Dominic Ruffin. Photo courtesy of The Sun.

Cheers to The Sun in San Bernadino, Calif., for this article about Dominic Ruffin, an aged out foster child who was homeless for seven months while in college.

Ruffin graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Cal State University San Bernadino College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He wants to pursue a master’s degree in social work and become a social worker.

Ruffin had been living in his car and sleeping in the library. Jean Peacock, a professor of psychology and human development, saw him in the library early in the morning, struck up a conversation with Dominic and discovered he was homeless. She helped him get on-campus housing.

“He wants to be a model and talk to youth who are going what he’s gone through,” Peacock said. “It’s his statement of purpose.”

Antwone Fisher.

The 2002 movie “Antwone Fisher” is about a Navy psychiatrist who helps a troubled sailor and former foster child work through his emotional trauma and go on to become a Hollywood writer, public speaker and author.

 However, the critically acclaimed movie does not tell the whole story, the real Antwone Fisher told SocialWorkersSpeak.org. Three social workers — Bill Ward, Jill Edwards and Patricia Nees — played pivotal, positive roles in his life, Fisher said. Their story is told more fully in his book on which the movie is based, “Finding Fish.”

“Social work is really important,” said Fisher, 50, speaking by telephone from New York City where he was promoting his new book, “A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie” ($19.99, Touchstone Hardcover/Simon & Schuster).

“If it weren’t for social workers some kids would be like Oliver Twist. There wouldn’t be anybody watching over them and they wouldn’t be affiliated with anybody. People are hard on social workers. Let them go out there and try to do what social workers try to do.”

Fisher was born in prison and placed in foster homes in Cleveland, Ohio soon after birth. He was eventually placed with the Pickett family where he suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse and later became homeless before joining the Navy.

Social workers did not rescue him from his abusive home, possibly because his foster mother coerced him into believing social workers could not help him so Fisher kept silent. “They (social workers) didn’t seem as powerful as my foster mother,” he said. “My foster mother told me and my foster brother that they weren’t powerful.”

However social workers still had a positive impact on Fisher. Fisher said he had 13 different social workers during his childhood but Edwards was the first he connected with emotionally. “She was always on the kids’ side — I loved her for that,” he said. “She made me feel I was not in the world by myself.”

After Mrs. Pickett threw Fisher out of her home Nees secured money to buy Fisher clothing and gave him information about himself that he never knew, including the name of his birth mother and his middle name, “Quenton.” She was also probably the first to warn that Fisher was a “walking pressure cooker” in need of therapy.

And then there was Bill Ward, pragmatic and kind social worker who gave the soon-to-be-an-adult Fisher a wake-up call and told him to stop feeling sorry for himself. He warned Fisher that at 18 he would age out of the foster care system and have to largely fend for himself.

“I was really mad at him for saying that,” Fisher said. “But I was getting down to the wire — I was almost 18. There was no more time for gentle strokes.”

After serving in the Navy Fisher worked as a prison guard and then a security guard at Sony Pictures. He reconnected with his birth family and wrote his life story, which got the attention of Sony executives. He eventually sold the film rights to 20th Century Fox.

Actor Denzel Washington directed the film and played Navy psychiatrist Dr. Jerome Davenport. Actor Derek Luke portrayed the adult Antwone Fisher in the film.

Fisher has stayed in contact with all three social workers. In fact, Ward dropped by when “Antwone Fisher” was filming some scenes in Fisher’s old Cleveland neighborhood. Ward was proud Fisher left Cleveland homeless but returned in a limousine.

“Way to come back!,” he said to Fisher.

Antwone has written several books and is also a poet. His latest book, “A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie and Other Lessons for Succeeding in Life,” offers young men tips on grooming, self-confidence, finances, dressing for success, personal fitness and diet. These are lessons Fisher wished someone had taught him while growing up. “I heard somebody describe it as Dad in a book,” he said.

Photo of Lucia Walters courtesy of IMDB.com.

Canadian actress Lucia Walters plays social worker “Fern” on the CW’s critically acclaimed series “Life Unexpected” (Mondays at 8 p.m. Eastern on the CW).

“Life Unexpected” is about a 15-year-old foster child named “Lux” who reconnects with her birth parents, “Baze” and “Cate.” Not surprisingly Lux discovers her parents, who were teenagers themselves when she was born, still have a lot of growing up to do.

Fern decided whether Cate or Baze would continue to have joint custody of Lux or if she would return to foster care. In  that way her role fits the stereotypical depiction of social workers as “baby stealers.”

However, in an episode called “Family Therapized,” Fern holds a session with Lux, Cate and Baze that helps the three become honest about their feelings and begin heading down the path of becoming a true family. In that scene, Fern demonstrated the help real social workers provide families in crisis.

“I know it doesn’t feel like it,” Fern tells a tearful Cate after the emotional session. “But what you had truly was a breakthrough.”

Walters was born in Athabasca in Canada’s Alberta province to a Dutch mother and Antiquan father who was a minister in the Anglican church. She became a registered nurse but took a modeling course and landed a spot in a T-Mobile commercial with actress Catherine Zeta Jones. She went on to take acting classes and has appeared in the “X-Files,” “Smallville,” the “L-Word” and scores of other other television series and movies.

Walters agreed to talk to SocialWorkersSpeak.org about her social worker role on “Life Unexpected”:

Q: Did you know any real-life social workers before you took the role of Fern?

WALTERS: Before I became an actor I actually obtained a Health Science degree and was a registered nurse in an obstetric hospital that also had a rehab unit for pregnant drug addicts. I have worked with and know a number of amazing social workers!

 Q: How did you prepare for the part of “Fern”?

WALTERS: My prep was based on those amazing social workers I have worked with. I also got to know some of the community social workers who liaised with the hospital social workers. They seemed to be tougher, because they had been exposed to so much more within the community, so I wanted my character to reflect that as well.

 Q: There are thousands of foster care children in the system, including older ones such as “Lux” who have never been adopted for found a permanent family. Do you think “Life Unexpected” does a good job at educating the public about their plight?

WALTERS: Most of the foster children I have gotten to know are now adults and unfortunately, because I met them in a drug rehab unit, I have seen and heard the worst stories. “Life Unexpected” does an incredible job of showing an example of a foster child’s plight in life. It’s heartbreaking to see but imperative that the uninformed public gets a taste of the reality of many children out there.  “Life Unexpected” is the first show to address this and I think Liz Tigelaar, the show’s creator, knew exactly what she was talking about when she wrote this. Awareness instigates change.

To read SocialWorkersSpeak.org’s January 2010 interview with “Life Unexpected” creator Liz Tigelaar click here. And to find out more about how social workers help children such Lux visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web pages by clicking here.

A social worker visits Cate and Baze in a scene from "Home Inspected" episode.

SocialWorkersSpeak.org recently sat down with Liz Tigelaar,creator and executive producer of “Life Unexpected,” to talk about what inspired her to do the drama. To read that interview click here.

“Life Unexpected,”  which airs Mondays at 9 p.m. Eastern on the CW, is about Lux (Britt Robertson), a foster child who reunites with her birth parents. The January 25 episode “Home Inspected” features a social worker who inspects the homes of parents Cate (Shiri Appleby) and Baze (Kristoffer Polaha) to see if they are capable of taking care of Lux.

Q: Social workers are sometimes stereotyped in television and movies as authority figures who come in and break up homes. We would like you to watch the “Home Inspected” episode of “Life Unexpected” and tell us what you think about the portrayal of the social worker. You can watch it online by clicking here.