Our Story | Together We Can Foundation

Contact Info

5101 Cleveland Street, Suite 305 Virginia Beach, VA 23462
757-288-3231
info@twcfoundation.org

Terry Jenkins

Origins and Founding

The history of The Together We Can Foundation (TWC) was formed in 2008 and registered as a 501(C) 3 non-profit corporation in the state of Virginia by the former Director of Human Services for Virginia Beach, Terry Jenkins, and a group of concerned citizens who wanted to specifically address the challenges that teens in foster care face when transitioning into adult life and work.

The original purpose of the organization was to help create more positive outcomes for young adults aging out of foster care. Specifically, our mission was to ensure the successful transition of young adults from foster care to independent adult life. This is an often-overlooked population with an extremely high risk of disconnection, which frequently results in unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, being trafficked, and incarceration.

All too often, these young people leave foster care without a direction, without a plan, without savings, without skills, and without a safety net of family and caring adults.

Program Launch and Growth

In 2010, thanks to a generous grant from Jane Batten, a philanthropist and community leader in Hampton Roads, Virginia, TWC hired a full-time executive director, Tom Crockett and, after researching best practices from programs around the country, launched a pilot of a programmatic intervention for teens in foster care in Virginia Beach that focused on success skills in the areas of career identification and personal presentation skills.

The vehicle for accomplishing these goals would come to be called the Smart Transitions Program. In 2011, after a successful pilot phase and based on a grant from the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and contributions and sponsorships from area community organizations and businesses, TWC began the expansion of the program to additional Hampton Roads municipalities, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Newport News, and Southeastern Virginia.

Expanding the Mission

The Together We Can Foundation mission continues to guide every program we build, focused on empowering youth with the skills and hope needed for adult success. By the summer of 2013 the TWC board analyzed the data for youth that had participated in the Smart Transitions Program to date and were pleased to see significant, evidence-based improvement in outcomes when measured against national and regional averages, but we also realized that foster youth were just one sub-population in a larger population of youth at-risk of disconnection that numbered at the time over 36,000 youth per year between 14 and 24 across Hampton Roads. The TWC board voted to expand our mission to reach youth with other risk factors for disconnection (foster care, homelessness, economic disadvantage, court involvement, academic failure) with the expanded programming. Foster care youth were always founder Terry Jenkins’ first passion, but she recognized that the organization she started could actually serve the community in even more profound ways.

Sustained Impact

Between 2012 and the present, with a small but dedicated staff of instructors, the Smart Transitions Program has reached well over 13,000 youth with direct service (classes and workshops) and over 85,000 youth with indirect service (distribution of Smart Guides and staff training in the use of the guides with youth).

Led by committed, long-serving, board volunteer chairs like Donald Jellig and Cindy Curtis, TWC is dedicated to improving the outcomes for youth struggling with the transition to adult life.

Looking Ahead

In 2025, with 15 years of strong and effective outcomes in preventing youth disconnection and improving outcomes for at-risk youth struggling with the transition to adult life and work, we are exploring the idea of providing our resources and materials to youth and the organizations that serve them outside of the Hampton Roads and Southeastern Virginia region.

The phenomenon of youth disconnection was once confined generally to youth with specific risk factors such as foster care or juvenile court involvement, poverty and homelessness, academic risk, and specific mental or behavioral health challenges. But, due to a variety of factors, including, the loss of play-based childhoods, unfettered social media access and the pressures social media generates, the impact of the pandemic, economics and the general tone of civil discourse, more youth that ever are struggling with the transition to adult life and work.

At TWC we feel that if we can impact these youth positively, it is what we should be doing.

Our “Why” — Hope and Preparation

Our organizational “why” is to treat every youth we encounter as if he or she was related to us—to treat every youth as if their success really mattered.

With hope and the right preparation—the right skills—these youth with risk factors for disconnection become opportunity youth and in turn, successful adults. That’s why we focus on imparting the skills that all successful people share in common. Through extended in-person courses, online courses, Smart Guides for youth, and training for youth-serving staff and educators, we provide the success skills that build confidence. It’s what our young people need. It’s what they want. It’s what gives them hope.

Learn About Our Mission

Our Symbol — The Rocket Ship

We chose a rocket ship as our symbol because our “why” is ensuring that the next generation is well-prepared for the world they will encounter. They are making a journey that we can only imagine. We are their ground crew. We help them plan. We help them acquire the skills we believe they will need not just to survive, but to thrive. Their rocket ship is a plan and a critical skill set, powered by hope and resilience and supported by a community that sees their success as its success. Ultimately, success for future generations is not a zero-sum game. We lose absolutely nothing by ensuring that our young people are happy and successful in their lives. In fact, we gain a great many things and weave a much more cohesive society.