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Life After Foster Care

WUNC | By Anita Rao,

Frank Stasio

Published April 27, 2016 at 12:01 PM EDT

A conversation with author Ashley Rhodes-Courter.More than 400,000 children in the United States are living in foster care. The statistics about what happens to these children later in life are startling: only about 50 percent finish high school, less than 10 percent go on to higher education. Ashley Rhodes-Courter is an exception to this statistic, but she has devoted her life’s work to speaking out on behalf of her many former foster care siblings who continue to struggle.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Rhodes-Courter, author of “Three Little Words” (Simon Pulse/2008) and “Three More Words,”(Atheneum/2015) about her 10 years in foster care and her work as social worker and advocate. She will be speaking at fundraising events for the Children’s Home Society on Thursday, April 28 in Greensboro, Thursday, May 5 in Raleigh, and Thursday, May 12 in Charlotte.

Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent 10 years in the foster care system, and moved through 14 different homes. Her memoirs reflect on life during and after foster care.

'Three Little Words' is a memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter documenting her life in the foster care system.

Copyright 2016 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.

See stories by Anita Rao

Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio