Child welfare champion David Ambroz asks Idaho to choose change for kids

David Ambroz believes every one of us has a role to play in supporting children in foster care and ending child poverty.

"There's something any of us, or all of us, can do," he told an Idaho audience last week. His call to action was clear: to look up, notice the need, and choose to get involved.

On Thursday, Sept. 11, Ambroz spoke at the Riverside Hotel in Boise to a group of professionals who work every day on child welfare cases. The author and national advocate for children shared his personal story of growing up homeless and later entering foster care.

"The lesson they taught me was crystal clear: I was invisible," he recalled of his childhood, when he and his family often begged for handouts in New York's Grand Central Station.

His path was shaped by both hardship and moments of unexpected kindness-like the judge who gave him a sofa to sleep on after he collapsed in court, and the foster parents, Holly and Steve, who kept him even when it was difficult.

But Ambroz reminded his Idaho audience that the foster care system is strained, and too often young people are left without the support they need.

"Fifty percent of the homeless in America have spent time in foster care," Ambroz said. "But it doesn't have to be that way. Everything is a choice. We as a country can make a choice to end child poverty."

Ambroz urged Idahoans to support foster parents, invest in housing and vocational opportunities for youth, and recognize the vital role of social workers and courts.

"These are our children. These are your children," he said. "We really do have the power to make a different decision."

David Ambroz's memoir, A Place Called Home, recounts his journey from a childhood of poverty, homelessness, and foster care to becoming an advocate for children and families, offering both a raw account of survival and a hopeful vision for change.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is dedicated to strengthening the health, safety, and independence of Idahoans. Learn more at healthandwelfare.idaho.gov.

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