Youth
CASA Dawna with Rosie
ROSALINA
BURTON
Former Foster Youth Shatters Misconceptions
F
oster care. The phrase
either brings to mind
images of “troubled”
youth or joyous
adoption celebrations.
Most people have some
concept of what they
imagine foster care to
be like, but it is rare
to get a glimpse into
the lives and experiences of children who have
been removed from their homes due to abuse or
neglect and spend time in “the system.”
72 GBSAN.COM | MAY 2019
One former foster youth is seeking to change that by sharing her personal
experience in foster care. Rosalina Burton, a student and mental health
worker, speaks both locally and nationally about the reasons she and her
siblings were removed from their parents, what it was like to grow up with
instability, and how, with the help of her Court Appointed Special Advocate
(CASA), she was able to overcome the barriers in her path.
Rosalina, along with her seven siblings, was first removed from her home
when she was just three years old. Like many children in foster care, she
was neglected by parents who struggled with drug abuse and mental illness.
Too young to understand what was happening at the time, she still bears the
trauma of witnessing domestic violence to this day. She recalls, “My earliest
memories are of me being sad. At the age of 8, I was contemplating suicide.”