Selfless Love Foundation

💖Love, Leadership, and Legacy!💫 Read about how our Founders, Ashley and Ed Brown’s love story sparked the creation of Selfless Love Foundation. Featured in Palm Beach Illustrated’s August 2024 Issue, our Founders share about the incredible work SLF is doing to transform the lives of youth impacted by foster care. And through Ashley’s inspiring leadership, she has been recognized for the H.W. Bush Points of Light Award. Check out their story today! 📰💓 🔗To read the full article, click the link! https://lnkd.in/e_MgcguE

🎉Congratulations Dylan!🎉The Dream Tank finalist was honored with FCC’s 2024 Youth Young Adult Leadership Award for making a difference for children and families in his community. Dylan also recently received the H. Browning Spence Education Award to help him further his studies. We are so proud of you Dylan!🏆👏

🗣️At the FCC conference, our team had the opportunity to facilitate conversations with youth, focusing on advancing foster care support through empowering connections. Youth with lived experience shared insights on sustaining permanent connections, engaging youth in policy without tokenizing their experience, and implementing strategies centered around transition out of foster care that support healthy development. We believe it is important to create opportunities that emphasize shared power with system leaders, allowing youth impacted by foster care to discuss necessary changes and co-create solutions. 🏛️⚖️✨

💖Family is Forever!💖 Ashley and Me’Shara Smith finalized the adoption of their 1-year-old son, Jayce! One of our Adoption Connectors, Danny, had the pleasure of connecting this family. The Smith’s said, “Thank you Selfless Love. We really appreciate the amazing gifts, flowers, and support from you, Danny, and your amazing staff.”

🌟SLF IRL! We hosted our first in-person Dale Carnegie training since 2019. Young adults ages 18-24 from across Florida joined us in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. The sessions help youth build self-confidence and learn how to share their experiences to help improve child welfare. Once youth complete Dale Carnegie training, they can apply to participate in our Dream Tank Competition! 👏

💓Dreams can come true! Chloe C., one of our 2023 Dream Tank finalists, is working toward her idea to create specific diets for children taking psychotropic medications. The Dream Tank program helped Chloe learn how to network and fine tune her presentation skills. As a result, Chloe was able to connect with a representative from Aetna and share her idea. She is now helping Aetna Better Health to develop a pilot program for Medicaid users in the child welfare population. Chloe provides guidance on diets for children in group homes, promotes changes in the way food is prepared, and has proposed ways to ensure fresh foods are available to children living in group homes. We are extremely proud of you Chloe and cannot wait to see you continue to accomplish your goals!👏

💖 We are happy to provide safe, supportive housing for 32 youth at Brown's Harbor. Along with building a sense of community, youth are engaged in life coaching, leadership development, and financial literacy. We know that youth are the future, and that is why we strive to support them as they transition into adulthood.✨

💓Cheers to Forever!💓 William and Katelyn Stocks finalized the adoption of their 9-year-old son, Dylan. Selfless Love Families is honored to help families grow through adoption. 👨👩👧👦💖 The Stocks said, “Selfless Love Foundation gave us an ally in our corner. We knew that we could get support and have resources available to us. They've helped us navigate some of our questions and helped realize what we wanted through the process of adoption. Just having them available brought comfort.”

🗣️Youth Voices Lead the Way!👏 At our National Think Tank, Selfless Love Foundation’s National Network explored policy and practice innovations to deepen permanent connections for youth impacted by foster care. The 2023 event brought together youth with lived experience and child welfare professionals from 28 states. Youth shared invaluable insight to co-shape strategies to improve support networks and ensure successful transitions into adulthood. Thank you Chapin Hall for creating a report highlighting the key takeaways and detailing the discussions on the importance of intentional permanency planning for young adults to build long-term, meaningful support systems.💖 🔗To read the full report, click the link! https://lnkd.in/eUHAhsnW Texas Alliance of Child & Family Services Citrus Family Care Network Children's Aid First Place for Youth Nexus Family Healing Fostering Great Ideas 1999 Collective Samaritas Gaelin Elmore Annie E. Casey Foundation Fostering Youth Success Alliance Youth Villages Chapin Hall

🔄#ThrowbackThursday!💖The Hearst Family's performance at this year's Gala touched many hearts! Special thank you to LaRon and Angel Hearst for sharing your family's adoption journey and musical gift with us. We are proud to foster connections and celebrate the gift of family! 👨👩👧👦🏡