Our team at Henrico CASA loves to read… and there’s no better time to read than the summer! In upcoming weeks we’ll be highlighting some of our recent favorites in the hopes that you will enjoy the themes and connections to our work as child advocates.
One of the books often read by our advocates for continuing education is Reshuffled: Stories of Hope and Resilience from Foster Care. This book, created for Colonial CASA, is a compilation of stories from former foster children as told to authors Tracy Gharbo and Linda Palmer.
In a recent episode of our podcast, Vigilant Voices, we chatted with one of the contributors, Sophia Booker. Below is a a snippet of our conversation:
Kristin (VV Host): “You shared your story in a book called Reshuffled that was compiled by our CASA friends in Williamsburg. What was that experience like?”
Sophia Booker (Guest): “Oh, it was so great. I’m really shy. And the people that worked with me to tell my story were very patient.”
“I was actually nervous to do the book at first, but I ended up pushing past that nervousness to really just tell my story in an authentic way and be able to share different aspects of my life and people in my life that impacted me. Honestly, I probably could have went on for a long time telling my story because there’s so many people. My village is really important to me. And that’s something that I wanted to highlight because I’ve been through a lot of challenges, mental health challenges I experienced, but I had a support network around me.”
“People say, ‘Sophia, you’re doing a great job,’ and that’s a reflection of the people who pour into me…. It’s been great to have people who didn’t give up on me. And of course the book is only a small chapter, so I wish it could have been a series of three books that I could have like dedicated to so many people.”
Thanks to Sophia for chatting with us and for being a Vigilant Voice in our community, speaking up for the well-being of children! You can here more from our conversation with Sophia in our full podcast episode.
