Jessica, 21, moved into Leaphart Place in November 2008. She previously lived with her grandmother in Columbia. She has never had her own apartment before.

“It has its ups and its downs,” she says. “The ups are, you have your own place, you’re living independently and you’re showing others in your life that because you have a mental illness doesn’t mean that you can’t support yourself on your own.

“The downs are when it’s time to pay your bills and you only have a certain amount of income.”

The support staff at Leaphart and her Social Service Department case manager helped her qualify for food stamps and get into a day program. She has reliable transportation and is taken to a doctor every three months to administer medication to control her schizophrenia.

Jessica attended Dreher High School in Columbia, but did not graduate. She is working on her equivalency degree at a Columbia-area school. Jessica was in foster care for much of her younger life, but moved in with her grandmother when she was 16 years old. She still sees her grandmother every two weeks or so.

 “I cut back because I’m trying to live more independently, can’t go running home to grandma.”

Jessica likes the camaraderie of Leaphart Place and prefers it to group homes, in which she has lived. At Leaphart, residents “don’t have to worry about anybody saying, ‘Line-up, we’re going to this place.’ ”

She is engaged and says she hopes to get married by the end of the year.

“The one thing I’m going to miss about (Leaphart) is, to be truthful, the chaos. Wherever you go, there’s going to be chaos, there’s going to be problems. Here, you have problems, but you know the next day, everything’s going to be the same. Everybody’s still going to be talking to one another.”

Jessica also hopes to continue her education and become a mental health counselor or go into adolescent psychiatric care.