By Kate Purtle, Founder of Fostering Feedback: Letters to Lawmakers
My name is Kate, and I am a rising high school senior. Before I could walk, talk or understand what the foster care system was, it had already changed the course of my life.
When my twin sister and I were born, our biological mother was 28 years old. Years of addiction had taken an enormous toll on her life. She was living in a trailer without electricity, with a tarp stretched across the roof, and we were her fourth and fifth children removed from her care due to addiction, poverty and repeated incarceration. The state placed us into foster care soon after birth.
I often say that I am one of the success stories. Adults I never had met stepped in to protect, love and care for my sister and me when my family could not. I grew up in a safe, loving foster then adoptive home with opportunities my biological family could never have imagined. The foster care system gave me stability, encouragement and the chance at a future. Currently, I am preparing for my senior year of high school, advocating for children in foster care and working alongside leaders across South Carolina to improve the system that once protected me.
But my story is not every child’s story. For every young person like me who found permanence and support, there are too many others whose experiences include instability, repeated placement changes, barriers to housing and feeling unheard by the very systems designed to protect them. That realization led me to launch Fostering Feedback: Letters to Lawmakers, an initiative developed in partnership with South Carolina’s State Foster Care Review Board.
The idea is simple: The people most affected by foster care should have the opportunity to offer feedback and suggestions in hopes of improving the system for others. Through Fostering Feedback, current and former foster youth are invited to share their experiences, challenges and recommendations directly with the policymakers, agencies and organizations responsible for shaping child welfare in South Carolina. Too often, conversations about foster care happen without foster youth at the table. We hope to change that.
Research involving children in foster care is understandably difficult. Their privacy deserves protection, and many young people are not ready to revisit painful experiences. Yet there are also youth who want to tell their stories—not simply to be heard, but to help create change for the children who come after them.
That is why this initiative is youth-led, with adult guidance. Participants can submit letters describing what worked, what didn’t and what they believe could or should change to fosteringfeedback@gmail.com. Members of the Youth Engagement Advocates (YEA) are helping analyze recurring themes so that meaningful findings can be shared with legislators, the Department of Social Services, the Foster Care Review Board and other organizations working to strengthen South Carolina’s child welfare system.
Although we are only beginning to collect responses, several themes have already emerged. The most common concern is placement. Youth consistently describe the need for more foster families, additional placement options and group homes where staff are well-trained in trauma-informed care and equipped to provide compassionate, stable support.
Others have highlighted challenges faced by young adults aging out of foster care, particularly the shortage of safe housing options for recipients of Foster Youth Independence Vouchers. As one participant shared, “Many properties that technically accept vouchers are located in neighborhoods that feel unsafe or offer few opportunities to build an independent life.” These are not abstract policy discussions. They are daily realities experienced by young people across our state.
The goal of Fostering Feedback is not simply to collect stories or complaints. It is to identify patterns, elevate youth voices and provide decision-makers with the perspective that only lived experience can offer. Every policy affects a child. Every statistic represents a real person. The best solutions come when those closest to the challenges are invited into the conversation.
I am deeply grateful for the state of South Carolina and especially the foster care system; it changed the trajectory of my life and my future family line. I hope to help strengthen that same system for the children currently in it, as well as those who will enter it in the future.
If your organization works with current or former foster youth, we invite you to share this opportunity. Every story has the potential to inform better policy, improve services and remind us that the most important voices in child welfare are the voices of the children themselves.
Children in foster care should never be treated only as recipients of services: They are experts in the system in which they live. When we listen to their experiences and expertise, we build a stronger future for every child who follows.
Kate Purtle is a high school senior from Greenville who believes difficult experiences can become opportunities to help others. As someone shaped by the foster care system, she’s passionate about advocacy, leadership and making a lasting impact in her community. You can reach her at fosteringfeedback@gmail.com.