SUMMER 2008 E-NEWSLETTER

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Breaking the Cycle
A Former "Little Wanderer" Shares Her Story 
by Sherri Raftery, M. Ed. 

1977 - Resident of Orchard Home
1977-1989 - Client of the Knight Children’s Center therapeutic services    
2008 - Voices & Visions Honoree

Sherri Raftery, alumna of The Home and Voices & Visions Honoree.

What an evening May 28, 2008 was for me!  As a guest of honor at The Home’s annual Voices & Visions gala fundraiser I had a unique opportunity to stand up before more than 900 people and tell my story.  It’s a story that is both emotional for me to recollect, but also a joy to relate.  It’s a story first of sadness, then of hope, and finally of achievement and pride. 

I was just about twelve years old when I first came to The Home for Little Wanderers.  My Mom made it sound like I was just going to camp for a while.  I waited and waited, but she never came back for me.  It was 1977 when I was placed at Orchard Home, a group home for adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems. It has since merged with Longview Farm—where my brother Joseph once lived. 

I was a tough skinny tomboy from the streets of Revere and no one was going to tell me what to do, but Orchard Home had other plans for me.  It was going to teach me to learn how to earn my privileges through rewards for good behavior, which included following the rules and completing chores around the house.  I would also become very familiar with receiving penalties when over and over again I did not adhere to the rules that were laid out before me!

Back then I was always in trouble with time out and room time and I would even double my room time because I always had to have the last word—who was I kidding!  But as the days and months went by, I slowly learned that the Orchard staff was really there to help me, guide and support me.  I began to trust them and I wanted to do well and earn my points and my allowance.  In fact my behavior became so impressive that suddenly I was going to visit a new foster family in Wakefield.  And eventually it was time for me to leave Orchard, the staff and my friends. 

After I left Orchard, I remained connected to The Home through weekly therapy sessions at the Knight Children’s Center in Jamaica Plain and I was also placed in several other foster homes through The Home’s social workers. 

I have always been a proud “Little Wanderer” and I feel blessed to have had The Home in my life.  Given my early start in life, I am not supposed to be the person I am today—and without The Home to give me a solid base, I wouldn’t be.  Today I am the proud mother of a 10-year-old daughter.  I promised myself years ago that I would never do what was done to me and I’m proud of the fact that I’ve broken the cycle.

View a video of Sherri and two other alumni of The Home as they share their stories.
SEE VIDEO>>