🎙️ Episode 52 — “She Believed She Could, So She Did”

Guest: Faith M. Keen | DHHS Intern • FSM Contractor • LEx Policy Advocate • TLE Member • BSW
Candidate • Future MSW
Podcast: Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast — Season 3
Host: Michael D. Davis-Thomas Episode Description:

In this powerful and soul-baring conversation, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas is joined by rising advocate, policy shaper, and lived experience leader Faith M. Keen, for an episode that feels more like a mirror than a mic. Titled “She Believed She Could, So She Did,” this dialogue is a tender, tenacious, and truth-filled journey through the harsh realities of childhood adversity—and the radical self-determination it takes to rise from it.

Faith doesn't just speak her truth—she lives it. From a chaotic upbringing marked by instability, addiction, and displacement, to finding belonging through advocacy, higher education, and a fierce belief in the power of lived experience, Faith’s journey is a living testimony of what resilience looks like when nurtured in community and courage.

Together, Michael and Faith dive into:

The emotional toll of caring for others when no one cared for you
Reframing trauma as purpose without glamorizing the pain
The role of policy advocacy in restoring dignity to foster youth
The nuance of self-care in a space that demands our pain for progress
Navigating healing while still showing up as “the strong one”
The balance between being a voice for the voiceless and being heard yourself

As she shares deeply personal stories—from driving her mother while under the influence to being adopted by extended family who didn’t always understand her worth—Faith unpacks the layers of survival and silence, of grief and grit, that so many foster youth carry but rarely have safe space to process. She and Michael explore how systems often force youth to perform wellness while still bleeding, and how real change must include not just policies—but peace.

Faith’s work with Fostering Success Michigan, Michigan’s Team with Lived Expertise (TLE), and her continued advocacy through public speaking and youth engagement is helping reshape how the state and nation see system-impacted youth—not as broken, but as brilliant. Her upcoming pursuit of an MSW at the University of Michigan is yet another step in becoming the change she needed as a child.

This episode isn’t about triumphalism. It’s about truth. It’s about community. And it’s about choosing healing—even when no one taught you how.

📣 Because believing in yourself isn’t cliché when you’ve survived systems designed to make you forget how.

🔗 Connect with Faith M. Keen
📸 Instagram: @keen.faith.210
📘 Facebook / 🔗 LinkedIn: Faith Keen

🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, and all major streaming platforms.

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" She believed she could, so she did ”