Nearly a decade after her 3-year-old son died from injuries a hospital said were inconsistent with a simple fall, an Essex mother has filed the paperwork to launch a nonprofit meant to catch families before tragedy strikes. Adrianne Blake officially incorporated Cameron's Haven, Inc. in Maryland on August 6, obtaining an Employer Identification Number and launching a website while she prepares to apply for federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
Blake's son, Cameron Anthony Blake, died in January 2017 after police found him unresponsive at an apartment in Essex, according to WMAR-2 News. Cameron's father, who had full custody of the boy at the time, was arrested in September 2017 in connection with Cameron's death. Court charging documents cited that month revealed that a caregiver had warned the father months earlier to stop throwing his son around like a toy, and that the father had responded that a belt leaves marks because the child was light-skinned, according to CBS Baltimore.
Baltimore County police charged Delonte Deshawn Mack, then 27, with first-degree child abuse resulting in death, first-degree child abuse resulting in severe physical injury, second-degree child abuse by a custodian, and second-degree assault, per the same station's report. Emergency responders had first been called to the Glenwood Road apartment on January 19, 2017, after caregivers said Cameron had fallen on a wet floor, but pediatric ICU staff at The Johns Hopkins Hospital told police his injuries were inconsistent with that account. Cameron died at the hospital five days later, on January 24, 2017, and medical examiners ultimately ruled his death a homicide caused by multiple injuries.
A Shared Foster Care Past Shapes the Mission
Blake told WMAR-2 News that she and Cameron's father had both grown up in Maryland's foster care system, meeting as teenagers in an independent living program before they aged out. According to her organization's website, Blake entered foster care at age 12 following a sexual assault and remained in the system until aging out at 21. She has said that foster children and people carrying trauma usually lack a support village, and that more resources might have kept Cameron alive.
Blake said Cameron deserved a future, and that she wants other families to have the future he deserved with their children, per WMAR-2 News. Cameron's Haven describes itself as a community-based support system intended to help people facing instability and trauma, offering housing and resources that go beyond immediate need. The organization is currently raising money through a GoFundMe page to build its capacity.
Communal Housing Model Planned for Phase One
Organizational filings describe Phase 1 of Cameron's Haven as a Family Stabilization Housing Program that will use a communal housing model, pairing private family quarters with shared spaces and trauma-informed support, according to the group's website. The nonprofit says it will support foster youth and families who have experienced trauma, and that it intends to serve as a proverbial parent to adults who never had one growing up. Cameron's Haven is planning a public launch on January 24, 2027, the tenth anniversary of Cameron's death.
Why Maryland's Foster Youth Face Steep Odds
The stakes behind Blake's effort are laid out starkly in state data. A landscape analysis cited by the Office of Governor Wes Moore found that in 2021, 64% of emerging adults in Maryland's foster care system aged out without a permanent family connection, compared to 36% nationwide. The Maryland Department of Human Services runs a “Ready by 21” initiative meant to help youth nearing 21 with education, employment, health, housing, and financial literacy as they prepare to leave state care.
National research compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation estimates that roughly 15,000 to 18,500 youth age out of foster care across the country each year, and that up to a third experience homelessness within two years of leaving the system. Extended foster care services through age 21 have been shown to reduce post-care homelessness and incarceration, per that research. Locally, advocates at CASA of Baltimore County report that Maryland foster youth age out of care at 21 and go on to earn, on average, less than half of what their peers earn by age 26.
Blake's nonprofit remains in its early stages, with the 501(c)(3) application still pending and no confirmed site yet named for the planned communal housing program. How Cameron's Haven will coordinate with local housing authorities and child welfare agencies as it moves toward its 2027 launch is not yet clear, but Blake has framed the effort as an attempt to give other families the village she and Cameron's father never had.
