Growing up in foster care can be challenging. It can also be a good thing, as weird as that sounds. Some children come from terrible situations within their biological families and they will be helped in a home where there is love and support; at times foster care can provide more opportunity and a better […]

I still remember the chaotic day when my seven siblings and I went into foster care. My mom left to go drinking, and my 2-year-old brother was locked in the house by himself. The rest of us could not get in. Fire trucks and police cars came, officers broke in and we were taken away. […]

All my life I knew there was a reason for me being in foster care. Maybe this is it, to get my story out there. I was just 18 ½ months old when I was removed from my biological mother and placed in a foster home after neighbors reported that my brother and I were […]

I’m Rodney Humphrey, a 25-year-old man. I spent 17 of my first 20 years in Child Protective Services. While in state care, I experienced my share of ups and downs – some worse than others. I had physically and verbally abusive foster parents. Sometimes my body was bruised by belt buckles. When I was just […]

Be warned: You may finish this article wishing my mom was yours. That’s okay, I can share. In a sense I already do, with scores of youth from Ohio foster care. I guess the first thing I should mention is that my mom herself is a former foster kid. She spent 18 years in the […]

As I reminisce about my past, I remember a child who was lonely and afraid, who longed for a family, but mostly, wanted nothing more than to be loved. I was brought into this world with few options. My parents separated before I was born. My mom fell into drugs, and fell in love with […]

We escaped from my mother’s abusive second husband in the middle of the night – just me, my little sister, my mother and our dog in a small black coupe. After more than a year of severe physical and emotional abuse, my mother couldn’t take it. We drove cross country, Ohio to Colorado. When we […]

The many years I spent growing up in foster care took away any chance I had at a normal life. During my time in the system I lived in over 20 different homes – sometimes moving every 6 to 8 months – never staying in one place long enough to create support systems, build community […]

The first ten years of my life were like riding a roller coaster with a blindfold on, not knowing when the next tragic event was going to take place. Growing up I didn’t always have the best luck. I was not dealt a royal flush. I was raised by a single mother along with my […]

I am a former foster youth from Houston; I spent years in state care. My story is like many others, but with a little twist. I was born a “drug baby” and was placed into child protective services (CPS) immediately upon my arrival into this world. My parents were drug addicts, and my father abused […]