My name is Meghan Richard, and I am the founder of Care Grown Collective — a project rooted in lived experience, survival, and the belief that no young person should age out of care alone.
I entered the child welfare system in March 1988 at the age of thirteen, just four years after losing my mom. A month after being apprehended, I learned the man raising me wasn’t my biological father. It was a time of loss, confusion, and trauma. I was angry — and like many teenagers in care, I was hard to place. Foster care didn’t work, and I became a group home girl.
But it was at Chisholm where I found my footing, and I remained with their organization until I aged out. That phrase — aged out — is where my real struggle began.
People often assume that going into care must have been the hardest part of my journey. I tell them the truth: entering care saved my life. Aging out of care is what harmed me.
I was a traumatized kid with no family and no support. I didn’t have access to my own files — not even medical or educational records. Like so many others, I slipped through the cracks and hit what I jokingly call “After-Care BINGO”: drug use, homelessness, theft, psych wards, sexual violence. I survived, but just barely. I had the unearned privilege of being white and middle class — and even still, the odds were stacked against me.
In 2021, I was given an incredible opportunity to attend university through Mount Saint Vincent University’s Post-Care Tuition Waiver Program. In May 2025, I graduated with distinction, earning a double major in Political Science and Women’s Studies.
From the first day of my degree to the last, I had one unwavering goal: to speak for youth aging out of care. My dream is to create a space where people with care experience can connect, support one another, and build something better — together.
Care Grown Collective is that dream. Right now, I’m in the early stages — fundraising, planning, and building something that will grow into a full organization once I complete my Master’s thesis.
This isn’t charity. This is community care — by us, for us, with love.
Care Grown Collective 