Tatiana is a Chicago native born and raised on the West Side. When she was young, she and her two siblings were taken from her parents by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services.
Her parents were told: Get yourselves together, or lose your children forever.
“Mom didn’t take the chance” Tatianna explains frankly. Her dad, however, desperately wanted Tatianna and her siblings back. “My dad worked his butt off to get us back. I salute him.” During his own recovery process, he met and married Tatianna’s stepmother, who adopted all three children. They became a family.
“Fast forward”, Tatianna sighs, “I rebelled against my parents, which led them to kick me out. I didn’t know where to go.” She spent a night at the Pacific Garden Mission, who helped her get a place in the Neon Street Dorms. Street Soccer USA helps us to get on our feet, find jobs, enroll back in school, she explains.
As part of her job placement with Pacific Garden Mission, the program reserves 65% of the her pay check and sets it aside for when Tatiana is ready to move out on their own. These savings then help participants to pay for housing and other initial expenses as they get on their feet.
While Tatianna was living at the Neon Street Dorms, the coach of Street Soccer USA Chicago, Otto Rodriguez, visited the center and invited the residents to join a street soccer match.
Tatianna’s competitive spirit is clear as she enthusiastically explains: I was the only girl for almost a year!
[blockquote text=”I was nominated for the Street Soccer USA National Team in San Francisco at the National Cup. It was exciting but it didn’t really register. That’s what you see in the movies! It’s a dream come true to have an opportunity like this, to represent the US, it’s really cool.” text_color=”#164884″ width=”” line_height=”undefined” background_color=”” border_color=”” show_quote_icon=”yes” quote_icon_color=”#164884″]
Tatiana represented the US Women’s Team at the Homeless World Cup in Amsterdam in September. You’re not always going to win. Just do your best, she said about the experience.
Tatianna is back in her family home, having reconnected with her parents and moved out of transitional housing.