Q&A: Majd Abdallah on Helping Teens in Foster Care Build Formative Experiences

When Majd Abdal­lah entered South Carolina’s fos­ter care sys­tem as a teenag­er, he was placed in group care. In this set­ting, join­ing after-school activ­i­ties, spend­ing time with friends and expe­ri­enc­ing oth­er ordi­nary and for­ma­tive parts of ado­les­cence can be more chal­leng­ing because of bar­ri­ers like trans­porta­tion, mon­ey and per­mis­sions required for com­ing and going.

For Abdal­lah, being able to con­tin­ue run­ning track helped him feel a lit­tle more like a typ­i­cal teenag­er. With sup­port from his track team, he con­nect­ed with a fam­i­ly who began dri­ving him to and from prac­tice. What start­ed as a way to get from point A to point B grew into some­thing deep­er: a rela­tion­ship that would become life chang­ing and life­long. One year lat­er, the fam­i­ly invit­ed Abdal­lah to live with them. The move was a turn­ing point for Abdal­lah. His fos­ter fam­i­ly gave him not only a home but more chances to engage in healthy activ­i­ties, receive guid­ance and build last­ing rela­tion­ships. Abdallah’s sto­ry reflects a broad­er goal of child wel­fare lead­ers in South Car­oli­na: help­ing more young peo­ple in fos­ter care grow up in fam­i­lies. This dif­fer­ence — as both research and youth make clear — cre­ates more oppor­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple to thrive.

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has sup­port­ed South Carolina’s work to reduce group care place­ments, pre­vent unnec­es­sary teen entries into fos­ter care and expand fam­i­ly-based care, includ­ing kin­ship care. Since 2019, South Car­oli­na has reduced group care place­ments by 52%, free­ing up more than $11 mil­lion to rein­vest in sys­tem improve­ments, such as fam­i­ly-based ser­vices. In 2025, among teens in fos­ter care statewide, just 13% were in group care while 28% were with kin. 

Abdal­lah has joined oth­er young lead­ers in part­ner­ing with the South Car­oli­na Depart­ment of Social Ser­vices (SCDSS) and com­mu­ni­ty-based advo­cates to improve poli­cies, prac­tices and pro­grams for the state’s chil­dren and fam­i­lies. He also helped cofound Youth Engage­ment Advo­cates, or YEA!, an SCDSS advi­so­ry group that ele­vates young people’s ideas and expe­ri­ences. Today, in addi­tion to work­ing as an oper­a­tions asso­ciate at Child Wel­fare Wonk, Abdal­lah is a TEDx speak­er and the founder and CEO of Fos­ter The Bear Foun­da­tion, a non­prof­it that pro­vides edu­ca­tion­al schol­ar­ships and com­fort­ing bears to fos­ter kids while also rais­ing aware­ness through its mas­cot, Foster. 

Abdallah’s advo­ca­cy is shaped by his own life lessons. He rec­og­nizes that young peo­ple in fos­ter care need access to the same for­ma­tive expe­ri­ences as their peers out­side of fos­ter care. These mile­stones — like play­ing sports, earn­ing a driver’s license or going to col­lege — mat­ter. In this inter­view, Abdal­lah dis­cuss­es the gen­e­sis and goals of his Fos­ter The Bear Foun­da­tion as well as some com­mon hur­dles fac­ing young peo­ple in care. 

Q. When you went from liv­ing in group care to liv­ing with a fos­ter fam­i­ly, what changed that made it a turn­ing point for you?

Abdal­lah: What I want­ed most was to feel like oth­er teenagers. While I was liv­ing in a boys’ home, I would see my peers get­ting picked up by their par­ents, hav­ing sleep­overs, bring­ing lunch from home, and join­ing sports, band or oth­er after-school activ­i­ties. I had food, clothes, sta­bil­i­ty and rela­tion­ships with staff and oth­er young peo­ple, but there were rules, approval process­es and trans­porta­tion bar­ri­ers that made every­day teenage expe­ri­ences harder. 

Mov­ing in with a fos­ter fam­i­ly changed every­thing. I had a reg­u­lar home address to give peo­ple. I didn’t have to hide where I lived or explain my sit­u­a­tion all the time. Friends could drop me off and pick me up, and I could spend the night at a friend’s house, both of which I wasn’t allowed to do liv­ing in a boys’ home. There was a lev­el of ease, pro­tec­tion and belong­ing that came with liv­ing in a fam­i­ly. I could par­tic­i­pate more ful­ly in school, I became less guard­ed and more open in my friend­ships, and I was more con­fi­dent being myself.

Q. After high school, what expe­ri­ences helped you find your voice and begin think­ing about how you could sup­port oth­er young peo­ple in fos­ter care?

Abdal­lah: Col­lege was a big step for me. I grad­u­at­ed from Clem­son Uni­ver­si­ty in 2024 with a bachelor’s in busi­ness mar­ket­ing, and my time in col­lege gave me the abil­i­ty to real­ly learn about myself. It’s where I met many of the men­tors I have today. 

I joined a pro­gram called the Spiro Insti­tute my junior year of col­lege. It taught me how to build a busi­ness plan, write a mis­sion state­ment, sell a vision and speak pub­licly. I start­ed think­ing about what kind of busi­ness I could build. My first ques­tion was: How do we get more peo­ple to do some­thing for young peo­ple in fos­ter care? I did a cam­puswide sur­vey and found that many peo­ple didn’t know blue is the col­or for fos­ter care aware­ness, which led me to cre­ate Fos­ter, the blue stuffed bear and mas­cot for what became Fos­ter The Bear Foundation.

Q. Through Fos­ter The Bear Foun­da­tion, peo­ple can pur­chase a blue stuffed bear for them­selves or to be deliv­ered to a child in fos­ter care. Why stuffed bears, and what do they represent?

Abdal­lah: I have heard so many sto­ries from oth­ers in fos­ter care who lost stuffed ani­mals, clothes or oth­er belong­ings dur­ing place­ment changes. A lot of kids com­ing into care get used items. A brand-new bear can say: ​“Some­one cares about you. This was bought for you.” I tru­ly believe that, for a child in care, that can help instill a sense of nor­mal­cy and com­fort at some­place new. Also, I hon­est­ly want­ed to play into the cute­ness. A stuffed bear is a cute and fluffy way to invite peo­ple into a seri­ous con­ver­sa­tion and give them some­thing they can do to show sup­port while also help­ing raise aware­ness for young peo­ple of all ages in the system.

Q. How does Fos­ter The Bear Foun­da­tion use the pro­ceeds from bear pur­chas­es and donations?

Abdal­lah: Fos­ter The Bear is also about sup­port­ing teens and young adults as they pre­pare for adult­hood. Pro­ceeds from bear pur­chas­es and dona­tions help fund schol­ar­ships and men­tor­ship for young peo­ple tran­si­tion­ing out of fos­ter care. The pro­ceeds from the bears will allow us to give youth up to $5,000 per year for up to four years for col­lege, tech­ni­cal or voca­tion­al pro­grams. But the goal is big­ger than finan­cial support. 

My hope is to give young peo­ple the same feel­ing of sup­port and pos­si­bil­i­ty that helped me. Not nec­es­sar­i­ly the same path, if col­lege is not where they want to go, but the same chance to grow, build skills and step into their future. Col­lege changed my life, and I believe every young per­son in fos­ter care should have the same access to those kinds of oppor­tu­ni­ties and expe­ri­ences as teens who aren’t in care. When young peo­ple win, we all win.

Q. Why was it impor­tant to you that Fos­ter The Bear Foun­da­tion sup­port not only younger chil­dren but also teens and young adults in fos­ter care?

Abdal­lah: When I entered fos­ter care, I was 16. I’ve seen first­hand how teens in fos­ter care are over­looked. When peo­ple won­der what they can do to sup­port chil­dren in fos­ter care, they are often more drawn to help­ing younger chil­dren, while teens can be seen as too dif­fi­cult or too old to need the same kind of care. The bears are a way to get peo­ple in the door. They help younger chil­dren feel seen and val­ued while also cre­at­ing a path to make that same invest­ment in teens and young adults.