Fostering Strength 2017 – Gigi Edwards Bryant

On May 11th, 2017, Junior League of Cedar Rapids hosted Fostering Strength, Iowa’s largest foster care advocacy event, featuring keynote speaker Gigi Edwards Bryant.

Gigi Edwards Bryant is a wife, mother, elected official, keynote speaker, business owner, and community volunteer. She was reared in the foster care system in the state of Texas.  She believes that when she had no hope or saw no future at age 6, faith become her strength and hope became her guide.  She is often called a survivor; because of her path through the states foster system included many homes, sexual and mental abuse, separation from her siblings, totally loneliness and aging out at 18 with no support and a child in tow. It is a story of having to survive in plain sight in a system plagued with issues surrounding some good people working together to make a difference in the lives of our children.

Bryant serves her community through a number of organizations that address issues that create measurable, life enhancing, goals and demonstrated opportunities for education, drug and alcohol abuse recovery and our children in the Nations foster system.

 

Past Fostering Strength Events:

2013: Vanessa Diffenbaugh, author of Language of Flowers and founder of Camellia Network

2014: Leigh Anne Tuohy, the mom featured in The Blind Side movie

2015: Dr. Jennifer Arnold from TLC’s docu-drama The Little Couple

2016: Travis Lloyd, author of Overcoming Emotional Trauma

2018: Charell Star, Foster Care Alum, Journalist and Media Personality

2019: Steve Pemberton, author of A Chance in the World