Today in Dayton Youth Radio, project manager Basim Blunt introduces us to a teenager who grew up in foster care and shares some vivid memories of his experience.
18 year old Shakur Wortham told me that his whole life had been a lie. He had spent most of it in Foster Care and he's always had a hard time getting close to people.
I knew he had a story inside of him but we couldn't get it on paper and we were running out of time. So one day we just went into the studio and hit record.
I thought of some questions about his childhood in Foster Care, like what kind of couch did your foster parents have? Did they shop at Kroger? Did they have a dog? Finally Shakur opened up. The day of this recording, Shakur stayed in the studio about 40 minutes, recording his memories.
I walked back to check on him and he had left, just like that….he was gone. He didn't complete his Dayton Youth Radio assignment. I never saw him again.
I found out later that Shakur had signed himself out of high school and moved cross country with his girlfriend. He's been in contact with a few of his classmates and he's doing fine.
Funding for the Dayton Youth Radio Project comes from the Virginia Kettering Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council and The Dayton Foundation.
