Articles & press

FHL is proud to feature orthodontic partners across the state who help us equip foster youth to embrace their future. Teamwork: That's what the hype is all about!

FHL ensures that foster youth have access to high quality care through our network of skilled orthodontists. Healthy, straight smiles improve self esteem.

For six years, Fostering Hope Louisiana and our partnering orthodontists have been providing foster youth with the smile of their dreams. Smile big. Dream big.

With the help of our corporate partner, Chase Bank, foster youth learn valuable skills like saving, smart spending, and money management from the financial experts.

It's important that foster youth understand how to protect the investment made in them, so they are taught financial basics to learn money management and planning.

Providing braces for foster youth is a simple yet life changing way to bring normalcy to a young life overwhelmed by chaos and trauma. Braces give confidence.

Orthodontic care is essential health care for children in foster care because it can correct jaw issues, relieve pain, boost self esteem and improve mental health.

With the help of our orthodontic partners statewide, youth in foster care receive transformative care that creates hope for the future to set them up for success.

FHL is a nonprofit organization that puts orthodontic braces on children in foster care with the goal of improving their self esteem to offer hope for their future.

Fostering Hope Louisiana Partners with Louisiana First News

“Even while in the orthodontist’s chair and before anything happens, there is anticipation and excitement in the young people’s eyes. They beam as the brackets are placed on their teeth. Finally, when the process is complete, the youth appear to stand taller with a look of concentrated fascination as their tongues scroll across the new appendages.”

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - Non-profit organization, Fostering Hope Louisiana, has selected three children from Monroe to receive free braces. They are in need of donors to pay for each child’s procedure. The cost for each procedure will be $4,950. The founder and executive director of the organization, Leslie Lacy, said their mission is to improve the mental health of foster children by providing free dental care. “It’s much easier to invite a young person to an orthodontic treatment than to a counseling session,” said Lacy. Click here for more - 3 Monroe foster children selected to receive free braces (knoe.com)

GUEST INTERVIEW Leslie Lacy of Fostering Hope Louisiana, who used to represent parents and children in child welfare cases as an attorney, joins us to discuss her organization’s effort to get braces for youth in foster care as part of a broader mental health and life skills strategy. Click here to listen to the podcast - The Imprint“Straightening Out” Foster Youth (imprintnews.org)

Meet 2022 Angel Award honoree, Leslie Lacy, founder of Fostering Hope Louisiana which provides braces for children in foster care, oral health education, life skills training and access to quality mental health treatment. Leslie saw this need while representing children in the foster care system and noticed a gap in Medicare coverage with orthodontia.

It’s no secret that how you view yourself affects your day-to-day life and professional performance. Leslie Lacy, founder of Fostering Hope Louisiana, a nonprofit organization on a mission to “address the oral and mental health needs of youth in foster care thereby cultivating their potential and equipping them to successfully embrace their future”. Leslie started out as a graduate of LSU’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where she represented parents in Child in Need of Care (CINC) cases before serving for 13 years as a Children’s Attorney for the Mental Health Advocacy Service/Child Advocacy Program. After resigning from her position, she devoted herself completely to straightening teeth, improving self-esteem, and educating and empowering youth. Click here for more - Fostering Hope Begins and Ends With a Smile - Baton Rouge Parents (brparents.com)