Carlyne Graham is using her platform to help children as her husband returns to the Eagles

PHILADELPHIA — Brandon Graham isn’t the only member of his household who decided to follow his heart while transitioning to the next phase of his life.

Carlyne, his wife of more than 10 years, is doing the same. Unlike Brandon, who came out of retirement to return to the Eagles last week, she isn’t strapping on the pads and returning to the football field, though.

She is tapping into her roots by giving back to a cause that resonates with her personal journey. In July, Carlyne joined the board of directors for CASA Youth Advocates, the Delaware and Chester County nonprofit that trains volunteers to advocate for children in the child welfare system.

“It’s kind of like a full-circle moment,” Carlyne said.

Carlyne can relate to the children she is helping. She was an adoptee who experienced foster care while growing up in Detroit. As she was pursuing a master’s degree in social work and a master of jurisprudence with a concentration in child and family law at Loyola University Chicago roughly 20 years ago, Carlyne recalled learning about CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates, in one of her law classes.

At the time, she was figuring life out on her own without resources or family support. She wondered if her life would have played out differently if she had the support of a steady advocate in her adolescence.

“Just the connection, the companionship,” Carlyne said. “Just the proper information for me to be able to excel in the next phase in my life. I did not have a lot of information, so it was just along the lines of me figuring it out on my own.

“I went down the path of joining the military because that was the only thing that I knew that could help me pay for college. And just not having anyone. Feeling alone, feeling lonely, but just being in survivor mode.”

Carlyne wanted to get involved with CASA back then, but she couldn’t dedicate the time to see a case through. That typically lasts at least 18 months. She eventually settled down with Brandon and their two children in Philadelphia and said she was “all-in on being a full-time mom, a full-time wife.”

Now, “the stars are aligning” with Carlyne joining the nonprofit nearly two decades after she first learned about it, said Leigh Anne McKelvey, CASA Youth Advocates’ executive director. Carlyne had reached out to the organization earlier this year looking to get involved, as her life had slowed down a bit with Brandon retiring from the NFL and her children growing older and more independent.

“It’s a game-changer, not to be too punny with football,” McKelvey said. “But she’s a game-changer for us. She’s the ideal board member.

“Between her personal experience, which we’re very committed to as an organization, bringing people into leadership and decision-making positions that have lived experience with the issues that the children that we serve have. Going through the foster care system, going through abuse and neglect and trauma. We want to make sure that we as an organization are informed by those voices.”

Carlyne has personal experience and professional expertise in the field. Not only does she have experience as a social worker, but she’s also a licensed psychotherapist and a board member of Maternity Care Coalition, a nonprofit in Pennsylvania and Delaware that works to support child and maternal health.

She also understands that she has a platform to amplify the work CASA does to support children in Delaware and Chester Counties, especially as the nonprofit prepares for its annual gala on Nov. 21. According to McKelvey, CASA is serving about 60% of the children who are eligible for their services.

“We need additional volunteers and we need funding support from our community to be able to continue to grow,” McKelvey said. “So we could not be more excited about Carlyne on board and the prospect of how her involvement can increase our public profile and ultimately help us meet the needs of more kids who could really use our advocacy.”

Carlyne’s life is moving at a different pace now than it was in July when she was voted to CASA Youth Advocates’ board. Last week, Brandon announced his decision to join the Eagles for his 16th season after initially retiring in March.

It was a decision that had been building for months, dating back to the start of the season, when Howie Roseman first reached out to Graham’s agent to gauge his interest in returning to the team. Even though Brandon turned the offer down at the time, Carlyne says she had a feeling his return was imminent.

While Carlyne has been in the process of exploring her own interests, she was ready to support Brandon — her “longest client for 15 years,” she joked — as he returned to football. As a mother, Carlyne believes she is an expert at being nimble and ready to handle the challenges life brings on any given day.

“We need to know how to pivot, how to switch gears, how to fix a knee if it’s bleeding or if there’s a cold. We kind of navigate it because we don’t know what the next day is going to bring, especially with kids,” Carlyne said. “But I think it’s a testament for just our family and just Brandon, being able to show our kids that, ‘Hey, if this is something that you believe in, this is something that you strongly [are] passionate about, you go for it.’ ”

Carlyne is setting that same example, too, her husband said. Not only is she helping support children in the child welfare system, he said, but she’s also sharing her story to remind others like her that they’re not alone.

“Sometimes, you can feel ashamed of what happened to you,” Brandon Graham said. “And it’s like, no. You’ve got a good community of people that’s been through it and going through it and you can help others. And this is her way, I feel, of giving back in a big way.

“And then helping herself, too. Because sometimes it’s not always easy to talk about some of the things that you thought was the worst in your life and it ends up becoming a positive in the end.”