Caleb has always been resilient, resourceful and strategic. He used these qualities to navigate the streets of San Diego where he spent most of his childhood unsupervised. The environment demanded...

As a young child, Irvin was taken away from his mother. He was eventually placed in a foster home that provided the basic necessities, but he always felt like he was never truly loved or cared for....

Growing up as a foster youth, Sebastian never felt he had a place to call home. He often found himself living with other people such as family members, often ones whom he wasn’t close with or he...

Growing up as one of five kids, Athina remembers a chaotic home. Her father, an abusive alcoholic, wasn’t in the picture. Her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer when Athina was 12. Alone and...

Alisha entered the foster care system at seven after enduring years of emotional and physical abuse from her father. Her mother, a drug addict and alcoholic, was never in her life. Over the next 14...

Torin grew up in a home defined by abuse and drug use until the authorities intervened and he went into foster care at 16. He was adopted by a friend but in the same neighborhood, exposed to the...

Makayla entered foster care in kindergarten and spent time in multiple foster homes, often separated from her siblings. She was eventually placed in a longer-term home with one of her sisters, but...

Growing up in an abusive adoptive home, Jason didn’t think he’d live through the trauma and make it to his late teens, let alone graduate high school or attend college. But he found the strength to...

Marie and her three siblings were taken away from her mother when she was five. For years, they lived in toxic environments, bouncing between foster homes, her father’s house, and her older...