This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

Heart Gallery NYC Shines Light on Need For Foster Care

A new photography exhibit at Atlantic Terminal highlights children in city foster care.

More than 13,000 New York City children are in foster care, and a new photography exhibit at Atlantic Terminal hopes to put them in the spotlight.

In honor of National Foster Care Month, Heart Gallery NYC's newest photo exhibit addresses the critical need for foster families throughout the city. Several children in need of “forever families” joined Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and other distinguished guests to help launch the exhibit.

More than 50 photographs of New York City’s children in foster care, taken by celebrity photographers such as Rayon Richards and Deborah Feingold, will be on display from May 18 through June 15 to help find families for children currently in care with HeartShare Human Services of New York.

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Every child placed with a loving family will have the chance to reach the peak of their God-given potential,” said Markowitz. “It’s so important that these children are given the opportunity to succeed.”

The goal of the photo exhibit is to match each child on display with a family, and create awareness for the more than 13,000 New York City children in foster care, of which about one-third live in Brooklyn.

Find out what's happening in Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hillwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“It would be fun to have parents who take care of me and do things with me,” said Angel, 12, one of the foster children at the event. 

Norma Forde, Executive Director of Heart Gallery NYC, also said that a specific initiative in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill will be taking place to find foster families in the neighborhood for gay youth or those questioning their sexuality.

“You get people who come through the system that want to adopt, but don’t want to adopt a child who’s LGBTQ,” said Forde. “We wanted to create awareness that there’s a huge population of children in the foster care system that are often ignored because they’re adolescents, or turned away by some families for simply being who they are.”

Marcel S. Kersey, who has recently aged out of the foster care system, said he experienced conflict with his foster family at the age of 16 due to his sexuality.

“The woman who adopted me was a church-going woman, and said she didn’t want me because I was gay,” said Kersey. “It made me feel like nobody loved me or wanted me, so I tell kids who are in the system to be themselves. No one should be able to take who you are away from you.”

The Heart Gallery NYC exhibit is in collaboration with HeartShare Human Services, in cooperation with the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office. The Long Island Rail Road is hosting the exhibit.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill