Ella’s Story
“Like Ella, her mum had an intellectual disability and she wasn’t able to protect Ella from her abusive father.”
Ella is 18, and lives with an intellectual disability.
She was removed from her parents by Child Protection Services at 16, because her father had sexually abused her from when she was very young. Her mother also has an intellectual disability and so unable to protect her.
As you can imagine, Ella was an easy target for bullying since she was little. While Ella’s removal from an unsafe home was necessary, young Ella’s life was never the same since she was taken from her mum. She had been living in residential care and essentially bumped around with no permanent home since then.
Ella’s experience in residential care was traumatic and she was a constant victim of bullying.
When turned 18, she was asked to leave as kids are only eligible for residential care until then. She hated her situation, but she also could not live without it. She found herself on her own.
But Ella is a strong, young survivor. After all she’d been through, she vowed she wants to live independently, free from abuse. Free from bullying.
The problem is, she didn’t have the life skills to make it on her own. Yet.
But your kindness support for Anchor will help teenagers like Ella to achieve their goals and build a full and thriving life.
The Anchor MyLife Project
Transitioning from residential care, where help is available at any time of the day, to be expected to do everything on your own immediately is a recipe for failure.
That’s where Anchor’s MyLife project for 16-18-year-olds comes in.
In MyLife, Anchor supports young people like Ella for two years and walks alongside them to live independently as adults. By the time they’re 18, they can manage their finances, use public transport to get around, finish high school or find work, make responsible decisions, and thrive as adults.
Like any child who suffers horrific trauma at the hands of adults, an anxious and depressed Ella was understandably wary and guarded. But Anchor kept showing up for Ella, always offering unconditional respect and kindness.
As Ella’s trust grew, she began asking for help and sharing her goals, including learning how to cook for herself. Anchor would sit down with her and do basic meal planning and food preparation, guiding her on how to do grocery shopping, look up recipes, turn on the stove and watch flames.
Today, Ella loves cooking. She can prepare meals on her own and looks forward to doing it every day.
When Ella first enrolled in MyLife, she refused to go to school, attending less than five times an entire term. Anchor would literally encourage her to go every single morning, picking and sending her on school runs, and helping her with her school work.
Today, Ella is a proud Year 12 graduate. Anchor’s case manager cried the day Ella announced her achievement. These days, Anchor helps Ella learn how to write her resume, apply for jobs and prepare for interviews.
When Anchor first met Ella, she was managing money poorly and perpetually getting scammed online. Ella was unable to protect herself from random people sending messages trying to sell her stuff and was scammed multiple times because she had shared all her details with strangers. Anchor taught her her how to recognise a scam, especially how to protect herself online.
Today, Ella is an educated online user, and no longer dependant on others to guide her on right from wrong.
How YOU Can Help
You can give another teenager like Ella a chance to achieve their goals and build a full and thriving life by making a donation today.
MyLife changed everything for Ella.
We ask you to take action today and show up for a teenager like Ella who has no one else she can turn to for help.
If it hadn’t been for the kindness of people donating to Anchor, Ella might not have been able to achieve independent living. MyLife exists because of kind people like you.
Your support for Anchor’s MyLife project helps teenagers like Ella a chance to achieve their goals and build a full and thriving life.
Your donation will help teenagers like Ella have the right support to flourish and thrive as adults, despite the challenges they’ve faced in the past. Anchor offers them safety, stability, and a home.
You’ll help set up a teenager like Ella for success. From abuse and bullying, to independence and a future, on her own terms.
That’s what your kindness can do today.
Thank you for being one of the people in the lives of these teens who are helping not harming them.
