Deanna J. Speaks!
Meet Deanna
She believed she could... so she did.
~Unknown
Welcome to my site! I am grateful to have the opportunity to connect with you! Like most of you I have had to overcome hurdles on the way toward my goals. On that journey, I have come to see how truly powerful being resilient is. Before you can be resilient you need one foundational key; Hope. Today I am a licensed social worker, foster care alum, former teen parent and an all-around #BounceBackQueen.
Despite many challenges in my life I continued to defy the odds stacked against me. My life began life like any other but quickly took a turn. Witnessing DV in the home, losing a sibling and surviving a rough upbringing I was able to bounce back and stay in the fight. I was determined to excel, so I continued to persist. Just when I finally felt I was at a place where I can focus on my goals, life would throw another set of curve balls at me.
By the age of 15, I survived a house fire where we lost everything, endured several types of abuse, and entered foster care while being a teenage parent. That is alot to write! You can imagine it was a lot to endure. Reading it you may wonder how did I endure it? I decided to keep Hope. Hope allowed me to get back up when I had been knocked down. It wouldn't let me quit when I was tired. Identifying and utilizing hope ensured my resilience and subsequently my success.
From here I would go on to be among the 3% of all foster youth that graduate with a Degree upon aging out of the foster care system. I would then be a caseworker in the very agency I aged out of! Now i bring a unique perspective from both sides of the table.
As a result of these experiences I am now able to speak to various groups as hope intersects with everyone; in every strata of life: IT groups, youth groups, and others. I am truly able to speak to what it means to cultivate resilience so that you can overcome any obstacle and achieve the success you envision for yourself and those you influence. I look forward to sharing this with you!
XOXO,
Deanna
"You can't go back and change the beginning...


But you CAN start right now and change the ending"
~ C.S. Lewis

