Real Stories: Higher Ed
I want to tell you the story of a young person I feel honored to know, who we’ll call Anna. Anna was in my 2021 advocacy program and had aged out of the foster system. Like many former foster youth, she had experienced trauma and mental health issues in addition to the struggles of navigating our incredibly complex systems without the support of a family. She’d attempted to attend college but without a support system, was unsuccessful and dropped out, feeling like a failure. When she came to us, she had a very clear understanding of the problems she faced trying to attain higher education, and knew exactly what would’ve helped her thrive.
Working with people to turn their despair into hope, and helping them find their voice and power is one of the ultimate joys of my life. On this bill, like so many others, we were intentional about building a container of safety for her to tell her story and transform it into a solution. We walked shoulder to shoulder with her to organize other young people to tell their stories, to draft bill language that reflected their needs, to talk to the press and legislators, and ultimately, to develop a policy which became SB22-008, Higher Education Support for Foster Youth, creating free college and wrap-around supports for former foster youth.
Because of her willingness to share her lived experience, she was able to build power and change the future of other young people having gone through the same challenges.
As you may remember, I started my career in healthcare as a patient navigator, or care manager, in a patient centered medical home. In 2010, we were on the cutting edge of integrating the social determinants of health (safe housing, transportation, education, workforce opportunities, access to healthy food, language equity + integrative healthcare like acupuncture and yoga) in a healthcare setting. In many ways, this job was a laboratory for me to learn about the healthcare system and many of our social service systems, and how they often fail to work together to help patients thrive. I credit this job, and my nontraditional adolescence, for helping me develop quite early in life my guiding north star of equity. When, a couple years later, I started working in federal health policy, I’d already developed a clearly articulated vision of the future I wanted to be a part of creating and that has guided all of the work I’ve done in the last decade of working in the policy space.
All that said, at times this work has been lonely and disheartening. It can feel like the problems are larger than the solutions or that in some cases, it’s too late to make a difference. Thankfully, in the past 5 years, I’ve had the incredible privilege and honor of running two different leadership and advocacy programs for young people who are historically furthest from power, privilege and economic opportunity (some of whom you’ll get to hear from in upcoming newsletters!) and these incredible young folks, like Anna, have taught me over and over again the power of hope, community, and the world changing impact we can make when we work together.
As Malcolm X put it, “When we change the ‘I’ for the ‘We,’ even Illness becomes Wellness.”
Stay tuned for more real stories!