Social Services-Just In Time For Foster Youth

Diane Wells is the Development Director for Just In Time For Foster Youth. They engage a caring community to help transition age foster youth with critical resources and lasting relationships to achieve self-sufficiency and well-being as they become confident, capable and connected.

A graduate of University of Michigan, Diane was a sales representative for First American Title for 20 years. But prior to that, she was an English teacher, hitch-hiked across the United States, lived in a Zen Monastery on top of a mountain, then started a town paper in northern CA, but ended up joining a commune in southern CA, before deciding she had to actually make a living!

Diane found a way to further leverage her success in the corporate world for the greater good in 2003 when she co-founded Just in Time for Foster Youth, starting with a simple concept of transporting gently used furniture donated by her clients in Rancho Santa Fe and Del Mar to the empty shells of apartments occupied by young adults leaving the foster care system and who had accessed subsidized housing but lacked basic furnishings such as beds, vacuums, and kitchen supplies.

In 2014, Diane joined the staff of Just in Time and graduated from the Hudson Institute of Coaching with the specific intention to develop a coaching model to assist foster youth to heal from adverse childhood experiences and train volunteers to see themselves in partnership with youth who are creative, resourceful and whole. CA2M training has also been provided to other San Diego nonprofits, including Children’s Legal Services, National Charity League San Diego del Norte Chapter, and Community Resource Center.

Alan Spector, Judy Thompson and David Kvendru were her sponsors.