Our Story

Nourishing Hearts started with a Prince.  NYC foster mothers Nekiya Brown and Helen Lee first met in 2022 when Helen provided respite foster care support for Nekiya, and took care of Nekiya's 2-year old foster son, Prince.  Their love for Prince created a strong bond and friendship between the mothers, which grew into sharing their broader goals and dreams for doing more to help children in foster care.  Their first collaboration was for Prom Dreams 2023 held at the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) Children's Center, which involved helping to dress teens and pre-teens in foster care in formal attire for prom or other educational milestone celebrations such as graduation, awards ceremonies and school dances.  Prom Dreams was a tremendous success and turned into an annual partnership with ACS. 

Nekiya and Helen are now joined by other amazing women on the Nourishing Hearts team who are either fellow foster mothers or are social care professionals working with foster children or other underprivileged communities in NYC. Please see the ‘Meet the Team’ page for more information about the Nourishing Hearts team.