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Homeless girl with the secret sauce to success


At last, Destiny Jackson, then 13, said to herself.
After the abuse and the torment she d endured over time, someone had called representatives from Philadelphia s Department of Human Services into her family s West Philadelphia home.
Now they ll see what I ve been through, she believed. Now I ll get out.
But it didn t happen.
The house looked fine, said Jackson, now 18. And when the house looks fine, DHS thinks everything is fine. But sometimes people can put on a show and make it all seem all right. DHS didn t remove me from the home. So, I ran away.
After that, Jackson couch-surfed in the homes of friends and family, lived in foster care or group homes, and spent three years in a homeless shelter. Through it all, with the help of caring others, she used the sheer force of her considerable will and a preternaturally honed self-confidence to grow herself up. ....

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