ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210053
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JARRATT
At 16, Tiffany Anne Olszewski was a chronic runaway, a veteran of group and detention homes, even house arrest.
She was angry, hostile, aggressive. ``I would break windows,'' she said.
Predictably, drugs and alcohol were part of the mosaic of delinquency that defined her life.
``I drank with my friends at night and I drank all the time on weekends. I smoked marijuana all the time. I've tried cocaine.''
Delicate, polite, a ready smile set off by glittering blue eyes and wisps of sandy blond hair, she is hardly the picture of a rogue teen-ager.
``It was a sense of wanting to be somebody,'' she explained. ``I felt invisible.''
Now, the Lynchburg girl is convinced she is somebody. Yet it is with some trepidation that those who care for Tiffany await her May 30 departure from the Jackson-Feild Home for abused and severely neglected girls.
``There is always that concern with all of our girls,'' said Peter J. Prizzio, director of programs at Jackson-Feild, where Tiffany has lived for the past year.
Jackson-Feild is usually the last hope for many severely damaged girls, some as young as 10. It provides a structured and disciplined living environment, counseling, education and health care for 50 girls. Forty live at the bucolic main campus near Jarratt and 10 reside at Eleventh House, a home in Richmond for older girls making the transition to independent living.
As with most girls coming to the home, Tiffany's future seemed bleak. Her behavior was so unmanageable that she was placed in a private psychiatric hospital for more than a month before returning to Jackson-Feild, the largest facility of its type in the state.
Tiffany, now 17, began having emotional problems at age 11, and suffered from depression when she was placed in the hospital. She believes her parents' divorce when she was 8 had something to do with it.
Her mother, Marina Stinnett, said there were other reasons. ``My problem with [drug] addiction probably had a lot to do with her problems,'' she said.
Tiffany said other factors too personal to discuss contributed to her problems.
At 14, she ran away - the first of 10 times. She would drink and use drugs with older friends at night, then sleep late and skip school.
She was hospitalized a second time for depression and suicidal thoughts.
``On my 15th birthday I got pretty messed up. I tried to leave and my mom called the cops and I went to a group home for troubled teens. I've been there several times,'' she said. Each time, she ran away.
Tiffany said that period of her life was a blur. ``I was using drugs and it's hard for me to remember. I wasn't happy at all. I don't know why.''
She ran away from home again in December of 1994 and returned home after three days.
``I was home when a cop came over and said there was warrant out for me because I had violated house arrest.'' She had been declared a habitual runaway and placed under a court order mandating school attendance and home detention.
Again she was taken to a group home and again she fled to stay with older friends. ``The cops arrested me again and I was placed in a girls' home.''
Finally, she was placed in a Lynchburg detention home for 11/2 months; her mother turned over custody to social services. A case worker recommended Jackson-Feild, which has given sanctuary to girls since 1855.
Prizzio said he believes Tiffany has developed respect for herself at Jackson-Feild. ``I just got tired of myself,'' she said in explaining the apparent turnaround. ``I feel better about the future than any other time, I guess because I have more confidence in myself.''
Recently, she wrote to Jackson-Field officials and outlined her accomplishments. ``I do not engage in delinquent behaviors, such as school truancy, alcohol abuse or drug abuse. I can receive constructive criticism and accept disappointment without thinking I am a failure.
``I can now say I am pretty without thinking I am lying to myself.''
Tiffany plans to return to her mother's home in Lynchburg and re-enroll in the city's public schools, where she will be a high school senior. She said she rarely slips into depression anymore and no longer needs antidepressant medication.
Asked if Tiffany would return to her old ways, her mother said, ``That won't happen.'' Mother and daughter attend Narcotics Anonymous together.
Tiffany is one of about 250 girls who pass through the Jackson-Feild home every 24 months, not all of them success stories. ``Those children we're not reaching we do everything to find the appropriate placement,'' said Jackson-Feild executive director Robert E. Nicholls.
The home has an 85 percent success rate in returning children to their homes or to independent living. No girl has run away from Jackson-Feild in the past 18 months, although most every child was a habitual runaway before coming to the home, Nicholls said.
What about girls who don't have a chance to rebuild their lives in a place like Jackson-Feild?
``My intuitive sense is if a relative doesn't pick up the child, if state agencies don't help, some of them probably would end up on the streets,'' Nicholls said.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Tiffany Anne Olszewski has lived at theby CNBJackson-Feild Home for abused and neglected girls for a year. She is
due to graduate at the end of the month. color.
BILL BASKERVILL ASSOCIATED PRESS