To say I love to paint may be an understatement.
The friends who know me best say I cling to a paint brush more than any other object on this earth. I have been painting almost my entire 22 years of life – from water colors in elementary school to oils and acrylics.
Painting is my everything, and I always wanted to attend college, take art classes, draw and paint. It’s been my dream since I was a little girl.
But life – and particularly being raised in a dysfunctional household – got in the way of my dreams. When I was 15, I was placed in foster care, and the idea of attending an art college seemed to slip through my hands.
Fortunately, despite placement in two foster homes and one group home for foster kids, I aged out and somehow was accepted to the Savannah College of Art & Design. With no money or parents to rely on, I started working full time, attempting to work my way through school with a partial scholarship.
Now after working two jobs and barely getting passing grades, a mentor recently told me about Georgia’s new foster care tax credit and a nonprofit Fostering Success Act.
Under the $20 million tax credit, Georgia individuals, couples and businesses can earn a dollar-for-dollar reduction in their state income taxes if they donate to nonprofits such as FSA which help young adults who have aged out of foster care follow their dreams.
At first when I heard about FSA and the grants, I thought it might be a one-time boost to help me pay my rent.
Instead, my life coach told me FSA could help me get thru college and pay all my expenses from housing to food, transportation, healthcare, books and other costs so that I could focus on my studies and not have to work.
It is a dream come true as I no longer have to work, can study all the time without worrying about juggling my schedule to get to work and won’t have to stay up all night doing homework.
This is how other students attend college. But it was a foreign concept to me because I have no parents to rely on to support me emotionally or financially. I have been working since I was 15 to get ahead and pursue my dream of becoming an artist and selling my paintings.
Too many of my peers who were in foster care have no idea how to make it in the world and most wind up on the streets, homeless in poverty or resort to crime as they have no one to support them if they want to attend school and follow a career path.
That’s why this tax credit and the FSA grants are such an amazing opportunity for former foster youth who want to do something with their lives.
And starting July 1, Georgia taxpayers can donate an unlimited amount to the tax credit to cover their entire state income tax obligation and at the same time help students like myself on a path toward success.
My obsession with painting will never leave me, but my chance to attend SCAD and earn my degree may never have been realized without this new foster care tax credit. I encourage all Georgians looking for a way to reduce their state income tax burden to pursue this new option and remember, they not only are helping former foster kids pursue their dreams, they are keeping hundreds of us from a bleak future of poverty.
