By Kathleen BergerRecord Staff WriterTerrence Richardson Jr. never believed in Santa Claus.There was never a present or toy under the tree until “T.J.” was 6 years old. Now 18, T.J. looks back on that Christmas morning with a smile, grinning from ear to ear.“There were presents all the way up high,” said T.J. “I woke up and I was like, ‘Santa actually came!’ and I jumped on my mom’s bed.”Jumping on his mom’s bed with his 3-year old sister is a precious memory for T.J., he said, because there are so few childhood memories that are good.Weeks after that Christmas of 2001, the Missouri Department of Social Services’ Children’s Division removed T.J. from his mother. T.J. said it was because his mother injected him with heroin.“She was high at the time and said, ‘Here you want some?’ and she just shot me up. Luckily the neighbor next door was coming over because she needed to talk to my mom, and she saved me. She literally saved my life. She took me to the emergency room because I overdosed,” T.J. said.T.J. said his mom’s boyfriend would abuse them. He said his mom was so wrapped up in drugs, alcohol and sex that he had no one to protect him.But T.J. said life wasn’t always better after that. He was placed in countless foster homes and residential care facilities.T.J. said he’s never had a Christmas like the one when he was 6, ever again.“I was placed in some pretty crappy homes. They were in it for the money,” he said. “I’ve reported a couple of them for abuse.”Yearning for independence, T.J.’s caseworker helped him through an application process to be part of a unique program. The program helps only a few boys and girls at a time. In September, T.J. made his way from Kansas City to Warrenton where his new life began.New LifeStep Up Transitional Living Program in Warrenton helps teenagers and young adults in foster care transition from state custody to independent living and the real world.Cathy Pritchett, owner of Step Up TLP, LLC., said many kids in the system are institutionalized. Between the ages of 18 to 21, they are often ill-equipped to take care of themselves after leaving state custody.“They’re literally left on the doorsteps of the court. They are released from custody and they have nowhere to go,” said Pritchett.Having been a foster parent for 10 years, Pritchett said she couldn’t stand by without doing something more to help. That calling turned into action.For two years now, Step Up has been providing supervised villas for foster kids entering the program before transiting them into apartments and beyond.T.J. lives in one of the villas with three other teenage boys, ages 16 through 19. T.J. is now a senior at Warrenton High School. Since moving to Warrenton in late September, Step Up helped T.J. obtain his drivers permit, a part-time job and an iPhone.T.J. also has a number of responsibilities many 17-year-old boys have in a traditional family home, including cleaning and cooking.“They’ve been told what to do their whole lives and they don’t understand because they didn’t grow up in a traditional family,” said Pritchett. “We have rules, we have expectations just like a parent would. We are modeled around what it would be like in a family.”T.J. said his biggest accomplishment is something most people take for granted.“I wake up on my own,” he said. “I’m used to people waking me up, but I wake up on my own here.”Step Up also provides access to a number of state educational programs that teach the kids many life skills. Nutrition, grocery shopping and budgeting grocery money are among them.Each of the four boys living together in the villa receive an allowance of $50 per week for food, outside of meals provided at Warrenton High School.Together they pool $200 to shop for one week’s groceries. Pritchett says the boys are learning that the prepackaged microwave meals don’t stretch that far. Pritchett said the girls in her program don’t have this problem because they create and cook their own meals.“So the next step, we decided every boy is going to be responsible for one night a week to cook a meal, and we are going to help them with that,” said Pritchett.Pritchett says the program has challenges that are fun, but there are many steps to overcome before gaining a healthy independence from foster care.T.J. wanted to reunite with his mom and sister. His determination and Internet searching skills led him to a town in Arkansas where he found them.“So I called her,” he said.Days later, T.J.’s mom and sister drove from Arkansas to Warrenton to see him. And he said proudly, that his mom claims to be drug-free and sober for three years now.“I’ve been struggling to talk to her. But I feel like I need that part of my life to be filled because it’s been vacant for so long,” he said. “And my sister is most important in my life.”But T.J. said that journey didn’t come without personal struggle.“She said point blank to me that ‘I am so sorry,’ and she said it with the most sincerity,” T.J. said. “And she said, ‘You’ve been through things that I can never say sorry enough for. I love you so much and no man will ever come between me and my kids anymore.’ And that was the strongest thing I ever heard her say.”Step Up encourages therapy. Both T.J. and his mom are in weekly sessions together via phone.“What T.J.’s doing is ideal. He’s come here, he’s learning how to be his own person, to live on his own and count on himself,” said Pritchett. “Through therapy, therapists are forcing him to say the hard things to mom, ask her the questions he wanted to ask his whole life. So when he does get out of custody, he just doesn’t run back and not be equipped to deal with it. That’s the ideal situation.”Pritchett said T.J. needs more supervised time and structure before he’s ready for the next phase of the program, called Step Out.Next PhaseIn Step Out, T.J. would move off-site to an apartment in the community. He would have to maintain a monthly budget including money for a car. Pritchett said the Missouri Alliance for Children and Families pays for the costs of the apartment and utilities.In order to Step Out, Pritchett requires them to have a job. With the money they make, they write her a check for rent and utilities. Pritchett places that money into a savings account. Then when the young adults are released from her program, she said she gives them all of that money back so they can have a fresh new start.Pritchett is thankful for the donations pouring in this time of year so that the kids in Step Up may experience a wonderful Christmas.Pritchett is especially thankful to be in the position to give T.J. the opportunity to make his own decisions.There’s one decision T.J. has made that is lighting up his Christmas season — it’s the decision to share Christmas with his mom and sister. It’ll be their first Christmas together since that joyful Christmas when Santa came, when he was 6 years old.“This Christmas I’ll be in a good environment. Growing up the way I did, this is one of the best places I’ve ever lived at,” said T.J. “And I’m going to be so happy. I’m overjoyed for this Christmas because my mom’s going to be here.”

Kathleen Berger Photo

STEPPING UP — 18-year old Terrence Richardson Jr. is a resident in the Step-Up Transitional Living Program in Warrenton. He is holding a photograph of himself when he was 6-years old. That was the last year he spent Christmas with his mother before entering foster care.