TRAUMAS OF YOUTH EXAMINED GROUP HELPS PEOPLE DEAL WITH
THE PAST
[East Broward Edition]




South Florida Sun - Sentinel - Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Author:        Jerry Libonati Staff Writer
Date:        Apr 23, 2006
Start Page:        3
Section:        COMMUNITY NEWS
Text Word Count:        544




Document Text




(Copyright 2006 by the Sun-Sentinel)
If your parents died or abandoned you during childhood, it could be
affecting the way you think and react as an adult.
That's what Erich Jackson of Margate believes. Starting at age 3, he was
passed around from foster home to foster home.
Jackson, now 46, does not claim to be a psychologist but he has spoken
on television and radio about his past.
And in his relentless pursuit to help others who are dealing with issues of
abandonment, he is organizing a support group called Orphaned Children
Now Adults.
"We have a range of different [experiences]. One young man found out
after his mother's passing that he was adopted and he's dealing with that
issue," Jackson said.
"We try to move beyond the problems. We can't live in the past, can't keep
blaming people for things that happened."
Jackson envisions the group as a place where participants can say
anything they want without feeling threatened. But that kind of openness
became a barrier to his initial plan. He originally wanted the group to be for
kids who were abandoned -- a place where they could reveal what they
were going through and talk about how they felt.
"I told the Legal Aid people what I wanted to do and they said there would
be a lot of legal issues if the group was for kids," Jackson said. "If they talk
about abuse issues, it has to be reported."
So, if he couldn't offer a safe place for kids to talk without consequences,
he would do it for young adults.
"Adults can share their experiences without it having to be reported," he
said.
Jackson understands the tragedy of hopelessness associated with
abandonment.
"I was in 12 foster homes from age 3 to 16," said Jackson, who grew up in
Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
At one point, he said he thought of himself as a human pet because he had
to sleep in the basement on a dog mat.
"Whenever the social workers would do their check-in, I was primped up
and cleaned up. When they would leave, I would have to go back to the
basement. To this day, I think my foster parents were in it for the money,"
said Jackson, who hopes social workers will implement more
unannounced visits.
"I think that would have helped me in my situation."
In addition to being abandoned, Jackson said he has been homeless, drug
addicted and sexually and physically abused.
But his life is a story of triumph over adversity.
"I went through therapy and a lot of people gave a lot of unconditional love
to me," Jackson said. "I had a lot of angels to help me. I had big brothers
and big sisters who gave of themselves."
Now he wants to do the same thing for others.
Orphaned Children Now Adults, Jackson said he hopes to someday
include a therapist and a program to help people reunite with the relatives
they haven't seen over the years.
"I found my mother after 35 years," he said. "It was therapeutic."
Jerry Libonati can be reached at jlibonati@sun-sentinel.com, or
954-572-2014.
[Illustration]
PHOTO; Caption: Jackson


Reproduced with permission of the South Florida copyright owner. Further
reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.