Kenitra’s life revolves around young people. She’s a teacher, a foster parent, and a proud mother of five.

“I love kids. I do. I hate for them to be in distress and they don’t have to be,” Kenitra said. “I love for them to smile and be happy.”

Her doctor told her that she would not be able to have children so Kenitra decided to become a foster parent. While she and her husband were going through the Chicago Foster Care system’s approval process, the unexpected happened—she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. 

They eventually welcomed three more children into the world before her husband’s health declined and he passed away while their youngest son was still a baby.

“We were doing really good. Everything was going good. [And] when I had my son, my husband took sick [but] we didn’t think anything else about it,” Kenitra shared. “When he passed away it was like me left with four kids and I was by myself. I was working at the time but that one income just really never covers it.”

Still, Kenitra wanted her kids to venture out and experience the world beyond Chicago. 

“I never want them to see my worries and my fears. I want them to live. Not just survive. Live,” said Kenitra.

She admitted she couldn’t afford to buy them all flights so they would drive to a lot of places. 

“I took them to Florida. Me in the car with four kids, and it took 16 hours but I did it,” she said. “I’ve driven them to Cincinnati. We’ve been to Wisconsin several times. It was their dream to go to the San Diego Zoo. It took me some time to be able to save up for flights and go. But we made it.”

One of Kenitra’s long-term goals is to purchase an old Victorian House and open a group home for youth in her community. 

“I just want to put kids in it and love on them,” she said.

Kenitra’s first son was 3 years old back when she received her license and was approved to become a foster home. Shortly after, the agency called to see if she could take in a 5-year-old. She remembers being so eager for her son to have someone to play with and quickly accepted the responsibility of being a foster mom for the first time. 30 years later, she still keeps an active foster parent license.

“My kids were used to that, sharing their house for a week or two,” said Kenitra about raising her kids and her foster kids over the years. “They always would open their door or their hearts for somebody else.”

She explained that becoming a foster parent opened her up to “another side of the world” which she’d never experienced. She was unfamiliar with the foster care system but still felt she could sympathize with them because of the “constantly shaking and moving” experiences from her childhood. 

“My mom had 17 brothers and sisters so we were all super tight. My grandfather bought buildings on the same block where his house was so we all stayed together,” she said.

That togetherness hit a breaking point when Kenitra and her only sister were young.  Their mother began using drugs and they hid it from her grandparents.

“Hurt me so bad because my grandfather… That was my rock. So I was kind of hiding things from him, not telling him that we didn’t have food,” she said.

She still remembers vividly the day she finally broke down and told her grandfather the truth, sharing that his reaction back then still remains a crucial part of her life now.

“If you tell nobody, then nobody is going to know. And nobody can help you,” recalled Kenitra.

She feels it’s a lesson she continues to use throughout her adulthood, always staying open-minded and knowledgeable about her surroundings and what resources are available in her community. Kenitra shared that when a woman at her church approached her in 2021 about an opportunity to build community while receiving a direct cash investment through UpTogether, it didn’t take much convincing.

“I needed to have friends. I needed to have people that I know that’s like me. [People] that are looking for a reason for being,” she said.

Before long, Kenitra would be enrolled in an UpTogether Fund and receive cash investments that she did not have to pay back. The direct cash addressed being able to purchase basic needs and even gave her the opportunity to plan for a family road trip—four days camping in the mountains of Tennessee.

“The UpTogether funds made sure that I was able to do these things with my kids. I had little extras to do things for them,” she shared. 

Caring about her local community ultimately led to Kenitra’s fifth child. In 2017, Kenitra saw the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) visiting a woman in her neighborhood and taking her baby away from her. After talking to that mother, Kenitra agreed to step in as a solution.

“When she told me she got into trouble I asked her ‘What’s happening? What’s going on? Why are they taking your kids?’ So we sat down and had a conversation and she opened up and told me about it,” Kenitra shared. 

About 6 months later, the agency reached out to Kenitra and let her know they were terminating the birth mother’s rights and giving Kenitra the option of adopting. 

At that time, her three oldest children visited home often but had already moved out of the house and it was just Kenitra and her youngest son who was 13 years old. The entire family had fallen in love with the baby from the time she first agreed to take care of her. Kenitra quickly took DCFS up on the adoption and went through the process to make it permanent. 

“So, then I had 5 kids,” Kenitra said proudly. 

If the story ended there, it would be one of strength, service, selflessness and unexpected blessings spotlighting a woman who built a healthy home after once being told by doctors she’d never have a family of her own. But there’s more to Kenitra. While she went through her daughter’s adoption process, she also decided to go back to school to obtain her degree and become a school teacher. 

“Of course you know we [teachers] don’t make that much money but the work is inspiring to me,” she said.