A few years ago, Patricia Derricott saw a commercial highlighting how many kids were in foster care and had a light-bulb moment: her kids were out of the house, she had room in her home and wanted to help them.
Derricott has always gravitated towards taking care of others and giving back. From raising her now-adult biological children and working in the school system with children with special needs, kids — and especially teenagers — have always held a special place in her heart. As her children grew up, Derricott became known as “Mom” to the neighborhood kids, a title she still proudly reflects on today. So when she became a foster parent with Mentor Foster Care, a local provider of home- and community-based services for children and families, it was a natural fit.
“My mom died when I was 8 and my family helped raise me for quite some time. After that period, I moved in with a lady who raised me until I was fully grown,” Derricott said. “Someone took me in and loved me, and that changed me.”
As a Mentor foster parent, she's provided a loving home for numerous teens aged 16 and up — her “boys” as she affectionately calls them — and has helped prepare them for life after foster care. Derricott seeks to go beyond the basic things a teenager needs, like food and shelter, and emphasizes independent living skills. She shows them how much money she earns and her monthly bills so they can understand the cost of living, how to budget and that they need to plan for when they’re on their own.
"The best part about fostering is seeing their progress and watching them grow," she said. Over the years, she’s helped several of the teens in her care graduate high school or their GED program, find gainful employment and learn some of the life skills they don’t teach in a classroom.
Aside from lessons on how to be responsible, knowledgeable and hard-working individuals, she’s happy just to be “Mom” too. For several of her teens, it’s been the longest they’ve stayed in one place and it’s no secret as to why. She wants them to do and be well. Derricott also recognizes the certain challenges fostering can present and has worked hard to understand her teens’ behaviors: “I learned to be quiet and wait until I’m calm to determine how to handle the situation,” she said. “I let them know that I understand they’re feeling a certain way.”
The goal is to make a lasting impact. To help them succeed, Derricott shared that she hopes to put another home on her property so they eventually have the option of living there and maintaining some independence until they get on their feet. Her relationship with these teens surpasses traditional day-to-day responsibilities.
Derricott credits much of her positive experience as a foster parent to the support from her family and Mentor Foster Care. She’s even gotten to watch two of her teens reunify with their biological families.
“I loved them as my own, but I’m always happy for them to reunify,” she said. “The two that have gone back to their biological families have been doing well.”
What some call a role, Derricott refers to as a calling. “It gives me purpose,” she said. “If you don’t have that calling, it’s not going to work. Fostering will keep me going for a long time. This is part of me.”
To learn more about becoming a foster parent with Mentor Foster Care, call Kecia Smith at 803-508-0299.
