For Camron, YSFS’ La Casa Libertad Transitional Living Program (LCL) offered safety and the chance to begin a new life. Camron left home, and an abusive stepmother, a year ago. “If I hadn’t come here I’d probably be on the streets,” conjectures Camron, who got his first black eye at the age of five.

Now 17 with six months left in the program, Camron is saving up money to attend the University of New Mexico. Every week he works up to forty hours as a bus boy at a local restaurant and has saved more than $3,000 to help support his transition to college life.

He also attends weekly counseling sessions at YSFS’ Clinical Services Center. “It [the counseling] has helped in my relationship with others and myself,” says Camron, whose biological mother died when he was three. “I’m throwing fewer tantrums,” he says.

An avid basketball and soccer player, Camron values the independence he’s achieved through living at LCL, while admitting it hasn’t always been easy. “I lost my family when I left home,” he says.

Camron looks forward, in the future to having a family and a home of his own. “If it hadn’t been for this program, I wouldn’t have been able to set myself up,” he adds.