your eyes for a minute I want you to
picture a four year old little girl
she’s got a pixie haircut that’s crooked
on one side because she cut it herself
she’s a ball of energy loud and last
with her belly she hates naps and always
fights her bedtime
and before she falls asleep every night
she wishes for a family she is a foster
child now open your eyes here she is at
one of her foster homes she has been in
and out of the foster care system since
she was born
little stability and little consistency
this little girl is me I still remember
this foster home
I remember the Sesame Street stuffed
animals that I would cuddle with every
night stuffed animals that brought me a
little comfort and I remember crying
when I was being told that I would leave
that foster home not because I was being
sent to a new foster home but because my
favorite stuffed animals couldn’t go
with me but I’m not the only one to
experience this this is just a small
peek inside the life of a foster child
in 2015 four hundred twenty seven
thousand nine hundred and ten kids were
in foster care that is enough to fill
the horseshoe stadium at Ohio State
University
four times over with just foster kids
that’s a lot of kids and you know what
these kids are using when they’re moving
from one foster home to the next they’re
putting their belongings into a trash
bag a trash bag what kind of message
does that send what do you put into a
trash bag spoiled food disgusting
garbage things you don’t want or need
anymore
and once you’ve tied it up you won’t
open it again unless maybe you think
you’ve thrown away something valuable
could be a wedding ring could be a
retainer but here at the scary and
uncertain time any child’s life we are
throwing their belongings into a trash
bag and sending them on their way to a
new home I think we can do better than
that my Sesame Street stuffed animals
story is just one small representation
of what foster care is like Flash Lord
two years down the road when I was a
senior in high school I found myself
leaving my adoptive family’s home when
things hadn’t worked out again with
trash bags and hands I had no clue what
was next I had no clue if I would go to
college but my best friend and her
family took me into their home and then
they did something that changed the
entire course of my life they co-signed
on a loan that made it possible for me
to come to college and that one act has
made all of the difference that one
signature cosigner was the determining
factor between me and a college
education but these incredible people
believed in me and they gave me a shot
at a better life since then I’ve wanted
to do the same for foster children
giving them whatever little piece of
Hope I could when I got to college I
started interning with an amazing
nonprofit called together we rise and
their mission is to change the way that
foster youth will experience foster care
so they tell that interns that they want
us each to fundraise $500 to replace the
trash bags that these foster kids are
using to move from home to home a memory
I still hold and switch them out for
some awesome duffel bags known as sweet
cases so I give fundraising to go and I
could have explained to people that you
know one sweet case was just 25 dollars
and that was about five cups of coffee
if you’re going to Starbucks but I
thought that on top of just this logical
argument if I was going to ask people
for their money I needed to let them
know why it was so important they give
why it was so important to me that they
give so I stood up in front of my
sorority and for the first time in
college I laid it all out on the
I told my story I I told them that four
hundred twenty seven thousand nine
hundred and ten kids were in foster care
and that merely fifteen years after I
had been through the foster care system
these kids were still traveling from
home to home with a trash bag but these
kids are not trash
no kids are and they deserve to move
from one home to the next with a little
bit more dignity I was so passionate and
because I told my personal story it made
it personal for them you know opening up
and sharing our our personal stories
puts us in a vulnerable position yes but
it is so effective to show people why
you care about something and why it is
so important that they care too
and these incenses our passion shines
through in the most authentic way in the
end I was overwhelmed over four thousand
dollars was donated and over a hundred
and sixty kids got to put those trash
bags where they belong and a garbage can
in exchange for some awesome new duffel
bags duffel bags that they had their own
stuffed animal on blanket they would
never have to worry about leaving at
another foster home you know our most
painful experiences can be the driving
force for the most positive change after
that internship I started letting go of
the mentality that I was just a victim
of the foster care system and I realized
that I was a fighter and being a fighter
meant fighting for these kids to have a
better experience than I did when you
rethink what happened to you and you
find a new mindset about your painful
experience
it sets you for you to react differently
some of the best change comes from this
type of thinking and when you can create
something positive and help others from
your negative experience it is healing
it is restorative and it is empowering
this idea of rewinding rethinking and
reacting played on a larger role when I
was accepted to the foster youth
internship program in Washington DC
an internship designed for foster youth
to embrace their past in order to
empower current and future foster youth
I love this internship because it’s
encouraging young people to take this
negative and painful experience and
extract some value from it create
positive change and help other foster
youth make sure that they didn’t
experience the same thing we might have
I spent 10 weeks in Washington DC
working on Capitol Hill with the senator
and with the Congressional Coalition on
Adoption Institute I learned about
policy while researching and writing
these recommendations based off of my
experience in the foster care system
my fellow Foster’s interns and I were
rewinding rethinking and reacting in a
big way we had a rewind to some painful
memories think about what made a
difference and what could have made a
difference for us and then recommend
some policy changes to people who had
the power to change the foster care
system for our future brothers and
sisters who had passed through it we
were empowered and on fire to make a
difference to be a voice for that kid
that was still buried deep inside of us
to be a voice for this vulnerable
population and to show them that they
were not just a product of the foster
care system but that they had the power
to be whatever they chose to be that
they had the power to rethink that
painful experience and react in a new
way and so do you after ten weeks
my fellow Fosters and turns and I sat in
two different briefings one in the
United States Capitol building and
another and the White House we had come
from foster care to the White House we
told our stories to members of Congress
into the Domestic Policy Council and by
telling our personal stories we made it
personal for them policy suggestions
were made not every recommendation was
implemented but since this internship
program began in 2003 numerous pieces of
legislation have
implemented because of the personal
stories of foster youth foster youth who
are brave and fearless and used their
story to demand change I think a lot of
the time we find ourselves ashamed of
some of our past experiences or where we
came from where we grew up
we don’t always want to share or shed
any light on it but one of my favorite
quotes says you were assigned the smile
in to show others that it can be moved
that little girl I told you about four
years old she could have been another
statistic on the long list because of
where she got her start in life but
guess what she’s standing here today
thankfully it was no crooked pixie
haircut but still loud and still ornery
and fighting for kids to have the family
they so rightfully deserve and fighting
for kids to have the love that they so
rightfully deserve you know people look
at me today and they say that I’m so
strong that they would never imagine
that I came from the foster care system
but I just like so many of my peers we
are strong we are bold and we are
resilient because we came from the
foster care system and for that I am
proud I’ll end on this recently I met a
stranger and I told her a little bit
about my past the end of our
conversation she looked at me and she
said you know you are not meant to carry
the burdens from your past you are meant
to carry hope carry hope do you know
this Tuesday when you tie up your trash
and you carry it down to the end of your
driveway I hope that you will take a
minute to think about a foster child who
is also carrying a trash bag that night
but with wildly different circumstances
regardless of what you have been through
your worst experience could inspire the
greatest change and one act can make a
huge difference in somebody else’s life
I know it has in mine
thank you and for more information on
how you can help replace a foster
child’s trash bag with a duffle bag
you can visit Kerry Hope Richmond comm
thank you again [Applause]