offices (I.L.P, EDD, Welfare to Work) in Humboldt County, setting up programs which refer youth for job training.
Official reactions have been encouraging. Evaluations indicate that this training strengthens the ability of youth to succeed in subsequent jobs. Reports also indicate that the benefit of the training is not only stable over time, but actually increases with each new positive experience.
Rose’s background has been instrumental in building YouthAbility as an organization that understands how to empower youth. Almost 400 foster children have stayed with Rose and her husband Pete for varying amounts of time from a week to 10 years. Children from many California counties and from other states have been referred to Rose for therapeutic work.
Rose works with educators, managers, mental health and health care providers, lawyers, probation officers, police, clergy, government officials, and individual families. Her life is centered around getting the kids what they need to grow, heal and prosper.
She has collaborated with such luminaries in parenting and child psychology as Jim Fay, co-creator of Love and Logic and Nancy Thomas, author of When Love Is Not Enough.
In addition to her work with YouthAbility, Rose is the Executive Director and Founder of Parents in Training, Inc. She has been a Certified Love and Logic Instructor since 1992 and has trained thousands of parents and professionals. She was invited to join the Elite Moms and is one of only 18 in the U.S to receive this honor.
Rose’s other awards include California State Foster Parent of the Year, and she was honored at the 2010 League of Women Voters, Humboldt County, State of the Community luncheon as Youth Advocate of the Year.
Rose is also a Humboldt County Juvenile Justice Commissioner, the current President of the New Directions of Humboldt Foster Parent Association, and frequently travels to Foster and Adoptive Parents’ conferences and conventions, always advocating for youth, for the legislation that will provide needed services and funds.
YouthAbility has plans for our community! Please help us.
Rose E. Baker
Founder and Executive Director
Born on October 23rd in Richmond, California, Lisa became a foster parent in 1994 and over the subsequent years fostered and adopted many children in Humboldt County.
Together with fellow foster parent Rose Baker, Lisa founded Parents in Training, to teach court-mandated parenting classes to hundreds of parents. They also taught parenting classes to women being treated for chemical dependancies (alcohol and drug-related). Lisa enjoyed teaching all ages, and her joy and enthusiasm brought life and energy to classes – offering inspiration to all, and especially to children.
Working with a big dream, a great hope and little more, in 2006 Lisa and Rose founded YouthAbility. They opened Angels of Hope Thrift Store, where low income and foster youth could receive job training specialized to their needs.
Lisa understood at-risk youth in a particularly personal way. She shared her life generously with these children, giving them not only an extraordinary role model, but also positive, uplifting, life-altering experiences. She never gave up on a child and continued working with even the most difficult ones with great success.
Lisa Callahan had a vision that all people, and especially youth, when given support, love and the correct treatment could rise above their problematic childhoods.
We at YouthAbility will carry on the work that she has begun knowing that Lisa's spirit and legacy will live in hundreds of youth that go on to happier and more productive lives.
YouthAbility, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. © 2008-2010 YouthAbility, Inc.
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Lisa S. Callahan
Founder
In Memoriam 1956 - 2008
