WOMAN TO SHARE STORY IN YOUTH HEALTH PANEL

Jessica's story is set in a small, rural, all- American town, in a mansion
in New York City and in a series of homeless shelters and dope houses. It's
a story about family lost and regained, about romance gone bad, about a
murky world of drugs and crime, and about a lifetime crammed into two
bizarre years.

She is still working on the ending. She intends that it be a happy one.

She tells the story easily now. She's practicing, she said, because it's
the story she will tell her child someday.

And she will tell it Tuesday, when the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health
and Substance Abuse Services holds a free public forum on youth issues.
"From Darkness to Sunshine," a panel of teens and young adults, will
discuss the issues of substance abuse, violence and mental health from
their own life experiences. Jessica Longan, 20, will be one of the
participants.

She graduated from Perkins High School in 2000 with intentions of going to
college and building a career. First, she wanted to see New York City, so
she worked there as a nanny for a family, which gave her a car and a salary.

Jessica came home to attend a friend's wedding, she said, met a young man
and never went back.

Soon she was using drugs, and soon it was easy to help him steal from
members of his family.

Jessica worked, but what they didn't spend for smoke, her boyfriend took
with him when he left her and eventually went to jail.

She said she realized her choices in life were down to three. She could go
to the penitentiary, live on the streets for the rest of her life or die.

"My family disowned me," she said, "but they're starting to come around."

The break wasn't total. A grandmother in Oklahoma City picked her up, got
her food and clothing; a grandfather got her a car and tries to keep it
running.

She is with a new boyfriend, and she is pregnant. But, "I've been clean and
sober for a year now," she said. "I don't smoke or snort."

A counselor from Youth Services is her main support system. She gets a
housing allowance and food stamps from social service agencies. She has a
job that she applied for and won, with a company that knows her situation
and understands.

It's not a good time be pregnant, she said. "I don't have a stable
environment. I don't want to bring a child into an unstable place. But I'm
going to."

She's passed up many good opportunities, she knows. "I have to do better
now. I don't want to lose my family again."