Youth Voice

I’m not going to start my story with “I have always felt like I never fit in” or “I have overcome all my struggles” because that wouldn’t be true.

I have been in eight different homes and this is my experience with the child welfare system. I want child abuse and neglect to end within the child welfare system.

One day about two years ago, my older sister came home and said, “Pack a bag. We are leaving the country.’’

Only 58% of teens in foster care live with a family, compared with 95% of kids 12 and younger, according to a recent report by Annie E.

For many Texans, their family, friends and neighbors came through during this month’s winter storms and the catastrophes that followed. These were support systems that literally saved lives and provided comfort and light in dark moments.

I have been in foster care since I was 16. In that time, I have served as a “youth voice” on youth advisory boards (YABs) for among others, my agency, Heartshare St.

I didn’t meet my parents until I was 9. I grew up in El Salvador with my grandmother and traveled alone to join my father, mother and two new little sisters who were born in New York.

In late December, the nonprofit iFoster hosted its inaugural Great iFoster Bake Off, a national Zoom-hosted competition where foster youth and caregivers teamed up to decorate holiday houses made out of Pop Tarts.