Fostering Hope:  How It All Started

Brittany Butler looked the other way at Central High School. Mean kids have that effect when they bully you about your teeth. “When I laughed, I put my hand over my mouth.”

But then came Leslie Lacy, a state attorney who’s a voice for children in foster care. Leslie did two things that forever changed where the honor student was headed.

She encouraged Brittany to apply to her dream school, Spelman College, and collected donations, with Judge Curtis Calloway, to cover a part of tuition to the Atlanta school. Brittany earned scholarships for the rest.

And Leslie paid for Brittany to get braces. She put a warm smile on her face.

“Your smile is everything, Brittany says. “When people see you, you don’t want

to frown. You want to smile.”

And she does beam, on the streets of New York City, where she was hired as a social worker after earning her bachelor’s from Spelman and a master’s from Columbia University. Law school is next for Brittany, then back to Louisiana, where her goal is to become a family court judge.

“I feel amazing. When I first got my braces off at Spelman, I said this is really me.”

In September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Leslie Lacy started Fostering Hope Louisiana to pay for braces for children in foster care.