Amanda Koster shares her experience growing up in foster care and challenges the audience to reach out to those who are aging out of the foster care system. An internationally acclaimed photographer with a passion for finding and sharing stories of real people, human rights, cultural diversity and global equality, Amanda is the founder of SalaamGarage (salaamgarage.com/), a humanitarian media organization that partners with non-profits around the world to create storytelling for social change. Recently, Amanda and her SalaamGarage team have redirected the focus of their work to SalaamGarageLocal (SGL) an all-volunteer media team that focuses on storytelling projects about the injustices in our own, local communities. The first two chapters are in NYC and Seattle. Professional photographers, writers, journalists, and videographers use their storytelling skills to take a hard look at what happens to youth when they age-out of the foster care system and raise awareness about what they find. When she was 13 Mitch Zeman, her church pastor started asking questions about what was going on at home. Once she opened up and shared her story, he swiftly intervened and found her a safe place to live for the rest of high school. She knows first hand how storytelling can transform lives. As a former 'unofficial' foster kid herself, this project really hits home for Amanda. You can follow Amanda on Twitter at @AmandaKoster or find out more about her "Teach One Thing" initiative on Facebook. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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