Storytelling as a Lifeline: North Carolina’s Fight for Its Foster Children

GREENSBORO, NC – December 04, 2025 – The Children’s Home Society of North Carolina (CHS) recently collected a host of the marketing industry’s most coveted honors, including multiple platinum MarCom Awards. But behind the gleam of these international accolades lies a stark and sobering reality: a child welfare system in a state of crisis and a desperate race to find loving homes for nearly 11,000 children.

The awards, won against a field of over 6,000 global entries, recognize the organization’s innovative and emotionally resonant storytelling. Yet, this success is not a victory lap. Instead, it’s a calculated and essential strategy in a high-stakes campaign to close a devastating gap. While nearly 11,000 children navigate the uncertainty of foster care in North Carolina, the state has only around 5,600 licensed families to care for them. More than half of these vulnerable children do not have a designated home.

This is not a story about winning awards. It is a story about how strategic, human-centered communication is being wielded as a vital tool to address a systemic failure and rewrite the future for thousands of children.

The Anatomy of an Award-Winning Strategy

CHS’s recognition was not for a single ad or brochure, but for a comprehensive, multi-platform narrative ecosystem. The platinum awards celebrated a web reality series titled Meredith & Sione, a series of commercials and a broader advertising campaign under the banner Real Families, Real Impact, and the organization’s flagship publication, Carolina Children Magazine. Further honors included a gold award for a history book and honorable mentions for a podcast, In Real Life: Foster Care Unfiltered, and a complete website redesign.

This suite of projects demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of modern communication. CHS has moved beyond traditional non-profit appeals, instead creating immersive content designed to meet audiences where they are. The web reality series provides an intimate, long-form look into the lives of a foster family, building empathy and demystifying the process in a format native to digital audiences. The podcast offers raw, unfiltered conversations, creating a space for authentic dialogue that builds trust. These are not just advertisements; they are acts of identity creation, giving a face and a voice to the abstract concept of “foster care.”

“Every project reflects the real stories and lived experiences of the children and families we serve,” said Becky Alley, Chief Marketing Officer at CHS, in the organization’s announcement. “The marketing team truly lived our mission and created impactful pieces that are helping more children find permanent, safe, and loving homes.”

This approach signals a crucial shift. Rather than leading with statistics of despair, CHS leads with stories of hope, resilience, and connection. By centering the narratives of real families, the organization transforms the viewer or listener from a passive observer into an engaged witness, making the call to action—to learn more, to support, to consider fostering—deeply personal.

A Crisis Beyond the Numbers

The urgency driving this innovative strategy cannot be overstated. Numerous reports and even a recent federal lawsuit describe North Carolina’s child welfare system as “failing its children.” The number of youth in care has steadily climbed over the past decade, a trend that runs counter to national declines. This surge is fueled by complex societal issues, including poverty and the opioid crisis, which place immense strain on families.

The system itself is fraught with structural challenges. North Carolina operates a county-administered, state-supervised model, which has resulted in what experts call “inherent inequities” in services and outcomes across the state. Compounding this is a severe lack of state funding, placing it among the least state-funded child welfare systems in the nation. The burden falls heavily on county Departments of Social Services (DSS), which face their own workforce shortages and resource limitations.

The human cost of this systemic strain is immense. With a chronic shortage of licensed foster homes, children are institutionalized at twice the national average. In the most acute cases, children in DSS custody have spent nights sleeping in government offices or emergency rooms because no placement was available. This instability, often involving children bouncing between temporary placements, layers trauma upon trauma, hindering their chances of finding the permanence and stability every child deserves.

It is within this harrowing context that CHS’s work becomes more than just “marketing.” It is an intervention.

Narrative as a Tool for Trust and Action

In a system where trust has eroded and the scale of the problem feels overwhelming, storytelling serves a unique function. It re-humanizes an issue often buried in bureaucratic language and grim statistics. CHS’s award-winning campaigns are a masterclass in the ethical and effective use of narrative for social change. They move beyond the exploitative “sad story” trope and instead focus on agency, connection, and the transformative power of a loving family.

By showcasing Real Families, Real Impact, the organization doesn't just ask for help; it demonstrates what impact looks like. It provides a tangible vision of success, showing potential foster parents not what they are saving a child from, but what they are helping a child grow into. This subtle but powerful re-framing is critical in motivating individuals to undertake the challenging but profoundly rewarding journey of becoming a foster parent.

The podcast, Foster Care Unfiltered, further builds trust by refusing to shy away from the difficulties. Authenticity is paramount. By openly discussing the challenges alongside the joys, CHS respects its audience and treats prospective parents as capable, compassionate adults ready for an honest conversation. This approach is essential for recruiting families who are truly prepared for the realities of fostering children who have experienced trauma.

Ultimately, these narratives serve to construct a new identity for foster care in the public consciousness—one not defined solely by crisis, but by community, resilience, and the radical belief that every child is worthy of a family. The awards validate that this message is not only being heard but is also being recognized for its creative and strategic excellence. For an organization like CHS, this external validation is a powerful asset, bolstering its credibility and amplifying its voice in a crowded media landscape. In the fight for North Carolina's children, the most powerful tool may not be a policy brief, but a well-told story that gives a face, a voice, and a future to a name on a list.