SUCCESS STORIES

Shannon Chain

Shannon Chain grew up in San Francisco in a chaotic household with a severely schizophrenic mother. Her mother was so ill she was unable to provide the basic necessities of life like clothing, food, and shelter. They moved constantly, were sometimes homeless, and ate at soup kitchens to survive.

At age nine, Shannon dropped out of school. She was essentially "wild on the streets" from the age of seven on. At thirteen, Shannon met Frank Moran, a probation officer at Juvenile Justice Center, and at fourteen City Youth Now began paying for Shannon to take ballet lessons. These two events were life-changing for Shannon. She began summer school at the Juvenile Justice Center to catch up on the years she had missed and made the choice to leave her mother and enter the foster care system. She began a part-time job at City Youth Now, re-entered public school, and began to seriously train as a ballet dancer.

At eighteen, Shannon became a professional ballet dancer, joining American Ballet Theatre and the Zurich Ballet in Switzerland, among other companies. She went on to dance with many of the great ballets around the world.

Shannon retired from her professional ballet career to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor and hopes to begin medical school in the fall of 2006. She is currently an undergraduate pre-med student at the University of California-San Francisco.

Despite the rigorous demands of studies and work, Shannon returned to her roots at the Juvenile Justice Center, this time in the role that we served for her so many years ago. Shannon coordinated a program between San Francisco State University and the Juvenile Justice Center to bring hands-on chemistry to the young people there. She also volunteered each week to teach Yoga to the children who are incarcerated in the Juvenile Justice Center. It is our greatest hope that Shannon touches the lives of one of today's young people in the same way that Frank Moran, Rosemary O'Sullivan and Joan Coyne touched her life twenty years ago.

City Youth Now is extremely proud to count her as one of "our kids."

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