Guy Bryant is a single father. A single father of more than 50. Fifty foster kids. Over the past 12 years, Bryant has opened his Brooklyn apartment up to more than 50 foster kids in need.
“For decades, Bryant, 61, worked with teens aging out of New York’s child welfare system. His job was to find services that would make the transition to living on their own easier. But he felt that what he could accomplish at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services office wasn’t enough. So in 2007, he decided to become a foster parent,” NPR reported.
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“You know, every time I turned around there was a kid who needed a place to stay,” he told NPR. “I felt like, it’s so simple. If you have the space in your home and heart, you just do it. You don’t really think about it.”
As a community coordinator at New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services for 32 years, where he provided services for young adults who have aged out of the foster care system.
Bryant grew up in Brooklyn in a community-minded family.
“There’s definitely a connection. My family was always willing to help other people. Especially one of my aunts. She was on a community board. So if there was a youth in trouble, she would always try to help him,” Bryant said.
Bryant became a foster parent when in 2007 one of his cases at worked asked him: “Will you be my father? Will you take me?”
“But he didn’t stop there. Bryant also decided to foster the young man’s friend, as well as the friend’s brother. Before Bryant knew it, he had nine young men in his home and rented the floor above his apartment to have additional space,” the Huffington Post reported.
Bryant did have some worries about being a single dad.
“Some of my fears were this: People say, ‘Why is this man doing this?’ People always think you have ulterior motives, not understanding who I am,” he said.
He became a foster parent through the New York agency Rising Ground, which has supported children in need since 1831, first as an orphanage and then as a family foster care program under contract with NYC.
“The agency works with birth parents, connecting them to resources such as mental health offerings, drug rehabilitation, housing, and job support, with the ultimate goal of reunifying families,” HuffPo reported.
