Did you know that there are approximately 400,000 young people living in the United States foster care system? Many times, living in foster care, can cause children additional heartache and trauma, leaving them with filled with anger, loneliness, sadness, among many other tough emotions. However, there is one soft-spoken fourteen-year-old that is on a mission to change that. Lena Ford, author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, is making the world a better place through positivity.
Lena, the CEO of Positively Lena, a Georgia-based company, operates under the motto “empowering young minds and hearts” through the selling of her books, art, fashion, and other ventures. A percentage of the company’s profits support her non-profit organization, the Kinship Family Initiative, Inc. According to their website, the Kinship Family Initiative, Inc.,”… create[s] a community of support for kinship families who are raising children.”
The young entrepreneur conceived the idea for this venture at the age of six, inspired by her mother’s revelation that she had grown up without parents.
“The first time my mom told me she was in kinship care, I was shocked because I didn’t know that people can group up without a mom and a dad,” the teen said in a news package as a part of her Good Morning America interview for the second day of their “Celebrating Black History Month: Generation Rising” segment.
Lena’s mother and co-founder of the Kinship Family Initiative, Inc, added that, “I wanted her to be able to go into schooling knowing that every family doesn’t look like hers because I know that was something that I struggled with when I was in school.”
Fast-forward and Lena and her charity are on a mission to help kinship care or foster care families with the supplies, support, and help that they need through her “Positivity Pouches,” “Birthday Boxes,” “Embrace Your Roots” campaign, and beyond.
“It is important to spread positivity to those in foster care and kinship care. Everyone needs positivity. Everyone needs that space or person to always go to and I want to be able to provide that to someone,” Lena concluded in her news package.
To learn more about Lena and her mission, click here. She is unquestionably bringing positivity to those in kinship care and foster care, but for the generations that will come after them! Keep up the amazing work, Lena! We cannot wait to see what is next for you.
Photo: Positively Lena Instagram; GMA YouTube
