My Foster Youth Heroes

My Ten Faithful Readers, I’d like to introduce you to two of my heroes, making a difference in the lives of aged-out foster youth: Kristi Camplin and Jeff Myers.

You may not realize, as I once didn’t, that youth in the foster care system, once emancipated or “aged-out” are vulnerable. The system doesn’t prepare them to live as adults, as some unscrupulous foster parents are in it just for the money. Some youth are neglected, abused and shuttled from home to home.

One girl went away to a foster kids camp, and was greeted, upon her return home with a cardboard box and told to move out. She’d turned 18 years old while away at camp.

The statistics are bleak. Many aged-out youth end up homeless or incarcerated; many girls end up pregnant, only to continue the cycle of poverty and abandonment for another generation.

That’s why folks like Kristi Camplin step into the great need and create solutions. Over six years ago, she started Inspire Life Skills Training Inc., a home for aged-out foster youth in the Riverside and Corona, CA areas. Her homes (there are now five!) serve youth who want to go to college and better their situations. Her homes provide life skills like learning to balance a checkbook or drive a car, as well as mentoring and housing.

Besides functioning as the Executive Director, primary donor developer, public relations person and other duties, she takes time out of her schedule to meet with and mentor new nonprofits who also serve this population.

I was fortunate to eavesdrop on a recent lunch with Ms. Camplin and another SoCal compassionary I’d met via TheIdeaCamp held on orphan care earlier this year. With six years of hard-earned experience, she graciously downloaded her wisdom to an eager former youth pastor turned Executive Director, Jeff Myers, of ReGenesis Rising.

Jeff Myers and his wife Lisa, have recently launched ReGenesis Rising in nearby Orange County, to also provide services for aged-out foster youth. As he and Lisa asked God for direction on where to serve, the subject of foster youth kept surfacing. Relationships with like-hearted others set things going, and before they knew it, they were answering the call to serve a very under-served group in their community.

So, my Ten Faithful Readers, I hope you get to meet these two someday. They inspire me to look around me at the pain in my own community and actually reach out, with friendship and who knows what else.

By decarter in compassionary, friends, inspirations, social activism

Tags: #novemberblogfest