Do1Thing Blog

Moving emails continue to pour into Do1Thing. They encourage us to work harder to show these images nationwide to raise awareness, create change and encourage each and every one of us to Do1Thing to help.

This email from a former foster youth came in yesterday:

“I am sitting here crying my eyes out. I want to thank you for bringing to light this problem – so many people seem to want to ignore the people suffering on their own doorstep. I spent 3 years in foster care from age 15-18, and only by the grace of God have a family who supports me as an adult.

I am crying for the foster children that I knew along the way – the 28 kids I met in the group home, the foster brothers who ran away and turned up beaten – who could be anywhere now. I fear for them, wonder what has happened to their lives. I think about them being cold and homeless, and my heart shatters.

Foster care is already such a traumatic experience – it teaches you to believe you are expendable. If someone doesn’t want you, you’re gone in a heartbeat. And then to age out… It cements this thought process. Those who become successful are the exception to the rule, and in my opinion, that is a travesty.

I intend to become as involved as I can in making this known. No child should suffer alone, and as children of the State, we should not suffer as adults either.

Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Submitted by a former foster youth: Mallory