He / Him
Los Angeles, CA
Alexander Ballantyne is a 10-year, and now emancipated, foster care alumni from Los Angeles. Alexander got into youth advocacy and public speaking at the age of 16 when he was invited to speak at the 2016 California Foster Youth Educational Summit in Sacramento, California.
After having been homeless at 18 and in transitional housing Alexander decided to go back to college at 22 years old. Alex currently studies Business Administration with a focus on Management and Non-Profit Development. He hopes to transfer and complete his Bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, and go on to get his Juris Doctorate so he can work on public policy,
Since aging out of foster care at 22, Alex spends a lot of his time with his biological family. Alex is also the main on-screen film participant for the documentary Possible Selves which is now featured on PBS. He uses the film and his lived experience to help bring change in his local community through advocacy and consulting.
Motivated by other youth who couldn’t share their stories or took other paths in life, he decided he should focus on advocacy full-time. Alongside working with Foster Club, Alex serves on two non-profit boards of directors that focus on helping transition-aged youth get to college and thrive once emancipated from the system. Alexander hopes to learn about foster youth’s experiences outside of California so that he can branch out and take his advocacy to a national level.
