Former foster child leads advocacy group to support Florida youth in care

She is now a leader with Florida Youth SHINE, a group that advocates for others in the foster care system so they can receive support, including to continue and to complete their education.

Serenity considers herself very blessed with all the love and support that came with her adoption.

“So, I really just want everyone to kind of have my experience, have a good experience with foster parents, whether they get adopted or not, that’s kind of my goal,” she says.

She is a leader and volunteer with Florida Youth SHINE, which provides advocacy and support for teens who grew up in foster care.

“Serenity is an amazing young person. She’s working as legislative chair,” says Geori Berman with Florida’s Children First.

“I still can kind of relate to them on some level because I was in the system, I was taken away from my biological parents,” Serenity explains. “They trusted me more because I kind of have relative experience to that and a personal stake.”

And it has also helped her personally, ensuring she receives a tuition waiver.

“Because I spent more than a year in foster care, that waiver really helped me be able to just go to college, get that degree, not have debt,” she says.

“The tuition exemption is an amazing program that’s available to our young people. They’re able to get free college tuition in the state of Florida for Florida public institutions through the age of 26,” says Geori.

Florida Youth SHINE has also advocated for these credits not to be limited so that bright young people like Serenity can really shine!

“They’re 16 years old and they’re like, how can I go to college? I don’t have someone to pay for that, or I don’t have bright futures,” Geori says. “But they do. And they can use that for law school, for med school, for graduate school, in addition to college, vocational programs.”

To find out more about the Postsecondary Tuition and Fee Exemption for youth who spent time in foster care, visit myflfamilies.com; and for more Forever Family stories log onto ForeverFamily.org in partnership with ChildNet.