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Featured Omega Alum: Sakari Lyons-Glenn

Sakari Lyons-Glenn received both her bachelors degree and her Masters in Social Work from California State University East Bay. She is currently a social worker for the Department of Public Health in Solano County.

"You can call me a success story, I suppose," says Sakari Lyons-Glenn, "but there were a lot of lumps and bumps along the way."

Sakari's father was incarcerated from the time she was five, and her mother was addicted to crack cocaine. "I bounced around a lot, in five different homes, before I even went into the foster care system," she says. "I finally went into kinship care with my great-aunt and uncle, who raised me." In spite of the moving from home to home, Sakari always excelled in school; she believed if she got good grades, her mom would do better.

When she came to Omega, Sakari found a place where she could be herself. "My aunt and uncle were wonderful to me, but they were older and I was uncomfortable talking to them about teenage issues." With encouragement from Omega, Sakari won a scholarship to Howard University. At the end of her first semester, however, she discovered that her mother was dying and she herself was pregnant. She returned to the Bay Area and continued her education while working and raising her son in a transitional housing program for emancipated foster youth.

Her days were exhausting, but Sakari completed her degree — and then earned an advanced degree in social work, even though by then she had had a second child. Today, she is married and has three children. She is a social worker for the Department of Public Health in Solano County and is contemplating pursuing a Ph.D. "A couple of social workers had a big impact on my life," Sakari says. "One of them, Anca Bujas, inspired me to be a social worker because of her gentle heart, urban spirit, and her ability to make me think outside the box."

"Omega gave me a way out," she says, "and I learned important life lessons there. And now I'd like to be my own Omega Boys Club for my children. I want them to understand that dating and falling in love will happen, but education comes first. And, of course, I continue to work with Omega. My goal is to go back and teach current Omegas what it means to be family. After all, as Dr. Marshall says, 'The more you know, the more you owe.'"

Omega Boys Club/Street Soldiers – keeping youth Alive and Free.

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