Dear Youth Villages, My name is Amber, and I am 23 years old. I lost my dad at a very young age and grew up with a mother who battled addiction and untreated trauma that led to many mental health problems leaving her incapable of caring for herself or for me.
Nineteen-year-old Dallas, a young man in southwest Missouri, sees his LifeSet specialist as more than just a health professional working to help him. She’s more like a friend walking with him every step—something he hasn’t always had.
Dominique and Kevin Gill continue to change the lives of children in foster care—children like Andrew who was adopted by the Gills in 2020.
Mia must have thought the world was crumbling around her. “It was hard, stressful,” said Mia, who was 16 years old at the time. “I was the oldest (child), so I had to keep pushing for everyone. I kept praying.”
When Cohen was born in an East Tennessee hospital in 2019, he didn’t get to go home with his mom and dad. Substance use had already broken his family, and the baby joined his five brothers and sisters in foster care.
The pandemic has made life much more difficult for young adults aging out of foster care and they need help. Matt Stone, executive director in Massachusetts…
Becoming a foster parent is a special opportunity to make a difference in the life of a child, both as a short-term commitment to their health, safety and well-being, but also with a lifelong impact
Richard and Alvin Lewis had been married for five years before Richard began looking into fostering and adopting.
The Mullins family was drawn to the idea of fostering and adopting in late 2019 after being married for 10 years.
Everyone looks for a second chance. Maybe even a third or fourth.