credit: Image © Glamour Magazine
This year International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. As a woman-owned business, we at Scout Moderation feel very inspired by IWD’s initiatives to promote women’s equality and advancement.
Almost everyone knows a red rose symbolizes love, but not many know there is a whole language around flowers, and Vanessa Diffenbaugh is using it to change lives. A bestselling author, Vanessa is using the release of her new novel, The Language of Flowers, to bring light to the plight of older youths in foster care and to ignite a national discussion. The book tells the story of a girl who grew up in the foster care system and can’t trust or communicate with people, so she uses the Victorian language of flowers to express herself.
We tell you about Vanessa now, on International Women’s Day, because she exemplifies the spirit of IWD. As a foster mother, Vanessa knows firsthand that when foster children turn 18 and no longer qualify for services, there is no family there to buoy them. Without support, 25 percent face homelessness and incarceration.
Vanessa saw this need and filled it by founding the Camellia Network, a nationwide organization that supports young people who have aged out of the foster care system by helping them to go to college, find an apartment or just get their bearings as they transition from foster care to adulthood.
Through the Camellia Network, emancipated youth across the country have a means to share their stories, dreams and needs. In turn, supporters can purchase supplies and equipment that will best help these young people manage the transition
Here is what the Camellia Network believes in: “It is time for us all to take shared responsibility for foster youth; to stop referring to youth in foster care as ‘those kids’ and start thinking of them as ‘our kids’; to stop waiting for the ‘system’ to take care of the problem and to start working together as citizens to create the change we want to see.”
We think that is well said.
If you know a woman who is raising her voice online and needs a moderator, let her know Scout Moderation supports women. Scout Moderation is here to help enact civil conversations over major change.
