THE NITTY GRITTY
Gessy entered foster care at age 12 because her biological home was abusive. Gessy remained in foster care until age 19 when she moved in with her boyfriend, who is now her husband. The two worked hard to be stable, and after some rough patches, are now happy, healthy, stable, and the parents of two girls. Someday they hope to adopt children.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Gessy loves business and considers it one of her passions. It seems that running a business comes naturally to her. Even at age 16 Gessy was a budding entrepreneur: when she couldn’t find a job, she "made her own job" by starting an errand-running business. She walked dogs, cleaned houses, and ran errands for her clients.

After Gessy attended Marymount College, where she majored in psychology w/a business minor, she started working as a foster care trainer. During the several years that Gessy worked as a foster care trainer, she often would bring young people to speak at the trainings. Gessy says, "People really wanted to hear these young people speak. More and more we were asked to come to conferences and bring young people. We realized that the voices of young people in the training room were really missing. Training needed the human voice and perspective. When we had young people in the room, the training was more honest and powerful. It helps the adults—they’re more engaged and ask better questions. It reminds them of why they’re working in the system in the first place. And the young people benefit too because they get to be experts about the system."

Based on the success of having young people involved with training, Gessy, along with Jennifer Nelson and Max Moran, founded Voices of Youth (VOY) in 1999, a project designed to "make foster care a more supportive experience for teens so they are better prepared for the transition out of care." VOY does this by integrating young people in care into training, curriculum, and planning for agencies and their staff. VOY partnered with the already existing Youth Communications, the publisher of Foster Care Youth United.

Today VOY has:
> developed a 20-hour training program for youth to learn public speaking skills,
> trained or presented to several thousand professionals working with youth in foster care in New York City, including attorneys, staff, administrators, supervisors, judges, and agency executives,
> involved many youth in New York City’s five boroughs,
> created a job/career readiness program and a mentoring program, and
> involved youth in the juvenile justice system.

Gessy says, "We’ve helped youth to see their experiences as lessons learned. They have something wonderful, unique, and special to offer to the system. They learn they can affect change in telling of their stories."

Click here to visit Voice of Youth.

PLANS FOR FUTURE
Gessy would like to take Voices of Youth international. She wants to go to Russia and Haiti, Haiti because her family comes from there, and Russia because it has a huge orphan population. She would like to address issues involving the exploitation of children, such as children who have been orphaned being recruited to fight in armies.

INSPIRATION
"I just knew to pray. I didn’t really even know how to do it right. Whatever came into my heart, I would pray. It helped me get through nights of crying, nightmares, sometimes feeling suicidal."

"My inspiration was having friendships outside the foster care system. I found people I could be myself with, people I could trust, and I built relationships with them. That helped me keep my sanity while I was in care."

ADVICE TO YOUTH TRANSITIONING INTO ADULTHOOD
"Never give up, no matter how hard it gets. Even when you feel like going under the covers and not coming out, come out! It’ll be a better day tomorrow. Those days you feel at your lowest, have faith. Get through that day. Your life is worth something. There’s something greater that you have to do. There’s a purpose in your pain. Maybe all of this is to direct you to one person who no one else can help but you. It’s all a part of some great plan that you haven’t figured out yet. You have freedom and power over your life, and you are special. It took me a while to figure out that I am special…it took me a long time to believe it."

"Find a place where you can go to rest. You need a chance and a place to rest and just be."

FAVORITE BOOKS
Their Eyes Were Watching God. By Zora Neale Hurston.
The Chronicles of Narnia. By C.S. Lewis