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On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, Jeff sits down with Margie Barilla, founder of the Margie Barilla Foundation, to discuss her bold mission to create stable homes for displaced foster care children across the United States. Margie shares sobering statistics about the foster care system and explains how her organization is developing large-scale residential treatment centers, emergency shelters, and “Hope Towers” for young adults aging out of care....
On this episode of The Jeff Crilley Show, Jeff sits down with Margie Barilla, founder of the Margie Barilla Foundation, to discuss her bold mission to create stable homes for displaced foster care children across the United States. Margie shares sobering statistics about the foster care system and explains how her organization is developing large-scale residential treatment centers, emergency shelters, and “Hope Towers” for young adults aging out of care. From renovating a 298-bed facility in Missouri to launching new projects in Washington, Texas, and beyond, she outlines a wraparound model that includes mental health screenings, case management, and community-based events. Margie also reveals plans for an emergency shelter in Collin County to support teens who are couch surfing while trying to graduate. Driven by faith and a deeply personal connection to the issue, she offers a solution-focused approach aimed at reunification, permanency, and restoring childhood for vulnerable kids.
Jeff Crilley is a former news reporter, who spent more than 25 years in newsrooms across the country. He’s an Emmy Award winning journalist, who decided to make the jump from news in 2008, when he founded his own PR Firm, Real News Public Relations.
Today, the firm has more than 100 clients, and Jeff continues to tell the stories of interesting people he meets along the way.
These are those stories.
Coming up next on The Jeff Crilley Show, you're gonna meet the great Margie Barilla. She is on a mission. She's creating homes for displaced foster care children. Her incredible mission and ministry next. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas Newsroom tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company, and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Well, when I think about foster care in America, I think about a system that is clunky at best. There there are well meaning parents that come into the foster care business and try to handle it, but unfortunately, too many foster care care children get displaced, and there's no place to call home. That's where my next guest comes in. Margie Barilla is in the studio. She's, on a mission to create homes for displaced foster care children. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. This is really exciting. Thank you. Well, let's talk about this problem. So, you know, we hear stories about people who've been in foster care for years, and, like, every other year, they're with a different family. But then there are children who kind of fall between the cracks. Yeah. Well, I mean, we we actually have about a 100,000 kids daily in the system in The United States foster care system. I was very blessed to be able to come across a business partner that said, hey. I had this vision of opening, Hope Towers and that would be for children aging out of the foster care. So I said, you know, why don't we do this on a full wraparound anywhere from five to 17 and then we would actually refer them out to the Hope Tower and that's going be very beneficial because that way they'll have the assistance up to the age of 21. Here we are, started in November '23. We received our first hospital in Fulton, Missouri, and we're about to be completed with the actual renovation. The building was massive. We can actually have up to two ninety eight kids there. Wow. We also just got licensed in Vancouver, Washington with Haven Treatment Center. They can actually take in about 60 kids. So 50% of those beds we can reserve for children in DFPS, DCYF, CPS, and the other 50% will be reserved for children trafficking here in The United States. So all of our finances stay within The United States and adding mental health to it is very And you have a big announcement coming Share on Collin with us what your plans are for Collin County. Well, you're definitely gonna be the first one. We launched our gala and those proceeds are gonna actually be going to a emergency shelter that will be in Collin County. We're gonna announce the location at the gala and what that's gonna do is house children that are currently couch surfing in Collin County. And the reason for them couch surfing is because they wanna graduate. So these are active, adolescents that just need the additional support but do not wanna be a part of the system. So that's where we come in. Let's go ahead and pull up her website. It's barillaconsulting.com is her, like, her for profit. And tell us about this side of your life. You're you're also a coach? Well, I'm not really a coach. I'm just like again another mom to these children that are Yes. This is our real estate acquisition side of things. We do the health care management for these facilities. Another great thing that no one knows just yet, we're about to announce, we just reserved a building in Austin. Wow. And they can cover up to 500 children. Congratulations. So we're excited. We have so much things going on. We also have a dedicated case management organization so the continuity of care continues. Right now, we're able to provide free mental health screenings across The United States. All they have to do is go on the website, complete a mental health screening, and we'll be able to assess and stabilize. Alright, tell us why this is such a passion project for you. Well, I would say the CPS portion of it. It was definitely my best friend that experienced losing her grandbaby while under the care of CPS here in Texas. We can either sit here and point fingers or we can create a solution, and that's exactly what I did. I saw you recently on Good Morning Texas. We're gonna put this up on the screen because you had a five minute segment on Good Morning Texas. It was it was amazing. Thank you. Alright. Tell us more about your foundation. Well, the foundation is more focused in ensuring that kids in the foster care system have, consistent events for opportunity to be social. So that way they can relate. We have four amazing national events going on, the next couple months. We're gonna do a birthday celebration at the Yogi Parks. Wow. Most children in the foster care system, it takes anywhere from seven to 15 homes before their permanent place. So they miss that opportunity to even know what a birthday is. They don't even know how to blow out their candle. Then we also have Topgolf. We're gonna do that for their holiday celebration, just be able to allow a bunch of instructors from Topgolf to teach Then them how to we also have chicken and pickle. So we're doing a lot of things for the children. One thing about us, we're fully transparent. Mhmm. We have events going on all year long for children displaced or even just those that wanna participate and support the organization. We're hoping that reunification and permanent placement is our statement, and we're driven to ensure the kids have that. Wow. Well, you're quite the entrepreneur because you have so many different things going on at the same time. What drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning? Honestly, it's I would say it's it's God. Right? First step. Because my first breath. The second part is when a child is being sexually abused or, physically abused, do they have an opportunity to say, no. Don't abuse me. No, I don't wanna be raped? No, I don't wanna be mistouched? Please don't hit me today because you're feeling some type of way? So if we can create a gate around The United States, they have numerous opportunities to be able to get to a safety net. Mhmm. If it's through the events, is is it through the case management, is it through the centers, they will have more options. And the more that we are consistent in branding what we're doing, we're changing the narrative of the success rate for foster care children, especially those that are displaced. Wow. Well, I'm so glad, god put a number in your heart and you dedicated your life to this amazing servant work. We have about a minute left, so why don't you look into the camera on the left and talk to the person who needs to come alongside and support you? Absolutely. If you definitely have a passion for children that are in the foster care system and you wanna be able to participate and make an impact, make a difference, you wanna come to our gala. That's where you're gonna be able to have all your questions answered, really have an opportunity to meet with us one on one. You could be an entrepreneur that is opening up various organizations, but you don't know where to get started. How about let's get to the ethics part and being a joint commissioned accredited facility? All of our resources are vetted to ensure that our kids are safe as we refer out or even to have providers on our vendor list. So give us a call or you can go on to our website and that you can reach @www. That's gonna be barillaconsulting.com or you can go onto margiebarillafoundation.org. And we have a lot to share. This is a long term purpose and mission. Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your heart and your wisdom and your faith with us. We're gonna end with the website again, margiebarillafoundation.org. The great Margie Barilla. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you. You bet. Appreciate it. That's it for now. Alright. See you next time. Thank you.