Connected for Life Stories

Johnny Madrid is 22 years old and graduated in June of 2005 from Stanford University. He spoke at the April 2004 National Convening On Youth Permanence Conference and told the participants “the hardest part of foster care was the loneliness”. He’s proud of his achievements but admits he’s missing something essential, a family who will be there when he needs a comforting word. He heard his roommates talk to relatives on the phone and watched them leave for holidays. He says, “it was hard to watch all that closeness around him”.

The vision of Connected For Life is to insure that foster youth are connected for life to a loving, nurturing, committed family or caring adult. Then, instead of feeling lonely and isolated, they will know the same stability, love, unconditional commitment, and connection to family as children from traditional families. Then older youth in the foster care system will never have to experience the loneliness that Johnny Madrid feels today.

Reads Johnny's front page story entitled "Against all odds, student triumphs" in the June 8, 2005 San Jose Mercury News. Other articles linked below.

Madrid wins Truman Award, aims to reform foster care