March 15, 2024
What is the best thing about Sipe’s Orchard Home?
Learning that your opinion and needs matter.
How would life be different without Sipe’s Orchard Home?
Living in a group home until 18 and then leaving, not sure about your future.
Every year, the Catawba County United Way (CCUW) partners with local non-profits who are champions of improving the lives of youth and teens.
In a new weekly series, the CCUW will introduce the 2024 funded programs working in this impact area, highlighting how education is more than just grades and attendance.
This week – Sipe’s Orchard Home in Conover
BY JOHN BAILEY 
Destiny Grogan, 17, has been in foster care since 2020 after her father died. She was one-of-seven children.
“I bounced around a lot of homes. I’ve been in 28 foster homes in three different states and that setting just wasn’t good for me,” Grogan said. “There were a lot kids with a lot of different needs. I needed to focus on me and get me where I could fight for myself and advocate for myself.”
She ended up finding Sipe’s through social media and called the agency’s Executive Director Jaime Brown directly to talk about entering the program.
The Transitional Living Program at Sipe’s offers a residential setting for both male and female youth ages 16-21 who do not have the financial, academic, emotional, or behavioral skills necessary for independent living, according to sipesorchardhome.org. This program is designed to provide residents with the tools and practice needed to gain successful independence.
"These are youth who are removed from their home, due to abuse, neglect or addiction or sometimes youth who have already been out couch surfing or in some kind of homeless situation," Brown said.
He knows of only five or six similar programs in the state. Without them, these teens would be facing addiction, poverty or homelessness.
"Fortunately, we do a lot more now than we did for that population 20 years ago, but we still don't do near enough," Brown said. "Sadly, it's still one of the most underserved populations that can fall through the cracks."
Grogan has been at Sipe’s for seven months and describes it like a big family.
“The staff here, when you make mistakes, they don’t treat you like the mistake you made. They help you learn from those mistakes so you don’t make them again,” she said.
“They don’t think of you as the past. They try to help you get to where you’re going, and they always support you.”
Lessons Learned
Advocating for yourself is the greatest lesson life has taught Grogan so far. There have been times when she felt her needs were not treated as important by those around her, that her opinion was not valuable. Grogan found the understanding and support she had been looking for with the staff at Sipe’s, like learning how to set boundaries.
“Being able to say ‘you’re upsetting me, you’re triggering me, let’s walk away and revisit this later,’ or being able to control your own triggers, recognizing them and avoid the drama,” she said.
In 2023, Sipe’s Orchard Home served 41 individuals, according to its United Way End of Year Report. The program had five teens graduate high school, 12 received their driver’s license and three purchased their first car.
One goal of the staff at Sipe's is to make sure the teens know they have someone in their lives who is there to support and not judge them, Brown said. It's about teaching them how to plan ahead, learning how to live on a budget, learning to drive, finishing school and setting and achieving goals, and not being afraid of making mistakes.
Life Without Sipe’s
“Sipe’s was an answer to prayer for me. I don’t know where I’d be, probably still in Wilmington. I can almost guarantee I wouldn’t have finished high school because I didn’t want to take another step,” Grogan said.
“I’ve been moved around so many times. Every time I got to a place I could settle in, it was ripped from me, so I don’t know where I would be or where I would go without Sipe’s.”
She finished high school to be able to enter the program at Sipe's and plans on becoming a social worker so she can pay forward all that she’s learned about supporting those in need.
“There is hope. No matter what you’ve done in your past. No matter the mistakes you’ve made, here at Sipe’s that’s part of your past and it’s not your future,” Grogan said. “Just because someone made you feel like you weren’t good enough in the past…this is a fresh start.”
VIDEO - See Samantha and Jamie talk about the impact of the program at - THIS LINK.
Next Week - Council on Adolescents of Catawba County's Lunch Buddy Mentoring Program