Two years ago, the world changed forever for De’Andra and her 9-year-old daughter.

Her daughter’s father was killed, leaving behind a young girl overwhelmed by grief and confusion. “She didn’t understand,” De’Andra recalls. “At first, she just kept asking why her dad wasn’t answering her calls. But as time went on, the loss really hit her. She couldn’t focus in class; she didn’t want to come to school. I didn’t know what to do.”

As a single mother who had also experienced loss at a young age, De’Andra recognized her daughter’s pain, but she felt helpless to reach her. “It was like watching her shut down,” she says. “She was hurting so much, and I just wanted to help her heal.”

That healing began when her daughter, who is 9, was connected to Edgewood’s School-Based Behavioral Health Services at a San Francisco elementary school. There, she met Wendy, a caring Youth and Family Advocate from Edgewood who would become both an advocate and an anchor.

“From the very beginning, Wendy never gave up on my daughter,” says De’Andra, her voice breaking with emotion. “Even when I was tired and didn’t know what to do, she kept saying, ‘We’re going to get through this together.’ She made me feel like I wasn’t alone.”

Through patience, consistency, and compassion, Wendy began to earn the young girl’s trust. “When I first started working with her, she was so angry, angry at the world, angry about what had happened,” Wendy recalls. “I knew we couldn’t even begin to work on her behavior until she felt safe. So I made sure she had one person she could count on, me. I told the team, ‘No one else works with her but me.’ I needed her to know that someone here had her back.”

Over time, that trust began to blossom into change. De’Andra’s daughter started using the tools she learned in therapy, asking for breaks when she felt overwhelmed, expressing what made her angry instead of acting out, and finding ways to calm herself when emotions ran high. “She started coming to me when she felt upset,” says Wendy. “Instead of lashing out, she’d say, ‘I need to talk.’ That was huge.”

For De’Andra, the transformation has been life-changing. “Last year, I was getting calls from the school every single day,” she says. “I was scared, exhausted, I even lost my job because I had to keep leaving work. But this year, it’s different. My daughter is happier. She wants to go to school. She’s focused, and she’s proud of herself. I’m so proud of her, too.”

Now, her. daughter smiles more. She laughs with her friends. And when life feels heavy, she knows she has a team, her mom, Wendy, and the Edgewood community, who believe in her.

“I was about to give up,” De’Andra admits. “But Edgewood was there when I needed help the most. They didn’t just help my daughter, they helped me take care of myself, too. And now, we’re stronger than ever.”