This weekend we attended the grand re-opening of the Foster Youth Museum created by our friends at California Youth Connection. Our video blog includes footage of a few items in the museum and a brief history of the museum from the its co-director Jamie Lee Evans, as well as powerful testimonials from former foster youth Haydee Cuza and Jennifer Rodriguez.

The museum vividly chronicles the many challenges of foster care, using professional photographs and objects former foster youth contributed. But it ends with hope, a displaying college diplomas, photos of former foster youth with their children and grandchildren, and other objects representing positive experiences and relationships.

“The experience of foster care stays in your heart, but also the experience of people believing in you and holding the strength for you when you don’t have it also stays in your heart and in your spirit,” Haydee shares. “I get to represent transformation and hope in this museum, because people had hope for me when I didn’t have hope for myself. People had strength for me when I didn’t even know what resilience meant. People believed in my life when all I thought I could really do to end the pain was end my life.”

The museum is on display for the rest of the month of March at Warehouse 416 in Oakland, which is open every Saturday afternoon from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.