About Us

Our Mission

Unashamed, Inc. fosters emotional health in families that have been involved with incarceration, foster care, and teen pregnancy. By discerning and addressing unhealthy patterns that repeat through generations, Unashamed Inc. helps disadvantaged families transition from surviving to thriving.

Our Vision

Our Vision is to be an organization founded on the support and future success of abused, abandoned, or neglected youth and young adults, ensuring they have an opportunity for a healthy, successful life.

Our Values & Principles: Unashamed’s values are based on our foundation’s integrity and diligence toward excellence.

Stewardship: We act responsibly and caring as a philanthropic steward.

Accountability: We are accountable for achieving quality outcomes for our funders, donors, sponsors, strategic & community partners and beneficiaries.

Diversity: We seek and embrace diversity and multiculturalism at all levels of leadership including the composition of our Board of Directors, staff and volunteers, and will always promote and support diversity in all of our programs, events, services and activities.

Integrity: We operate with the highest degree of integrity, openness and transparency by treating all parties with respect, fairness and honesty in all relationships.

Innovation: We seek continuous improvement and always think creatively outside the box to provide innovative ways to make the greatest impact to the individuals, families and organizations we serve.

Professionalism: We maintain the utmost level of professionalism on all levels and create a culture of respect and honor for both personal & professional development including promoting and supporting the importance of mentoring and how it can motivate, inspire and make a difference for future generations.

Sana Latrease Cotten is the Founder of Unashamed, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization which fosters emotional health in disadvantaged families that have experienced incarceration, foster care, and teen pregnancy. Through various initiatives, Unashamed, Inc. is equipping families with the tools they need to dismantle unhealthy generational patterns, and transition from surviving to thriving.

At the tender age of 4, Sana and her twin brother were removed from the care of their drug-addicted mother and grandmother and put into the foster care system. Despite these early setbacks and emotional traumas in her life, Sana has emerged as a whole woman, unashamed of her past and boldly sharing her story. By the grace of God, Sana has impacted hundreds of women all over the United States by sharing her personal journey of denouncing shame and becoming healed and whole in Christ.

Where It All Began

Founder, Sana Cotten

Sana has a passion for advocacy work and youth within the foster care system. She has worked alongside the Department of Children and Families (DCF) in the state of Connecticut in various roles including as a QPI Champion (Quality Parenting Initiative) and as a speaker and advocate for the Queen Esther Initiative, a faith based, foster care and adoption recruitment and support program designed to increase the number of licensed foster and adoptive families in the state of Connecticut. Sana is also a facilitator and lead for ABCs Post Abortive Support Group, which is a faith-based pregnancy resource center that equips women and men with life-affirming pregnancy, parenting and post-abortive support.

In 2020, Sana published her debut book entitled, “Everyone Will Know It Was God,” a memoir which chronicles her life story of early childhood molestation and sexual abuse, and growing up in the foster care system, to who she is today—a powerful, anointed, healed and whole woman of God.

Sana has been featured in numerous media outlets including Sheen Magazine, Voyage Dallas, the Moments of Joy podcast, Willie Moore Jr.’s Lunch Time Link Up, AOL.com, and CBNs the 700 Club. In 2019, Sana was named a 100 Women of Color by June Archer & Eleven28 Entertainment which recognizes the contributions of people of color in business, education, entrepreneurship, entertainment, government, service and the impact they have made on the lives of people throughout the State of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts communities.

Sana is the wife of Reverend Joshua E. Cotten and the mother of her two greatest gifts, Jamir and Janai. She currently resides in Middletown Connecticut.