How one Raleigh high school student inspired more help for NC kids in foster care

Marissa Blount and two of her siblings were put in foster care, after her family moved into her mother’s room at a rehabilitation center where she was a patient in 2016.

They had nowhere else to go.

The trauma of leaving family to live with strangers at age 8 could have set her on a path of violence, substance use and other problems, the rising Broughton High School junior said.

But the path she took, with support from others, made her stronger and gave her a desire to help other children, she said.

“You have to look at my life is getting better because of this, and I need to take such a traumatic experience and something I know will shape me forever, and change it into something so positive, change it into something you can learn from,” said Marissa, now 15.

Being separated from her family without opportunities for fun and to make friends also inspired her idea to help young kids in foster care facing similar situations, Marissa said.

Her persistence and ability to inspire adults led to Wake County’s pre-LINKS program, said Emma James, the county’s 4-H youth development coordinator. The program offers activities and skills development for pre-teens in foster care and their siblings.

Marissa “leaves a lasting impression of authentic kindness and love for others, with a strong sense of justice to advocate for others,” James said. “I work with a great deal of young people and all have unique and beautiful gifts to be celebrated, and Marissa just shines with her voice for youth.”

Seeing an unmet need for young children

Her parents always made sure their children had food and a roof over their heads, Marissa said, but they struggled to make ends meet and moved around before leaving New Jersey for North Carolina.

Wake County child welfare workers met with her family in 2016 after they arrived in Raleigh and an older sister with mental illness became abusive, she said.

They were living in a hotel, and her mother, who couldn’t afford insulin for diabetes, was soon hospitalized and put into a medicated coma, Marissa said. When her mom was moved to a Raleigh rehabilitation center, Marissa, her dad and two siblings moved with her.

The center’s staff contacted Child Protective Services, Marissa said. After a short stay with a foster family, she went to live with the Raleigh couple who are now her guardians.

As the youngest of four siblings — all of them years older than her — she learned a lot about life at an early age, Marissa said.

“Just seeing that way we lived — and I know it’s something that my parents couldn’t control and it also can be a generational thing — I just knew I didn’t want to live in these types of circumstances,” Marissa said.

She was 9 when she got the idea for pre-LINKS, Marissa said. Her older sister was in the NC LINKS program, which offers fun activities and independent living programs for young people ages 13-21 in foster care. There was nothing for kids her age, Marissa said.

Wake County Human Services worked with the nonprofit youth organization 4-H to start the pre-LINKS program in 2019, offering foster children a safe space to talk with friends who understand the experience of changing families or working with caseworkers, James said.

At age 11, Marissa helped make a video promoting pre-LINKS as it was being launched. In the video, Marissa sits on a couch as she explains the program’s potential

“I think this will be nice, because other foster children can meet other foster children, and they can share their stories,” the younger Marissa says in the video. “If you miss your mom or you miss your dad or grandma or grandpa, whoever you lived with before you came in, and then another person has that same connection, y’all could be friends for a very, very long time.”

pre-Links offers fun, support

The pre-LINKS group meets twice a month and serves about 20 foster children at any one time. Similar to a traditional 4-H club, it offers STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) and agricultural-based programs, service-learning projects, competitions, field trips, and summer camps.

The kids take the lead in choosing what they want to talk about and learn, James said. The adult mentors and volunteers who guide them are trained in trauma-informed care, a more empathetic way of recognizing and understanding difficulties that others have experienced.

The program had to scale back during the pandemic but is ramping up again, James said.

“It’s just a very unique situation for each child, and if they’re in a comfortable space, they feel safe, they can talk about that,” she said. “There’s no judgment.”

While Marissa regularly visits her mother and siblings, her father disappeared from her life in 2022 with no warning, she said. He was “a very important part of my life growing up,” and she hopes to see him again one day, she said.

“All of us have been through something that has changed us,” Marissa said. “It doesn’t matter if you come from the highest, most monied family, or you come from the poorest family with no money. Or you have this skin color, or you identify as this gender.”

What’s important is “just the outlook and the mentality that you have and if you choose to pick yourself off the ground every single day,” she said.

For now, Marissa continues to advocate for the pre-LINKS program, and one day would like to volunteer, she said. She also has her sights set on being a first-grade teacher.

More details about NC LINKS and pre-LINKS

▪ Pre-LINKS is a Wake County 4-H Club for pre-teens in foster care and offers a safe place to have fun and learn through service projects, programs, field trips and summer camp.

▪ NC LINKS offers two statewide programs through local Department of Social Services offices. Teens ages 13-15 explore mental and emotional health, school success, careers, and healthy bodies and relationships. Young adults ages 16-21 learn about transitioning to adulthood, jobs and higher education.

▪ Learn more about both programs at tinyurl.com/2pz452h3.