MEET THE FOUNDER

Katina Green is a force. 

 

Inspired by her own journey, Katina knows all too well what happens when young people are emancipated from the system and left to figure it out on their own. Having grown up in the 80’s with two good parents and an older brother, Katina lost her father at the age of 9 to a violent robbery, and her mother at age 11 to illness. Without any family or close friends willing to take them in, Katina and her brother entered the foster care system where they were immediately separated.

 

Katina bounced from home to home where she was often made to feel less than,and endured gross abuse and molestation at the hands of her foster parents. By the time she reached the age of emancipation, she was the mother of a young toddler, and had lived in several different homes, and attended several different schools. Inspite of this, Katina was always a hard worker and a go getter. As a high school student with a young child to care for, she worked two jobs, and did what was necessary to provide for her and her son. Driven by survival, despite her tenacity, Katina had no one to care for her or properly guide her, which left her vulnerable and susceptible to the whims of those who saw through that vulnerability and abused it.

 

An introduction by her foster brother to a guy in the neighborhood who “seemed” to like her, would turn into years of her being sex trafficked.

 

Having endured this, Katina is passionate about changing this outcome for other young people leaving the foster care system by providing them with a “place to call home,” where they can continue their education, access resources to help them establish and sustain a productive life, and just have breathing room to figure out their next steps and feed whatever dreams they may have. Something she never had the opportunity to do.

 

A strong and energetic voice who was ultimately able to escape sex trafficking and the abuses of the foster care system, Katina is committed to fostering hope in the lives of young adults exiting the foster care system, and bridging the gap between emancipation and adulthood.