Ka’lee Mathews on Youth Leadership, Healing, and Building Safe Community | Freedom Charter Podcast

In Episode 15 of the Freedom Charter Podcast, YWFC President Jessica Nowlan sits down with Ka’lee Mathews for a full conversation about youth leadership, healing, mental health, foster care, system involvement, and what it means to build safe community. Ka’lee is 21 years old and a Liberation Front Fellow at Young Women’s Freedom Center. She shares her experience as a former foster youth, someone impacted by the juvenile justice system, and the oldest of seven — a role that has often required her to lead, care for others, and carry more than most young people should have to carry. In this episode, Ka’lee talks about how she first came to YWFC through Freedom Circle, why safe spaces for girls and gender-expansive young people matter, and how being around other young people with goals helped her feel inspired and supported. She also shares the story behind Black Girls in Charge, a program she created to support mental health, self-care, advocacy, and healing for young girls. This conversation is about stability, grief, sisterhood, domestic violence, foster care, self-forgiveness, caring for family, and why adults and systems must pay attention to young people before they are forced to survive on their own. Listen to Ka’lee’s story and learn more about the Freedom Charter Podcast from Young Women’s Freedom Center. #FreedomCharterPodcast #YoungWomensFreedomCenter #FreedomCharter #YWFC #YouthLeadership #HealingJustice #FosterYouth #SystemImpactedYouth #MentalHealth #Sisterhood #CommunityCare