This December, BMCF’s president and CEO Jackie Broxton was named a PBS SoCal Local Hero for her tireless work uplifting current and former foster youth in Los Angeles. She, along with Never Stop Grinding Impact CEO Darious Harris, were the honorees at PBS’s award ceremony on December 4, 2025. Keep reading for Ms. Broxton’s acceptance speech!
Good evening! Lets please give all of tonight’s honorees another round of applause for their work and commitment to their respective missions. I am honored to share this evening with you.
Just as Elizabeth Taylor told her last husband, “I won’t keep you long,” I will try to be brief, because I am last and I don’t want to wear out my welcome.
My oldest grandson Isaiah is in the audience and he is monitoring my time. He and his brother refer to me as Constant Comment: He will let me know if I am going past the saturation point.
Stand up Isaiah so that the audience will know you are not AI.
I am personally humbled by this extraordinary recognition. But, the honor is truly not mine to own solely. The force that drives the Biddy Mason Charitable Foundation is the Board of Directors, two of whom are with me tonight. Jefferson Cox and Patricia Wilson, will you please stand? Jefferson is the secretary of the Board and Patricia is a founding board member and an enormous source of inspiration.
Our foundation began in 2013 as a group of community members who wanted to support current and former foster youth. We did not have a business plan or a strategic plan. We just had the desire to forge community with current and former foster youth and hopefully make a difference.
Los Angeles County has the largest foster care population in the nation. There are 30,000 children and youth within the Los Angeles County system.
Our approach has been a little different because we place a tremendous amount of emphasis on history. Growing up in the system, oftentimes children and youth are estranged from their bio families as a result of the behavior of the parent. These children grow up with no family history or legacy and no real sense of ethnic identity; You cannot be what you cannot see.
We honor the legacy of Biddy Mason, an African American slave who came to Los Angeles in 1851 with her Mormon slave owner, along with 12 additional slaves—three of which were her daughters. She petitioned the Los Angeles Court, and in 1856 she was granted not only her freedom, but also the freedom of the additional slaves.
After gaining her freedom, she became known as the Grandmother of Los Angeles, due to the care she provided as a midwife and nurse. She later became an impressive real estate mogul and died with an estate valued at 9 million in today’s money.
She is the inspiration for all the work we do.
Our former treasurer, Ellis Gordon Jr., who sadly is no longer with us, always referred to the foundation as “The Little Engine that Could.”
Just like the little engine in the story, we believe in our mission of service to current and former foster youth, and we remain determined to find ways to make the dreams of a successful adulthood a reality for current and for foster youth.
They want what we all want: to be happy, to be loved, and to be successful.
We place no cap on the age of our scholarship recipients because we understand the roadblocks of being a foster youth and the time it sometimes takes to find your path.
Our oldest recipient is 56 years old. He spent 28 years in prison and is now at USC working on his PhD. Growing up he always thought he was stupid. We heard foster youth when they shared with us their difficulty in securing scholarships.
We also heard from mothers whose histories included foster care when they shared the complexities of being a parent, and wanting to be the best parent possible despite never experiencing being parented. We created Mothers’ Mingle so that these women would have a place to come to receive support and counsel.
We created We Are Kin to serve the needs of family members and caregivers charged with raising children who can no longer live with their parents.
We created events specifically designed to meet the needs of current and former foster youth.
Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day, not the Saturday before, has become a holiday tradition for our youth. We created the event in 2013, and each year we receive calls, usually beginning in October, making sure we are hosting the event.
Our annual Resource Fair includes agencies that provide support to foster youth as well as colleges and universities. The event provides information and resources for foster youth in one location.
The path that has brought us here tonight has been filled with dreams, enhanced visions, and disappointments. But each time we received a disappointment, it was offset by an unexpected blessing.
Our promise to the foster care community is simple: to be there with resources and support, and to listen and connect youth to appropriate resources when we are not able to meet their needs.
We firmly believe that promises are for keeping.
