A lonely, affluent widow who wants to make a difference, takes in four delinquent teenage girls. She must overcome her reliance on rules to help the girls complete their three-month sentences despite the mayhem they cause.

SYNOPSIS:

Description and Takeaway: The Blind Side with a multicultural group of girls. Making a difference is worth it.Synopsis: At an airport, Nevaeh, an affluent, lonely widow in her fifties, accidentally interferes with a police sting when she beats up a cop arresting a teenage prostitute. The next day, another teenage girl snatches Nevaeh’s purse in a grocery store parking lot. Nevaeh’s friend, Tom, also in his fifties, thinks that these two events are signs from God that Neveah should volunteer at a group home for girls.

After much debate, Nevaeh decides to turn her own posh home into a foster care facility for troubled adolescent girls. She takes in Vera, the purse-snatcher, who is also a member of a human smuggling ring, Keiko, the prostitute, and Pam, an elder abuser.

Vernon, the foster care group home owner, quizzes Nevaeh on all the rules and regulations for foster care providers. One rule is no proselytizing. Nevaeh passes the test. She lays down rules of her own for the girls that they immediately break and gets punched in the eye by one of them. Nevaeh gets in trouble with Vernon for the girls’ negligence and ill behavior.

Besides being an expression of her faith, Nevaeh’s commitment to win the girls’ trust and help them succeed in life stems from being a “bad girl” herself growing up. Vera runs away because she can’t stand Nevaeh’s rules. Nevaeh’s faith and commitment waver.

Nevaeh takes in pregnant Amanda, who can’t read. Pam has a bad temper and never takes a shower. Keiko, who cuts herself, is forced by her old pimp to give info on Nevaeh’s neighborhood so he can burglarize it. He threatens her with harm to her mother who is serving time in jail. At Sunday services, the three girls each make decisions to turn their lives around. Nevaeh is ecstatic though others doubt their sincerity.

Nevaeh believes the girls’ decisions are real, despite the time Pam sneaks in a bottle of wine and gets drunk with Keiko and when Amanda tries to run back to her forty-year-old boyfriend that got her pregnant.

Keiko confesses to Nevaeh her ex-pimp is responsible for the neighborhood break-ins. When Nevaeh informs the police of the pimp’s activities, the pimp plots revenge.

All three girls get baptized in the church parking lot. The foster care agency owner sees it and accuses Nevaeh of running a cult. He threatens to move the girls to another home. She vows to fight. In reality, he wants to move the girls to another house so he can make more money with Nevaeh’s home.

Nevaeh starts a letter-writing campaign and files papers to start her own agency. The agency owner spreads false rumors about Nevaeh and she loses her reputation. She appears on local television to clear her name and speak out on behalf of foster girls. Meanwhile, the pimp sets fire to Nevaeh’s home. The girls band together with Nevaeh to save the house and capture the pimp.

Nevaeh is crestfallen when the agency paperwork doesn’t come through in time. She loses Keiko, Pam, and Amanda to Vernon. Yet Nevaeh sees their changed lives, realizes she’s made a difference and that loving the girls was worth it.

Nevaeh starts her own agency and takes in eight girls. Vera returns. She realizes the underworld’s rules are worse than Nevaeh’s. Amanda has her baby and returns to Nevaeh’s for a visit. Keiko and her mom start a new life in a new city.

The new foster girls’ home helps many delinquent teens. Nevaeh’s church board votes to become a fiscal sponsor of Nevaeh’s non-profit whose mission is to raise awareness of the foster care need and to provide training for potential foster care providers.