Sharing Family Values

Anna Sangermano knows from firsthand experience what such programs can do. Now 40, she says she began drinking and doing drugs at 13, dropped out of her Marin County, Calif., high school in the 11th grade and began living on the streets at 20. She smoked so much methamphetamine that her teeth rotted. The county took away two of her sons and placed them in foster care. Finally, in 1999 Sangermano entered drug treatment and then the home of Joyce and George Parker. During her nine months with the Parkers, she got her driver's license, her GED and dentures. She also enrolled her youngest son in preschool and signed up for a welfare-to-work program. Today Sangermano lives with her son in a two-bedroom apartment, works part-time and is taking college classes. She hopes to bring the two older boys home from foster care soon. "This program helped save my life," she says. "And helped me be a part of my kids' life." --With reporting by Caryn M. Gracey/Milwaukee and Laura A. Locke/Contra Costa County