Testimonials

“I feel like your teenage years are the most important years of your life. I entered the foster care system at the age of thirteen. The hardest part of being a teenager through foster care was being separated from my siblings. The further apart I got from them, the more they felt like a memory. I wondered about them all the time, about whether they were happy, if they were being treated well. My brother and sister were my life and the only thing that felt like home. As I moved from one placemat to another, I felt lost, empty and disconnected. Disconnected from this world that was supposed to be easier after the wrath of an abusive ‘relative.’ Disconnected from my only family. Disconnected from who I was. 

Then suddenly, I graduated High School on June 4th and turned 18 on June 9th – I was an independent adult and no longer in foster care. Really? I had just achieved a legal age; there wasn’t anything about me that prepared me to be an adult. And just like that, I was on my own.

I had barely more than the clothes on my back when I exited foster care: I had no furniture, no bed, no friends and no adult to guide me.  Depressed and disconnected, I fell in with the wrong crowd, and spun even further out of control.

Then one day, I got a job, and as I began to earn money and see a future, I created a new family out of colleagues and friends. I enrolled and entered college. And by a miracle of fate I saw my sister again at a party on the very same college campus. A few years later we found our brother.

I owe much of my success to friends, colleagues and strangers who helped me succeed after the life of foster care. These kind people were my mentors, my rock and stability. Looking back now, I wished there would’ve been one consistent person who stayed in my life long enough to make a difference by helping me navigate through tough situations that most would have had a parent or grandparent for. I believe Fostering Success will provide that critical component to a foster youth’s life as they will be able to match the foster youth with adults who are willing to help them gain those important life skills, explore educational opportunities and let them know they are not alone and can conquer whatever path they choose all while building meaningful relationships along the way.”

— Liz Sutherland