She Survived Foster Care, Neglect, Trauma, and Violence — Now This Young Mother Urgently Needs Housing, Nutrition, and Medical Support

Hello, I am Dr. Gettings. This fundraiser is for a young mother I have known for many years whose story reflects the deep cracks in our systems.

As a child, she entered the child welfare system after a family crisis and was separated from her siblings. She moved through multiple foster homes, experiencing displacement, instability, and loss at every stage. Despite these challenges, she completed school, tried to build a future, and worked tirelessly to create stability for herself.

Like many, she survived foster care, sibling separation, neglect, trauma, instability, and violence — and now, as a 26-year-old single-mother with no family support, she is fighting to keep herself and her child safe.

After aging out of the system during the pandemic and losing critical public assistance, she has faced periods of homelessness on the South Side of Chicago and recently endured an assault and mild brain injury while simply trying to survive. She is exhausted navigating a broken system with scarce resources.

Your urgent support will provide emergency housing, food, medical care, and basic necessities so she and her child can break the cycle and begin building the stable life every family deserves.

For more than 20 years, I have worked with underserved youth across every setting imaginable — hospitals, community clinics, residential treatment centers, detention centers, group homes, and crisis programs. I have cared for hundreds of young people who were displaced, unsupported, and forgotten by the systems meant to protect them.

My commitment to this work is not only professional — it is deeply personal. The first time DCFS entered my life, I was six years old. I know what it feels like when your home stops being your home, when instability becomes normal, and when the world feels unsafe. I understand the lifelong emotional and developmental impact of not growing up in your own home. That lived experience informs everything I do. It is why I stand so fiercely with young people who have survived foster care, homelessness, neglect, and trauma.

Like many adults who age out of foster care, my client entered adulthood with no biological family support, no inherited resources, and limited access to opportunities. She has been trying to survive in a society that provides almost no safety net for adults who came from foster care.

In recent years, as public assistance programs have shifted and been reduced, she experienced periods of housing insecurity on the South Side of Chicago. During one of these periods, she was attacked by a man and sustained a mild head injury, simply for existing in an unsafe environment. She has endured more than most people face in a lifetime — yet continues to fight for her child with resilience and determination.

I have supported her privately for several years — financially, emotionally, and practically — but her current needs exceed what one person can carry alone. She needs a community behind her.

Your support will help her:

Secure safe and stable housing

Provide food, diapers, clothing, and essentials for her child

Access basic medical and mental health care

Maintain transportation, utilities, and stability during this critical transition

Break the cycle of homelessness and generational trauma

Every dollar you give moves her closer to stability, dignity, and safety.

Every act of support helps ensure her child grows up with the security she never had.

Every share of this fundraiser helps extend her circle of care.

This is our chance to step in where every system has failed — to remind her that she is not alone, that she is worthy of support, and that her story deserves a different ending than the one she was handed.

Thank you for standing with her.

“Standing with young people who have survived foster care, homelessness, and trauma.”

Dr. Gettings