Selfless Love Foundation Inc

Selfless Love Foundation has structured our program initiatives to improve adoption matching and elevate the voices of transition-age foster youth while advocating for systemic policy and practice change.

Adoption Initiative Goal: Reduce the time to adoption for waiting children and families.
Adoption Outcomes: 200 children matched & 100 adopted annually; impacts 800 children waiting to be adopted by a community family.
Adoption Systemic Outcomes: Streamline adoptions process and allow sharing families across county lines.

Independent Living Goal: Transition-age foster youth are better prepared for self-sufficiency.
Independent Living Outcomes: Increased advocacy, leadership, and life skills; Improved sense of belonging and self-worth
Independent Living Systemic Outcomes: Increase youth engagement at critical points in care – placement, permanency, & transition; impacts outcomes for 1,000 youth transitioning from the system each year.

Adoption Strategies
Level 1: Awareness
• Objective: To raise awareness about the need for adoptive families for children in care.
• Tactics: Family adoption videos; spearhead statewide campaign for National Adoption Month.
Level 2: Adoption Matching
• Objective: To create better matches in less time by providing innovative compatibility matching technology.
• Tactics: Provide a grant to Adoption-Share to implement their Family-Match program at no cost to child welfare agencies and families.
Level 3: Advocacy
• Objective: To advocate for state and national policy change that streamlines the adoption process and reduces the time to match waiting children and families.
• Tactics: State- Member of FCC Adoptions Committee; National- Member of Voices for Adoption

Independent Living Strategies
Level 1: Support
• Objective: To provide supportive housing and life skills education to bridge the gap between dependence and independence.
• Tactics: Provide a grant to Children’s Harbor to operate Brown’s Harbor, supportive housing for 36 youth in Broward County; Offer transitioning youth a comprehensive online life skills curriculum, Life Skills Reimagined.
Level 2: Leadership
• Objective: To assist youth in the development of leadership skills to improve self-confidence and self-worth.
• Tactics: Provide transition-age youth with high-quality leadership training through Dale Carnegie and an opportunity to participate in the statewide Dream Tank Competition.
Level 3: OVI Advocacy
• Objective: To elevate youth voice through local & state youth councils; developing youth leaders to advocate for system transformation.
• Tactics: Lead youth advocacy through statewide youth council and providing technical assistance to 17 local youth councils; provide youth voice opportunities, and improve system youth engagement practices.

Selfless Love Foundation's Founders Ed & Ashley Brown are passionate advocates for children in foster care. Ashley, a child of adoption, is committed to ensuring all children have the gift of a family. Their personal philanthropy inspires others to become selfless supporters of the Foundation resulting in very successful fundraising events.

Selfless Love Foundation's Executive Director, Dr. Elizabeth Wynter has more than 20 years of child welfare leadership experience. Dr. Wynter’s expertise in strategic planning and systems building has supported her transformative work in the areas of independent living and adoptions. Dr. Wynter is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Certified Addictions Professional, and an Adoption Competent Trainer. She serves as the Vice-Chair for the Florida Coalition for Children Foundation, Co-Chair of the FCC Systems Ops Committee, FCC-DCF Strategic Initiative Lead, and Adjunct Professor at Nova Southeastern University College of Psychology. In 2017, Dr. Wynter received the FCC Administrator of the Year award.

With this leadership at the helm of the organization and a desire to collaborate with other experts in the field, Selfless Love Foundation has the capability to achieve its goals.

Since the inception of SLF in 2015, the organization has launched the following initiatives to achieve our goals.

In 2017, Selfless Love Foundation partnered with Children’s Harbor to open, Brown’s Harbor, a supportive housing program in Broward County for former foster youth ages 18 to 23.

In 2018, Selfless Love Foundation partnered with Adoption-Share to launch an adoption matching technology called Family-Match at no cost to agencies or families. Adoption-Share’s Family-Match program is a data driven platform designed to match available children with adoptive families on markers of compatibility.

In 2019, Selfless Love Foundation partnered with Florida Coalition for Children to support One Voice IMPAACT (OVI), a youth voice movement for former foster youth. Selfless Love Foundation took over OVI in 2020 and is providing technical assistance in the development of fourteen youth councils across the state.