SHAMc x LOA

Dayna Ashley, widely known as Little Orphan Ashley—2X published author, advocate, speaker and educator—has partnered exclusively with Safety Harbor Art & Music Center to launch her legacy initiative, “Little Orphan Ashley Camp.” This program, designed for foster care youth ages 11–18, began in July 2025, coinciding with the release of her debut children’s biography, Little Orphan Ashley, which reached #1 in New Inspiring Releases.

The camp’s mission is to build self-esteem and confidence through creative expression, often beginning with nothing more than a blank canvas. This approach mirrors Dayna’s own upbringing as a preemie, two-time orphan, NICU and foster care survivor. At just 15 months old, both her parents passed away and she was separated from her sister Jennifer—an early trauma that shaped her life and led to decades of depression.

In 2019, Dayna began therapy to finally unpack and process her unhealed pain. Through her sessions, she was given writing and creative exercises that reignited her long-buried passion for storytelling and art. This transformative journey became the foundation for her Little Orphan Ashley 20-book series, a collection that allows readers to grow up alongside her—from inside her mother’s womb as she battled terminal Ovarian Cancer, through foster care, and beyond. Writing and illustrating the series herself provided a powerful outlet to reframe her childhood in a positive, healing light.

Dayna now uses that same outlet to empower her campers, teaching them that “how you start isn’t how you have to finish.” The response has been overwhelmingly positive—so much so that the initiative will expand this November in honor of National Adoption Awareness Month.

But sustaining the camp is at risk. The defunding of Creative Pinellas threatens to devastate Safety Harbor Art and Music Center where she facilitates her camp program that has already proven to enrich the very community Dayna once belonged to—the foster care system. Research underscores the urgent need:

• Foster youth are 4× more likely to consider or attempt suicide.

• Any CPS involvement increases the odds of suicide by 3×.

• 24% of foster young adults report attempted suicide, while 40% have considered it.

• Among preadolescents (ages 9–11) in foster care, suicidality prevalence is 26%—five times the general rate.

• Of foster youth who died by suicide, 59% had at least one mental health diagnosis.

For youth with such painful experiences, healthy creative outlets are not just helpful—they are life-changing. Dayna has seen firsthand the transformative power of colors, self-expression, and therapeutic creativity. She even published “Chosen R Us: A-Z Affirmation Coloring Workbook” to give youth daily exercises that nurture self-esteem and build confidence through artistic forms.

Dayna’s plea is simple but urgent: continued funding is vital. Without it, a proven program that offers healing, hope, and belonging to vulnerable youth may disappear—at the very moment it is needed most in the community.