Renee Fuentes, here with her kitten Kiarra, has been working with Social Advocates for Youth to develop life skills now that she's outside the foster care system.

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THE WISH: TOOLS FOR WORK, COMPUTER AND PRINTER, FAMILY PORTRAIT

Learning to live on her own

renee Fuentes always dreamed of owning a family portrait. Something she could put up on a wall.

But she didn't know she had any brothers until she was 10. She never knew her father. Her mother and stepfather were abusive and neglectful, and she's been in foster care since she was 3 years old.

``I'd take my three brothers and have a portrait taken now, but I can't afford it,'' Renee says. So the walls of her San Jose apartment remain bare.

Her three brothers, ages 9, 12 and 15, are still in the foster care system. But Renee, 20, has been on her own for two years, working full-time since she was 17, most recently at an administrative office job. She spent her childhood living in nine foster homes, five group homes and the county children's shelter.

She was anxious to leave the foster care system, but it hasn't been easy out on her own.

``At 18, foster care just ends,'' says Jennifer Mason, a counselor with Social Advocates for Youth's Independent Living program, which works with young people leaving foster care. ``The government provides nothing.'' Often, these youth drift into homelessness or drug abuse.

``Renee is one of the few that I've worked with who are really goal-oriented. She doesn't waste any opportunities. It makes you really want to help her.''

Renee says she wants to be a role model for her brothers. She's enrolled in an eight-month dental assistant program through Bryman College. She's doing well but could use some assistance. She needs ``scrubs'' for an upcoming internship ($250) (30A) and she'll have to buy tools and pay a fee to take the Registered Dental Assistant Exam ($350) (30B). A computer ($800) (30C) and printer ($50) (30D) would be a huge help with schoolwork and also to keep track of her home-based business selling cosmetics.

But what she dreams about is a family portrait with her three brothers ($22) (30E) in a nice frame ($20) (30F).