NEW&NOW HEROES
LABOR OF LOVE ASHLEY BROWN’S PERSONAL ADOPTION STORY FUELS HER PASSION TO HELP LOCAL CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE
TRACEY BENSON PHOTOGRAPHY
BY SAM KERRIGAN
Ashley Brown knows firsthand the impact a family can have on a child’s well-being. Adopted as a baby, she says she always knew she would pay back her blessing of being gifted a loving and supportive family. “I said to my mom, ‘I hope you realize when you adopted me and my sister you didn’t just change our lives,’” she recalls. “‘As a result of my adoption, you’ve actually transformed thousands.’” Brown and her husband, Ed, have been helping foster kids all over Florida find their forever families since 2015—the same year they decided to spend forever together too. “We were planning our wedding and I was like, ‘There’s nothing in this world we need. Why don’t we set up a foundation in lieu of wedding gifts and give the gift to foster children?’” Brown says. That’s how their nonprofit, Selfless Love Foundation, came to life. To date, the foundation has helped connect more than 850 foster kids with families.“The same foundation that helped start our family is now the foundation that helps find forever families for foster children and is an extension of family for children who have aged out,” Brown explains. Beyond placing young children with families, Selfless Love provides support, housing, and resources for young people after they turn 18 and age out of the foster care system. And they’re teaching those kids, like Kaitlynn Hanson, how to use their own experience to advocate for change. Hanson won the foundation’s annual Dream 70
Tank competition last year—an event that empowers former foster kids to share their dreams with a panel of experts who advise them on ways to turn those dreams into reality. “Providing structure and a safe place for these kids is going to change their worlds,” Hanson says. This year’s Dream Tank finalists will travel to the state capital in February for the “Rally in Tally” during the state’s legislative session to speak directly to state policymakers about transforming the child welfare system. Along with serving as a dress rehearsal for the annual Dream Tank competition taking place in I SAID TO MY MOM, ‘I West Palm Beach in April, Brown HOPE YOU REALIZE says the “Rally in Tally” is one of the WHEN YOU ADOPTED most impactful ways to build leaderME AND MY SISTER YOU ship in these young adults. DIDN’T JUST CHANGE “What we do with our youth is teach them how to articulate what OUR LIVES. AS A RESULT happened to them in foster care, OF MY ADOPTION, help them offer solutions to the probYOU’VE ACTUALLY lem, and then bring in child welfare TRANSFORMED leaders to have discussions about THOUSANDS.’” what we can do together to improve the system,” Brown explains. This year, for the first time, Selfless Love is spreading its programs outside of Florida: The foundation now has boots on the ground in Texas. “I really do believe this is my life purpose and that’s why God gave me a second chance at life,” Brown says. “That’s why I will continue to work 24 hours a day until we can l WATCH SAM’S “HOMETOWN HEROES” SEGMENT MONDAY impact as many lives as possible.” MORNINGS ON CBS12 NEWS (selflesslovefoundation.org) «
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SELFLESS LOVE FOUNDATION
SELFLESS LOVE FOUNDATION
Clockwise from left: Ed (far left) and Ashley Brown (far right) with former foster youths; Dr. Elizabeth Wynter, Selfless Love Foundation’s executive director, with Ashley Brown; Brown’s adoption day in 1987.
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