Atlanta

Former foster youth in Georgia, New York and California teamed up with a national nonprofit to drive reforms in housing and mental health.

Many people are being affected by this current pandemic, and some are being more affected than others. We all know the problems that the elderly and the medically fragile are facing during this crisis, but we tend not to think about another group that is at risk, which is older and former foster youth.

As the last of six children growing up in a small town, an “oops” baby born to older parents, I was raised by a crowd. My sisters, already in high school when I was born, were my second and third mothers.

This weekend will be a flurry of activity at Atlanta-based Assured Comfort Heating, Air and Plumbing as staff members and other volunteers stuff hundreds of backpacks with goodies for kids in foster care.

I was eight years old when I spent one humid summer in Alabama, where I visited my great aunt Nell, her grown children and their squirrelly grandchildren. It was there I discovered salty boiled peanuts, pesky fire ants, roaring racetracks, and a lush foliage cemetery devoted to my family.