Angel Burnett was 12 years old when she and her case worker pulled up in front of Cherokee Estate in 2001.
The girl had never heard of it, and the impression the case worker gave at first was not a very favorable one.
“You will wish, after living here, that you had stayed in that foster home,” the adult said, referring to where Angel and her little sister had been for four months until they disrupted that placement. Then she added, “if you mess this up, you’re headed straight for a YDC (youth detention center).”
There wasn’t much that little girl could say to that except, “Ok.” She had been in an adoptive placement for nearly two years but the adoption fell through at the last minute. She then spent four months in Paulding County in “a new adoptive placement I had no interest in,” she said, “so I ran up their phone bill by making long-distance phone calls.”
Originally from Chatsworth, Angel arrived in Dalton more than a little nervous and not knowing what to expect. Upon arrival, she and her sister were the ninth and tenth girls to be residents at Cherokee at that time, bringing the house to capacity along with four adults.
“The initial shock of it wore off within a few days,” she said. “It was a lot. But we had a lot of good support there. My house parents were wonderful.”
Nikita Jordan, now the director of the facility, was the social worker at the time who provided a great deal of assistance that Angel needed.
“I went to counseling, and they pushed really hard for me to have some medical stuff done that had been neglected,” said Angel. “It was just a level of support I had never seen before and a totally different life that I had never had the opportunity to live.” With a 100-acre campus that includes a gymnasium, swimming pool and horse program among other amenities, Cherokee provided a much-needed escape for young people who came from a variety of difficult backgrounds-providing “a lot of comfort,” as Angel put it.
“Having food three times a day, every day, was a great amenity. You know no one is going to come and turn off your power and water,” she said. “You really just got to be a kid. There are no grownup responsibilities aside from our chores, which really are not grownup responsibilities, although at that time they probably felt like it.”
She ultimately graduated from Northeast High School in Whitfield County and spent a year at Young Harris College, where she “had the time of my life,” admittedly not focusing on academics as she should have. Transferring to Dalton State College, she moved back to Cherokee and learned that “when you mess up, you can come back home.” Angel graduated with honors from Dalton State, with the youth home behind her every step of the way.
Her relationship with Nikita Jordan remains close to this day, as she communicates with her via text message almost daily. “You won’t find many like her,” said Angel. She remained at Cherokee after college graduation, working as a relief parent and then a house parent for the TLC (transitional living cottage), home for girls who are older and about to move out on their own. She moved to Chatsworth less than two years ago. Now 32, she is a teacher in Whitfield County.
“Living at Cherokee we found a family that became our forever family, and that is what became important to us,” she said.