The Annie C Courtney Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 non-profit,  was co-founded in 2011 by Deb Kelleher and Sue Plowman as a result of their work together on a community collaborative in northwestern CT. Sue and Deb realized that they shared a passion for assisting families and individuals touched by all aspects of the child welfare system. From this, Annie C’s mission was born.

The mission of the Annie C. Courtney Foundation, Inc. is to support and promote positive, empowering, loving and healthy communities for vulnerable children, youth and families with the goal of preventing the need for foster care; also eliminating barriers that prevent young adults with child welfare histories from succeeding.

Annie was the oldest of 8 siblings. She became a teenage kinship caregiver who single-handedly raised all of her siblings after her parents passed away. She did not marry until each of her siblings were successfully launched into the world. Despite being considered too old to be  “marriageable” in the 1930’s, her vibrant personality, love of life and delightful humor attracted the attention of Albert Courtney, whom she married in 1935. She and Al proudly raised their four daughters in Astoria, Queens, where she lived till she passed away in 1994. Annie believed strongly that after God and faith, raising a healthy, happy family is the most important work anyone can do. Beloved and adored by her thirteen grandchildren for her incredible sense of humor and fun, kindness, protectiveness and unfailingly positive outlook, “Gom” was considered every grandchild’s hero.  She became a great grandmother, before her death, to six great-grandchildren. Annie was a force to be reckoned with despite her diminutive size. She rarely lost an argument! She will forever be missed!