By Development Team | Kidsave Staff
Kidsave’s new Peer Mentor program connects adults with lived experience—such as former mentors and adoptive parents—with newer hosts and prospective adoptive families from our Weekend Miracles program. Funded by QueensCare and Hilton, and grounded in research and real-world need, this pilot is designed to increase the number of adults willing to support and advocate for older youth in foster care.
According to the Kidsave-Gallup study, 62% of Americans were much more likely to consider participating in a program working with a child in foster care if they had regular interaction with other adults participating in the program. This insight helped shape our Peer Mentor initiative.
Peer mentors are more than guides—they are connectors, translators, and trusted allies who use their lived experience to help families better understand the identities, needs, and lived realities of the youth they care for. These mentors are trained to walk alongside families as they navigate the complexities of trauma, culture, identity, and healing. By starting with families matched with Black, Latino/a, and LGBTQ+ youth, we are creating a supportive, culturally responsive network that improves outcomes for everyone involved.
This pilot is grounded in the practice of cultural brokering: bridging or mediating between people from different cultural backgrounds to reduce conflict and promote understanding. Many of the youth we serve have been removed from their communities and placed in unfamiliar environments. These disconnections can compound the trauma of separation. With the Peer Mentor program, we are helping to restore a sense of identity, stability, and safety.
Black children in foster care are less likely to receive adequate mental health services and more likely to report not feeling safe or supported—all key indicators of emotional well-being. Our Peer Mentors work to ensure these youth are understood and affirmed, not just accommodated. Latino/a youth often face language barriers and underrepresentation in leadership, which can lead to misunderstandings and isolation. Through the Peer Mentor program, adults with shared cultural experience can help bridge those gaps.
LGBTQ+ youth, who make up as much as 30% of youth in foster care, are also twice as likely to experience mistreatment or placement instability. By connecting caregivers with affirming mentors who understand these challenges, we are helping families provide placements where youth feel seen and safe, and where long-term healing is possible.
Peer mentors offer something critical that no amount of training can replicate: perspective rooted in lived experience. They can help interpret behaviors that may otherwise be misunderstood, suggest resources, and most importantly, remind families that they are not alone. This kind of support can turn a temporary placement into a permanent home.
This pilot is only the beginning. Over time, we plan to expand the Peer Mentor program to reach all of our Weekend Miracles families, ensuring that every older youth in foster care is surrounded by adults who are not only loving, but who truly understand them. Our hope is that by empowering caregivers, we help kids stay connected, grow stronger, and build the futures they deserve.
You can be part of the change. Get involved with Kidsave as a host, donor, or advocate at kidsave.org — and be part of a movement that’s building connection, healing, and hope.
EMBRACE Spotlight: Bourgogne Kinlaw’s Story
Bourgogne Kinlaw is a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and a mother of two. She’s also adopted.
Adopted at six months old by a Black couple in Michigan, Bourgogne was raised by a second-grade teacher and an insurance professional who gave her the gift of identity, pride, and cultural belonging. Her parents didn’t need to lecture her on self-worth — they modeled it. From park days to private school, from direct talks about race to a steady rhythm of Black excellence, they built her confidence from the ground up.
“In a world that puts Black people down just for being you,” Bourgogne says, “they prepared me by surrounding me with my culture.”
Her journey wasn’t without pain. Separated from siblings and only learning the full story of her birth mother years later, Bourgogne continues to process the layers of her story — the beauty and the complexity. But she is clear: being adopted by a family who shared her culture changed her life.
Unlike many of the youth Kidsave serves — who may wait years for a family — Bourgogne had stability from infancy. But she’s aware of what that protected her from, and how urgently others still need that safety.
She now encourages others to answer the call:
“If it’s on your heart, do it,” she says. “Black kids need more Black families. It’s important to be raised by someone who looks like you.”
Whether you’re Black, Latino/a, LGBTQ+, or simply someone who wants to show up — you can. What matters most is your willingness to listen, learn, and love deeply.
A child’s racial and cultural identity is not something to overcome. It’s a strength to be nurtured.
Visit embrace.kidsave.org to learn how you can become a mentor, host, or adoptive parent — and build the kind of world every child deserves.
Links:
By Development Team | Kidsave Staff
By Development Team | Kidsave Staff
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