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Sometimes one of the hardest things to do is to move from hurt to hope, but Joyce Fultz has done that and set an example for others who wonder if they’ll ever manage to have a successful life.

Fultz had a tough childhood. From age 4 until she was 19, she grew up in several foster homes.

She and her older brother and older sister were placed in foster care because their mother suffered from schizophrenia and alcoholism.

Yet she overcame many early disadvantages and is the founder of Striving to Achieve Real Success, a non-profit organization that helps individuals from foster homes by aiding them with college applications and financial aid forms, mentoring, helping with job skill training and providing assistance with resume writing.

“I want to create a warm, friendly and safe place where formerly fostered individuals can come and get sound advice on pursuing academic or vocational training,” Fultz said.

Financing a college education was a big issue for Fultz, and she’s still paying off student loans. For 12 years, she has worked as a Medicaid case worker for Guilford County Social Services.

Through hard work and determination, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Greensboro College, a master’s degree from UNCG and certification in nonprofit management from Duke University.

Fultz believes her brother and sister did not receive the proper educational assistance they needed at home because of their mother’s condition. Schools classified them as “slow,” and they were placed only in special education classes.

Given the conditions her siblings endured at home, Fultz wonders how she might have scored if she had been tested at that time. Because she spent her school years in foster homes, her environment was different.

While working at Social Services, Fultz met people who had experiences similar to hers and her siblings.

Many of them shared a common theme of chronic unemployment, underemployment, little or no marketable job skills, inadequate education and homelessness. And some had lost their children to the foster care system.

As Fultz listened to people’s stories, she searched for a reason why she had more success in life than many of them.

“The major difference between my counterparts and me was that I was lucky to have received a wonderful education,” Fultz said.

Through research, Fultz learned that she was the exception, as most foster children do not receive college degrees. She also discovered that as many as 40 percent to 50 percent of foster children do not complete high school.

Soon, Fultz had a dream. She felt called to help individuals who grew up in foster homes and later in life discovered they lacked skills they needed to be successful.

“While there are a great many wonderful, caring foster parents, unfortunately there are also people who take children in as a means of supplementing their income,” Fultz said.

She said she knows this is true because on numerous occasions her foster parents told her, “You are only here because I get a check for you.”

Fultz believes that only an individual can identify his or her full potential, and everyone deserves a chance to prove himself.
In foster care, Fultz was continually compared to others, even her mother, she said. There were times when others made her feel that she just didn’t measure up.

“I was too dark, too fat, I talked too much or I wasn’t as smart as whoever they deemed to be smart at that particular moment,” Fultz said.

“Imagine hearing that for 15 years day in and day out without the gift of rebuttal,” she said.

Through S.T.A.R.S., Fultz wants everyone who was ever in foster care and who has heard these words or something equally damaging to realize that “we all are individuals with our own special gifts and talents.

“We are not our parents, we are not responsible for the situation that put us into foster care, and we are certainly not failures,” she said.

She believes her gift is helping people and wants others to know, “I am that person who will say 'I care. I believe in you. I will be there as you strive to achieve real success.’ ”

Fultz wishes she had known about scholarships and grants earlier in her life. Now, she has the education and desire to share that knowledge. She was not able to go to college on a consistent basis until she was 25 and believes self-actualization or fulfilling your potential is solely up to the individual.

Fultz is a member of Greensboro’s Love and Faith Christian Fellowship. She serves on the board of directors for the Foster Parents Association and is a member of the N.C. Social Services Association and the Foster Care Alumni Association.

May is Foster Care Awareness Month. At 2 p.m. May 24, S.T.A.R.S. will host a grand opening at its new office at The Self Help Center, 122 N. Elm. St., Suite 811, in Greensboro. Fultz hopes people interested in supporting the work of this organization or who want to volunteer to help will attend.

Funding is through fund-raisers, tax-deductible contributions and grants.

“No contribution is too small, and all are appreciated,” Fultz said.
Fultz is available for speaking engagements.

For more information, contact Fultz at starsnc06@bellsouth.net or 275-0783.

To nominate a deserving person for this column, contact Peggy Longmire at rlongmire@triad.rr.com or 288-9040.