Autumn Todd knows all about Sunrise Children’s Services back when it was Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children. She experienced the program firsthand as a foster child living in about six or seven different Sunrise foster homes, in our former Dixon Center (on two separate occasions), and in our former Genesis Home (in Mayfield). “I spent probably over half my childhood in (Sunrise) placement,” Autumn said.
Autumn appreciates the help she received from Sunrise. “I would say that getting placement in Sunrise Children’s Services really helped me learn coping skills to control a lot of anger issues and to understand how my childhood abuse and trauma had affected me,” she said. “It gave me those coping skills to emerge from (the trauma) and move forward as an adult.”
But it wasn’t always easy. “Honestly, one of the hardest times for me was going through group homes, not having a family, and then constantly seeing people go in and out, in and out, in and out,” she stated. “It was really rough.”
Fortunately, Autumn always felt the love and support from the Sunrise staff. “I really feel like, growing up in Sunrise placement, whenever I came to a new home, or I came to a group home, they did not judge me. They just wanted to care for me. They wanted to give me a safe place and somewhere to start new, somewhere to learn new things,” she said. “And I feel like they gave me the ‘love your neighbor’ essence . . . through all those actions and through the lack of (judging), just making me feel that I belong and giving me those coping skills, and giving me the treatment and the care that I needed.”
Today, Autumn is married to her husband, Travis, and has two daughters: Beatrice, who is 10 years old, and Luna, who is five. Autumn and Travis also own a cell phone repair business together called IBuyCell&Fix, in Princeton. Now as an adult, it seemed like the right time for Autumn to give back to Sunrise. “We were finally in a position to do something for the children that were in the situation I grew up in,” she stated. And that’s exactly what they did.
At the end of 2021, they began a collection drive at their business to bring in personal hygiene items for the girls and boys currently living in Sunrise’s residential centers. They ended up collecting enough items for the kids as well as for victims of the tornado that hit the community, and for adults living in a local adult group home called Highland Homes. “(Our business) is in a very small shop, and the whole lobby was filled,” shared Autumn. “It was really crazy the community support we got from this.”
With the hygiene items, it was important for Autumn that the Sunrise kids each received a two-month supply. “The reason we chose hygiene items is because growing up in the group homes and the foster homes, I was only allotted $10 a month,” she explained. “The children in state custody today are still only allotted $10 a month! I just remember all the times when things went missing or somebody would steal my stuff because they couldn’t afford stuff of their own. It was just the worst feeling . . . . So, that’s why we chose (to do this).”
This year, she plans to go even bigger, collecting more of the same items they did last year, and adding clothing. Autumn is hoping to get a list of each child’s sizes prior to the drive. She’s also planning to collect even more items for Highland Homes. “We’re going to start it much earlier,” she said. “We’re probably going to start it a month-and-a-half before Christmas, and we’re going to pay for some advertising for it.”
Eventually, in the years to come, she wants to provide for the Sunrise residential kids what was provided for her when she was in residential care: a pancake breakfast. “We want to rent the town hall or go to the group itself and do a pancake breakfast and bring Santa and all the kids’ presents,” Autumn said. “It was just one of the coolest things that happened to me whenever it was the holiday time.”
Most of all, she wants to give to the girls and boys of Sunrise a sense of belonging. “I want to have a meal with them and give them a sense of family,” she shared. “I was one of the few kids in the group home who didn’t have family. A lot of the girls had someone that would come pick them up for home visits. I didn’t at all. And I would sit there on Christmas, with a staff member, by myself; and the best thing I got to do was pick the movie. It was so sad, honestly. And I just hate that.”
This has led Autumn to consider a more permanent way to help replace sadness with happiness in the life of current foster kids. “We are looking into fostering,” she shared. She has recently been talking with her former Sunrise therapist, Angie, about fostering in the near future. Autumn and Travis are purchasing their first home and are already making plans to renovate and add more bedrooms. “Whenever we get (the renovation) done, we (want to) start fostering,” said Autumn.
As a former foster kid herself, Autumn has a unique understanding of what current foster children are experiencing. She wants them to know that even though they have a different way of thinking because of their upbringing, everything will be okay. Her personal word to current foster children is this: “You have to focus on your mental health; focus on breaking generational curses and identifying your triggers. And learn that even though you grew up in this situation – in state custody or in foster homes or in group homes – it doesn’t mean that you can’t be successful, because you definitely can. You just have to want it. And you have to want to break those generational curses.”
It appears that Autumn is well on her way to breaking the generational curses in her own life, and is now doing what she can to instill that drive in others, particularly in those who have been on a similar journey. Thank you, Autumn, for showing us what a former foster kid can become, and what a remarkable future foster parent might look like!
