Labor Day weekend was an annual holiday time in my family, and we took it seriously. In grade school, I recall telling all my friends about this big party I was going to have at home and how it would last all weekend. My cousins and family members coming from all over, Maryland, New York, and pockets of North Carolina. I mean the whole “shabang.” The surviving offspring of Dorothy and Roy Foxx, who raised 18 children in total, came back home to Highfalls, North Carolina, to prepare for this three-day extravaganza. As the weekend continued, the hot country air carried smells of good food, laughter, and love. This was our annual Foxx Family Reunion.
In my transition into adulthood, I’m grounded on the principles I was given through my community, both kin and non-kin, leaving me to question what my womanhood would look like if I was deprived of these community-instilled values. In my work of substitute care reform and advocacy, I couldn’t help but apply the same question in context: how do young people who’ve experienced care, like myself, identify within their communities? When young people enter care, who is their community, and how can partnerships step in to bridge those gaps?
When a child experiences substitute care, the government is ultimately their parent, responsible for guiding them through some of the most foundational years of their lives, leaving child welfare partnerships to serve as the cool aunties and cousins, always providing a helping hand and even a shoulder to lean on. After exiting the substitute care system and now transitioning into adulthood, I’ve come to realize that child welfare partnership programs have the potential to bridge the broken family gap and reform the experience of “foster” care.
SaySo Inc., a youth-led nonprofit based in North Carolina and part of the Children’s Home Society of NC, was the first partnership to inspire my growth into adulthood after exiting care. One of the many ways this program promotes youth-led advocacy work and reform is by putting youth who have been in substitute care, lived experts, at the table with the policy makers, senators, legislators, and stakeholders. These tangible moments ignite a transformative mindset for youth who’ve experienced care, becoming active rather than reactive to these systemic barriers. I had a sense of belonging in a space I felt was working against me. Being on Capitol Hill and inside legislative buildings as a former foster youth made me realize that the sky is the limit. One of the most impactful experiences is SaySo Saturday, where NCDHHS comes to speak to the young people about what’s going on in the division, collaborates with the youth, and provides young people with helpful resources like NC Reach.
Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina (FFA-NC) and Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA) are both additional partnerships that have catalyzed my transition into adulthood through professional development in workshops and event facilitation, as well as federal public policy institution advocacy. Events held through these community partnerships carry a sense of acceptance, understanding, and belonging to their audience of young people. FFA and FFTA work closely with SaySo, which allowed me to build long-term relationships with these partners.
Child welfare partners like SaySo, NCReach, FFA-NC, FFTA, and NC LINKS have enhanced my community-based values and inspired me to dig deeper within myself when I felt empty, pushing me to build resilience in my transition into adulthood and to develop the lifestyle I want to build. My story proves that it takes more than a village to support a child who has experienced care. It takes a communal partnership of both kin and non-kin.
Amiya Dowd has over four years of advocacy and leadership experience. She has served as a SaySo Regional Assistant (SRA), a member of the Young Adult Leadership Council, and later as its co-chair. She has been a Governor’s Page twice, attended the Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and has gained strong skills in hands-on workshop facilitation. Currently studying psychology, criminal justice, and political science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she is also a proud Captain of the UNC Charlotte Marching Band Color Guard. Passionate about uplifting youth and supporting mental health, Amiya uses her story to inspire, empower, and advocate for her community.
