Home Is a Poem: Voices of Resilience

What does home mean?

For the families we serve at ForKids, the answer is deeply personal. It is shaped by resilience, uncertainty, and hope.

Recently, in partnership with Virginia Wesleyan University and Street Choir, we explored that question through poetry.

The result is “Home is a Poem,” a collection of reflections from ForKids participants (adults and kids!) with lived experience of housing instability.

Some poems are joyful. Some are raw. All are real.

Together, they remind us that home is more than a place.

The Human Side of the Work

At ForKids, we focus on housing, education, and economic mobility because stability matters.

At the event, ForKids Alumna April shared a poem that captured the complexity so many families navigate.

Told from the perspective of her own mother, the poem explores the reality of trying to parent young children while struggling yourself with mental illness and poverty:

“Do not tell my story
like I did not love my children.
I was there.”

Her words are a reminder that families are often navigating overlapping challenges, even as they continue to show up with strength and love.

Verity, a ForKids kid now enrolled at Virginia Wesleyan, also shared her poetry, while representatives from ForKids’ leadership team shared poems created by children living in Sokol Place and enrolled in ForKids Epic Kids program.

“When a child describes home as ‘filled with greatness,’ they are not talking about square footage,” said CEO Thaler McCormick. “They are talking about feeling safe, loved, and seen.”

That is what the ForKids team is working toward every day.

Why These Voices Matter

We are grateful to our partners at Virginia Wesleyan University and Street Choir for helping create space for these voices to be heard. (Read more about the event.)

At ForKids, we do whatever it takes to help families achieve stability and independence. That can mean emergency shelter, after-school programs, or career support.

And sometimes, it means something quieter but just as powerful. Making space for a story to be told and heard. Because home is not just where a family sleeps tonight. It is the foundation for everything that comes next.

Be Part of What Comes Next

This May, during National Affordable Housing Month, you can help more families build a place to call home through our Raise the Roof Community Care Campaign.

Find a list of businesses participating in the campaign on our blog. When you support those businesses, you support ForKids!