Home4Me
By Rosanny Crumpton
With personal experience in the foster care system, Donna Lee Reed, founder and executive director of Home4Me, is on a mission. Together with the Home4Me team, they equip teenagers who are aging out of the foster care system and entering adulthood for success.
Teenagers in foster care who have not been adopted are hit with the weight of the world as their 18th birthday draws near, Reed said. By the time they turn 17, the countdown to the end of their already-limited resources begins. Some teens find themselves without a family, without a home and no connections. Reed emphasizes that Home4Me is trying to prevent these teens from becoming homeless and hopeless.
“We don’t consider ourselves a program, we consider ourselves an experience for the teens and an opportunity for them to have family,” said Reed. Home4Me’s core values of connection, consistency, collaboration and commitment are the cornerstone of their impact. “People always say, ‘it takes a village.’” Reed added. “My question is, ‘where is the village when it comes to our teens in foster care? ’”
Home4Me partners with HBCUs, corporations, health organizations, churches and community organizations to build collaborations and support for teens in foster care. Home4Me is always looking for more individuals and corporate partners to help carry out its mission.
The organization provides resources, programming, mentorships, family-style events, such as annual birthday celebrations, and necessary supplies for teens. Often teenagers in foster care transport their donated and used belongings in trash bags. Home4Me provides teens in need with gift cards and new personal belongings, such as bed-in-a-bag sets, suitcases, or Home4Me college kits. Supplies provided are new and practical items.
Home4Me also offers year-round, structured, life skills development programming called LEG Up On LIFE which helps guide teens in foster care to successful futures, focusing on their specific goals in life.
For more information visit: www.home4me.org