Selfless Love Blog

Can you imagine feeling lost or alone with no one to guide or support you in your life? For youth in foster care, this is often their reality — one that can be changed by having supportive adults, staff, and mentors.

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and forget what truly matters — human connection. The people we surround ourselves with play a crucial role in shaping our lives and influencing our decisions.

Have you ever witnessed anyone successfully Double Dutch on their own? Many of you reading this would probably say no, because to Double Dutch, you have to have support from people and trust that they will turn the rope in a consistent motion so that you can move effectively.

Going into the foster care system at the age of 15 was a unique experience, to say the least. Like many Fosters, I did not have any supportive adults in my life who I was close to before entering the system.

Supportive adults play a critical role in the development and well-being of young people by offering guidance, encouragement, and a listening ear.

Why? Why me? Why now? These were the questions that echoed in my mind, day in and day out, as I faced the harsh realities of life. As a teenager who had left the foster care system to reunite with my mother in a shelter, I had hoped for a better future.

“Being in foster care felt like being incarcerated,” shared a young person with lived experience. Incarceration, the act of confining a person, is used for retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Youth in foster care have not committed a crime so why do we limit their freedom to make decisions and take risks?

Imagine if a stranger took you away from the only home you had ever known. Your family, friends, everything that was familiar – gone. Imagine the confusion, sadness, anger, and fear. This is the experience of a child being taken into the foster care system.

The National Youth in Transition Database reports that 26% of youth transitioning out of foster care experience homelessness by age 21. Are they experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness or couch surfing at a friend’s house?