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Welcome to The Foster Friendly Podcast. We’re bringing foster care closer to home by sharing stories from the front lines. We're talking with former foster youth, foster parents and others who are finding unique and powerful ways to dramatically improve the experiences and outcomes for kids in foster care.
The Foster Friendly podcast is brought to you by America’s Kids Belong, a nonprofit that helps kids in foster care find belonging in both family and community.
Brian (00:03.624)
All right, welcome to the Foster Friendly podcast. I'm your host, Brian Mavis, and I have two unique special guests with me today. They're the colleagues that I work with the most. It's Nanette and Phil. And Nanette and Phil, don't you each just introduce yourselves a bit so our audience knows who you are.
Phil (00:29.708)
And then you go first.
Brian (00:29.78)
Nanette, you go first.
Nanette (00:31.448)
Okay. I'm Nenette Kirsch. I lead communications and marketing for America's Kids Belong and I've been here for about three years. I'm also a mom to four kids, two of whom are adopted and a grandmother one.
Brian (00:34.058)
before swine.
Brian (00:49.041)
yes. Well, that guy.
Nanette (00:51.576)
I'll get a rest plug in.
Phil (00:52.974)
Good old Rush. Good guy. Yeah. My name is Phil. I'm executive director of operations here for AKB. I've been here a couple of years. yeah, family of four as well, one adopted. Just, I don't know. In a nutshell, that's me. There's lots of fun journeys that the old parenting journey takes, but at the end of the day, that's what I give.
Brian (00:55.858)
Good job, Phil.
Brian (01:20.01)
That was a good description of the nut in the nutshell. All right. Okay. So this podcast, usually we have guests from outside the organization and where we explore, stories and strategies and solutions about how to make a huge impact and outcomes on kids and foster care. But today we're going to, do a little bit of a deep dive and, and, and I don't know if deep dive is the right word, but
Phil (01:23.115)
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Brian (01:48.2)
we are trying to clearly explain who AKB is, what we do, why we do it, and how we do it. And so that's why Phil and Annette are with me today. And one of the clearest ways we have discovered in explaining who we are, because AKB does a lot, and it's not an easy thing to explain. But one of the clearest ways we've done it is with the numbers one, two, three.
We talk about having one mission, solving two problems with three solutions. And then when I feel more descriptive and Jesse Jackson-ish, I like to call it one meaningful mission with two profound problems and three signature solutions. And so we're going to start with our one mission. And
Our mission can be described in a sentence that we exist to dramatically improve the experiences and outcomes of kids and families in foster care. But the simplest way we can do it is with one word. And Annette, I'm gonna hand that over to you. What is that one word and unpack why this one word is so important.
Nanette (03:13.766)
Yeah, the word is family. And it's part of what I think motivates and ties us all to this mission so closely is that we're all here because we firmly believe that the greatest way to impact the life of a child in foster care is the stability of a family, whether that's working toward reunification with a bio family, making sure that a child has temporary support through a safe and supportive foster family.
or in some cases helping them get matched with an adoptive family when reunification is no longer a problem. of all the things that you can do to give that child stability, to help them achieve their best outcomes as they grow, we think family is truest and most valuable thing, just like it is for most of us.
Brian (03:59.424)
Yeah, and in fact, really is kind of family explains also the not the key solution in a sense, but the why behind why we, you why we do what we do. And that I that why is another key word. The word is half that there are half as many families that are ready to step up and care for.
the number of kids that are in care. And the other half is that half families quit when they do step up within the first year. that decline continues by half about each year. that by the time you're about six years out, if you've recruited 100 families six years later, only about five are left. And so again, that is huge. The other thing about family that is so important
is this idea that family is upstream to social solutions. so, for example, kids in foster care who age out disconnected from family are far higher at risk of other social wounds like homelessness and trafficking and addiction and
Nanette (05:14.906)
you
Brian (05:28.216)
suicidality and poverty, all those kinds of things. And but if they have a family that they're intact with, then their outcomes are far better. So thank goodness for organizations and ministries that solve or serve those social issues. But wouldn't it be better if kids had a family instead so that they wouldn't need those programs?
further down the road. again, so family is key and it's everything we do is to move towards serving and supporting these families. So that's number one. Our one mission is family. number two is the two problems. And those problems are recruitment of families and retention of families.
I'm going to set this up by a little bit of a story and then we'll unpack those a little bit more. But the really kind of the foundation story, the origin story and my own conversion story to this issue happened in 2007. And I was on staff at a church and I had a woman call me from child welfare in the county that I was working in here in Colorado.
And she asked to meet with me and I said to talk about child welfare. a few, so I said, sure. And so a few days later, this woman named Cindy came, I met her in the lobby of my church. The first thing she said to me was, thank you for meeting with me. I've been trying to meet with a pastor or a church for three years. You're the first to say yes. So I apologize that that had been her experience. And again, I want to make clear that it's not because I had it together better than everybody else, but my wife.
was really helping me pay attention to this. And we were foster parents already. But anyway, she comes back to my office and she says this to me. She says, Brian, I just came here to tell you one thing. She said in the 26 year history of child welfare, and that was back in 2007, in the 26 year history of child welfare, there has never been one day, not a single day in 26 years where kids
Nanette (07:30.565)
you
Brian (07:55.212)
have not been waiting for families to take care of them. And she said, I have a challenge for you. Help me recruit so many families that they're on the waiting list and not the kids. And so by this challenge, I accepted this challenge and pulled in the church. The church accepted the challenge and pulled in my buddies who helped lead other churches. And a year later,
got a letter from Boulder County, county I worked in, saying it was a thank you letter that saying that we had recruited enough families. We had increased recruitment by 91%. And for the first time they had more than enough families. And so it was a recruitment success. And again, we had about half as many families as we needed. We ended up fulfilling that and we celebrated it. But a couple years later,
Nanette (08:38.32)
Thanks.
Brian (08:52.384)
the problem came back and we discovered we had not just a recruitment problem, but a retention problem. Families were quitting. And so that really framed up the two persistent, profound problems that we face and that we are trying to solve. So Phil or Nanette and either one of you, feel free to now take that recruitment and
retention problem and just share some of your own thoughts about that problem.
Nanette (09:28.522)
you
Phil (09:31.473)
Yeah, I think just, you even as you were sharing that story and I've heard you share that story before. So obviously I kind of knew both kind of the massive win and then also the, you know, the, challenge of, retaining over time. And for me, that's probably one of the big, not only just things that stand out in the work that we do, but particularly the why we do it is there's a long game to this and there's some massive, wins in life. mean, there's an incredible.
opportunity in terms of when you are a foster parent and when you are helping kids in need and that. it is a long game that takes a huge effort on a lot of people's parts to keep people in this. And I love the phrase you use, fostering longer and stronger. And so I think, again, that story just highlights that in such a significant way. I think, again, it just speaks to the why this matters so much is because it's a long game that we're in. And we've got to build an approach in a
system here that allows us to respond to both the immediate need as well as the long-term success of what we do.
Brian (10:33.9)
Great. Hey Nanette, tell me, I mean, from your point of view, like why, why is there a recruitment problem?
Nanette (10:44.479)
I think it's interesting as we've worked on recruiting and engaging with people who are considering it. A couple of things came to mind when I was listening to Phil. I think one is if it's an issue you care about, it's one of the only issues that you bring into your home, right? You usually go out and serve and do a thing for someone who's homeless or someone who needs food. You're going out. In this case, you're being asked to invite someone into your home. And that's a big ask.
I think the three questions we hear people ask the most often when they feel called to it, they're open to it is, what does it take? There's so many things people worry about, like, can I have a pet? Do I have to have a dedicated room? Like, what are the actual physical requirements for me to say yes to that? What about my kids? A lot of people have biological children. They have some legitimate and some not fair assessments of what having a child from the foster care system might look like for their children.
And so they need to break that down and understand those practical considerations as well as just the effect of having another kid in the household, right? That families are busy and that's another set of hands. And then the busyness factor is a thing. I work, I've already got three kids. How can I balance all that? Knowing that I've got visitations and appointments and things that go along with that. So part of what we try to do when we engage with people who are open to it is start to demystify those and break them down.
I think the most persuasive one is around families and in the time that we've interacted with current foster families, talking to people who are prospective, the biological kids are the most compelling reason for a yes. That it's the kids who are going back to the parents saying, we do this again? It's the kids whose hearts grow, who grow in compassion and who really have a significant impact on the lives of the children that they have an opportunity to be siblings with for a period of time.
Brian (12:37.948)
man, that is so good. First of all, Nanette, you said, like so many social issues, if you care about that issue, the solution is usually almost exclusively outside your home. And this solution comes to your home. Man, that is a clear distinction of why recruiting can be tough. man.
And about the kids, your own kids, that's my story too. Julie and I, we would foster our child. after that child was either moved, our goal was always reunification. somehow, luckily, of the eight kids that we fostered, and most of them were fairly long foster placements, they were reunified with some family member. And Julie and I would say, we need a break.
And it was our girls who we started, who were in elementary school that would always be the first before Julie and I would have saying, can we stop taking a break? Can we start again? So it's amazing. You know, what comes to mind too, under the recruitment issue, and this was kind of this conviction that we had back when we started recruiting in Boulder County was,
One was that this conviction was that it's not that people don't care. They're just unaware. They don't know. They don't know that they've heard of foster care, but they don't know that there's a need. If there is a need, they imagine it's in some other city. And it's like, no, probably. I mean, there's a likelihood, a 99 % chance that in your town, there is a need for more families. So that was conviction number one.
Nanette (14:15.834)
Okay.
Nanette (14:27.813)
you
Nanette (14:31.843)
Mm-hmm.
Brian (14:36.768)
that people would care they just didn't know. And the second conviction was that the best spokespeople, the best advocates for these kids were the kids themselves. But the kids had been kind of hidden and all we knew were stats and numbers and facts and we didn't know stories and names and faces.
Nanette (14:52.347)
Thank you.
Brian (15:06.836)
And so to get to the place where we can like, Hey, can we actually show these kids? And, and again, we'll get that, get into the solutions, but it was this just conviction that, it's, it's, the best spokespeople, the best advocates for these kids might not be a politician, might not be a caseworker, might not be a pastor. And so, what if we,
Nanette (15:34.826)
you
Brian (15:38.769)
pulled away the veil of numbers and showed who these kids were. Am I missing anything, Phil, do you think besides what Nanette and I have said about unawareness and having it shrouded in numbers and having the solution be your own home? Anything else come to mind when it comes to recruitment?
Nanette (15:44.314)
for the human faith.
Phil (16:03.936)
Not really. I think what I'm hearing us articulate, I think what you've captured there as well is just there's there's a grittiness to this. And I think a lot of what we do kind of tries to intersect in that, that gritty way, because it is, like you said, sort of get past the numbers and here's one individual story, get past the, the environment or try to work on the environment to get to the one family that needs this. And so it's kind of an interesting answer to recruitment and retention, but the, the, the, things that we're recognizing is there are,
There's a grit, talk about elbow grease, we talk about connective tissue. We have these different metaphors we use in our organization to kind of keep us to the tangibility of recruitment and retention. I just hear that in what we're talking about here as well, in trying to see those are just important things to not lose sight of as we move forward.
Brian (16:55.84)
No, that's a great summary. And it actually reminds me of another word you've used among the three of us at times is, and it can be a buzzword in certain communities, incarnational. The idea that this solution requires closeness. And so you can't just call it in and you have to get into relationships that with child welfare, into relationships with child, within relationships.
Possibly with the child's family and that family is battling some things obviously and so it takes grit for sure Man time and so that's one problem the recruitment I mean just in the first first place and then you get people to say yes and then they quit and so again the the
Nanette (17:35.524)
Mm-hmm.
Brian (17:52.684)
kind of stats behind that is in general that people who step up and open not just their hearts but their homes to these kids to foster within a year, half of them quit. And the next year about another half quit and the next year, other half quit. So again, you go from you 100 families today, you have 50 next year, 25 the year after that, you're down to about 12 and then, know, seven and five. And so,
it whittles down really quick unless there's a solution to that. But before we talk about a solution, let's unpack a little bit more about why families quit. I mean, what's so tough about this? Why is there such a high retention, a high attrition rate?
Brian (18:46.07)
Who wants to take a swing at that first?
Nanette (18:48.602)
Phil's actually done it, so I think you can kick us out.
Phil (18:50.584)
There's kind of probably, again, like I said, there's so many individual stories. It's hard to back it up and say, here's the general themes as to why people quit because I get it. If you're listening to this and wherever you're at in that journey, can be hard to pinpoint the exact reasons of the tension. But I do think, I mean, we talk about this a lot, like support is a massive part of that, right? You feel isolated and alone.
It's a very unique situation. love your idea there of this incarnational thing you're experiencing, but the real reality of that is it's day in, day out type stuff, right? And I think it's almost impossible to conceptualize day in, day out types of struggles. So when people get into it, they realize, I didn't know it was going to go this way. I know it was going to, I thought it was going to have this kind of impact on my life. And now it has this kind of impact on my life.
And without that support structure, people feel really isolated. And I think that's a big reason why retaining foster parents is so tough is because they realize, okay, this may not be exactly what I signed up for. But I do think too, the communities, and communities is an ethereal term, right? But whether that's a tangible community or just the person's community plays such a huge role in that. And so sometimes that
That thing you described there, Brian, of people not being aware, people not knowing, it's this problem that the government's taking care of or our tax dollars go to sort of solve somewhere out there versus like, this is not just the individual foster parent, but the people in their life. You play a role. So you need to be aware, you need to be educated, you need to be trauma-informed. There's all these things that can happen that can make this better across that spectrum.
I think there's a resourcing piece of that. People, they look, they feel isolated and they look around them and they say, nobody else here has any ability to move forward. Just anecdotally, that would be sort of a quick response to that. I'm sure there's a lot of other specific situations, but those are the kind of two that jump in my mind.
Nanette (20:48.314)
Thank you.
Nanette (20:54.612)
you
Brian (21:00.256)
Yeah. Nanette, what do you think?
Nanette (21:03.578)
I thinking about, have a friend who fostered a couple years ago and I think the isolation was a huge part of it that she had two kids, she took on two more kids and there's that stabilization period where they come in and they tend to be sick and you can't go out as easily partly because you have extra kids and partly because you have kids who have suffered a lot of trauma and they're going to be unpredictable and they're, you know, and I think there's a social pressure there like Phil was saying, if you are in a community,
where the community says yes to foster care and the community sees the value and the importance of what you're doing, that's a whole different kind of reception than when you go to church and your children's numbers are the ones being flushed up on the screen to come and get them. Not that that's ever happened to me, I just have heard.
Phil (21:42.616)
I won the church lotto for weeks, weeks. My number came up every time. was great.
Brian (21:51.436)
Yeah, it's definitely an experience where you can feel alone, isolated, overwhelmed that what is expected of you, the lift is too heavy. It's not just the kids. It's what child welfare is saying. Now you got to go to this appointment, occupational therapy, and now they got to get caught up on dental stuff and this and this and this.
Nanette (21:52.236)
Yeah.
Brian (22:18.904)
And it can feel like too much for one family and that one family can also feel misunderstood by their friends and family and neighbors. so eventually just they think, I'm, got to tap out. And so if those are the two and what again, we think are foundational fundamental issues.
Nanette (22:28.89)
Thank you.
Brian (22:48.436)
in this foster care system. If you think of the system as a bucket and the bucket is full of holes, then you've got a problem. And so this is where we came up with three signature solutions that help in profound ways. So again, we think to brag on ourselves, some of the most impactful ways and best practice ways that we can
Nanette (22:57.659)
Okay.
Brian (23:17.974)
come up with in helping with recruitment and retention. the first one, I'll kind of go in order of how they were created. So the first one is what we call the I Belong Project. And so Nanette, I'll hand that over to you and you explain what the I Belong Project is, how and why it works so well.
Nanette (23:42.973)
So I Belong Project is a video storytelling initiative for kids in foster care who are eligible to be adopted. Obviously in the foster care system, the goal is reunification first and foremost to reinstate that family and help that family be healthy, whole and safe. When that can't happen, kids are in foster care for some period of time. And in about 25 % of the cases,
the opportunity to be reunified is no longer available and parental rights get terminated. And so that child is in need of an adoptive family. At that point, a lot of times the kids have been in the system for a period of time, or they are with siblings that they want to remain with. And so in a technical perspective, they're considered hard to place. They don't fit the traditional mold. And to what Brian said in his origin story with I Belong Project, I think...
He and Julie, when they created this program, realized that if these kids could be seen, if you could hear their stories and hear their voices, it demystifies that a little bit and it could help them find homes. And that has turned out to be incredibly true that over the lifetime of the program, we've filmed close to 3000 kids now and 60 % of them have been matched with potential adoptive families. That is a huge number that without this program for that set of kids would probably be close to zero.
And I think in my time working with it, the things that impact me about our program is the dignity and the respect and the honor that our organization treats those kids and their stories with, and the caseworkers who bring them and allow them to take part in these shoots. It's an opportunity for the child to share their voice and share their story in a really authentic way. And we recognize that that's sacred and special, and we treat it that way.
Brian (25:03.052)
Yeah.
Nanette (25:29.838)
so that we really are deliberate about how we share their stories, that when they get matched, we remove them so that it's not lingering out there on social media. So I think that's a really key aspect. And then without taking all of the space on it, because I wanna let you guys speak into this too, I think the other thing that always resonates with me is the simplicity that as you watch story after story, what you realize is what these kids desire is what every kid desires that they want.
Brian (25:53.676)
Mm-hmm.
Nanette (25:55.918)
family movie night. They want to spend time with people. They want people who are safe, who will be there for them when they're sad or happy, either way. And it's just so simple and beautiful what they're asking for. And so I think that touches people's hearts too, that they realize that that is something I could answer.
Brian (26:13.482)
Yeah, I think a lot of people, mean, we're kind of, if you know about us, you probably know about our videos and I belong project. And at first when we were doing videos, we probably did a couple hundred before at least that, before we even named what it was, we just doing videos of kids. That's what we called it. And so the, I think some people were like, well, gosh, know, anybody can.
Can anybody just do this video? And it's like, no, actually our innovation was not that we knew how to do video shoots. Our innovation was what I like to say, innovation was trust. That we built a relationship with child welfare and said, we will handle these kids and their stories with such dignity and handle that day so well.
that you can trust us with our stories. And it's not an easy thing to do because somehow we're having to walk this tightrope of promoting this youth and child and protecting them at the same time. And that's not an easy trick. And to share their story in an authentic way, to share it in a way that the kid wants to share. And we never video a kid that doesn't want to be videoed.
And the kids that we do video are the ones that the state is saying these are the kids have waited the longest. No one's asking about them. So it's been an honor. And again, I used to do these video shoots back in the old days. Haven't done one in quite a while. And if I was one of the interviewers and man, it was tough some of those to get through some of the things that the kids would say about, you know, one of the questions I would ask is, you know, towards the end.
Nanette (27:41.658)
Thank
Brian (28:02.56)
What else do you want people to know about you? And I remember this girl who hadn't, couldn't look at me the whole time. She finally looked up and looked at me and she said, that I'm lovable. It was just like, golly, it is so hard. And, and again, as you, mentioned in that it's not just that day. It's not just the video. It's everything else that we do beyond before and beyond it, to help set things up well, to train.
Nanette (28:25.481)
Yeah.
Brian (28:31.1)
the videographers and the volunteers and how to receive these children and trauma triggers and then all the stuff that comes after as far as online and how we have a huge platform and recruiting for them responsibly and sharing the videos with other organizations that that's part of their job and we do it for free to them for them. There is a lot of work and professionalism that goes in and that's why we have such
high results. And so that's our first signature solution. Before I move on to the second one, do you think we've covered it well?
Nanette (29:09.89)
I think a quick snapshot of what those days are like, because until you go to one, it's really, and I've only been to two, but I was so impacted to the ones I attended that they're so carefully curated that we do some really amazing venues that we've had them at baseball stadiums with players engaging with the kids. We've had them in aquariums and zoos. So that child's taking a big risk. They're coming to express their heart and desire for a family. That's a hard thing to do.
but we're trying to leave them with a good day of fun and good memories. And it also serves a purpose of creating B-rolls so you can kind of see that child relax and kind of be themselves. I love too that a lot of times there are gifts that are procured for the kids and practical things like clothing and the caseworkers. People are taking their day to drive these kids to the day. And so there's usually a reception area for them to relax and feel valued and appreciated as well and gifts of appreciation.
and then just an army of volunteers. So the days run so smoothly. People know where to go and what's expected and the kids have meals and enjoy themselves all in the name of helping them share their hope and desire for a family. And so it's really a remarkable thing to be part of.
Brian (30:24.23)
It is a fact. mean, there's we usually don't put this on the video, but we will ask a common question is like, describe your perfect day. And a lot of kids say today was the best day I've had in my life for in a long time. So it's meant to be a special experience. I'm going to say one other thing, too, that as the people who are drawn to these kids, our hearts and heads have been open and turned towards them.
is here's a common experience is that a child or a sibling group, well, you'll see their video and several families will inquire about them. And so then a selection is made and we don't do the selecting about which family would be the best match. And so then you have these other families who are like, well, you what about us? These videos aren't just a one-on-one result.
A child, a youth video can open up multiple hearts and homes. And a lot of families, including some here on staff, have seen a video, inquired about a youth, a youth went to another family, and they ended up adopting or fostering, adopting another youth or youth that we didn't video, but still.
needed someone. And so these videos have a huge impact beyond just that own child's own adoption. So it's moved a lot of hearts in this issue. Okay, let's, okay, go ahead.
Phil (32:05.817)
Yeah. Well, Brian, I just threw out there. I think, you know, in terms of this podcast, literally, if there's anything you get out of this and that you do as result of this podcast, I think going to our website and watching a couple of these videos, just, just from the perspective, and you say this a lot, Brian, like the kids are the actual heroes of this story, right? And so the bravery they show, the ability they have to articulate their story. And I think just to connect with that at a heart level and just, again, as you were even talking about that, like that's.
That's what I was hearing is these kids are the heroes of the story. We get a chance to tell that story, but you get to connect with truly where they're at in life. And it's pretty remarkable just to watch them. So just to put that out there as a takeaway from this.
Brian (32:45.462)
Great. Yeah, for sure. Great call to action. we have hundreds of videos on our site that you can look through. OK, so that is one of our signature solutions that, again, of it promotes primarily recruitment.
But the way to think about these three solutions, it's kind of, isn't three separate silos. It is a bit of a three cords of a rope. They kind of overlap like a Venn diagram. And the second one, especially, its emphasis is towards retention, but it does have a recruitment impact as well. And, you know, there's a bit of a mantra, retention is recruitment. So that's the second signature solution is the
It's called foster friendly. And foster friendly is not just one thing, it's a few things. And so Phil, once you help our audience try to really understand kind of how comprehensive and impactful foster friendly is. And do that, yeah, in 20 seconds would be awesome.
Phil (33:54.437)
Just that easy. real quick. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I love it. love it. Yeah. So foster friendly communities. is a, it's this people-centric, it's a community-based people-centric initiative that we have where we're trying to bring together the faith community, the business community and local child welfare kind of civic leadership to come together.
and create this environment, I think that really speaks to this idea of support and truly elevates fostering in an area. We talk a lot about the idea of at least trying to get it to the same way that we would have a first responder or maybe the military, like that type of feel within a community so that foster parents are seen, they're understood.
Maybe the general narrative of foster parenting is something that's talked about more and understood what a community is trying to be in terms of foster-friendly businesses or foster-friendly faith or churches. And so it's an interesting initiative that we've launched. It's relatively new in terms of how we're talking about it now. There's a lot of backstory into those different segments. We're trying to pull those segments together. And we have an approach that we're really wanting to engage.
a specific threshold within these communities that we think if we can create the conditions that truly is going to help foster parents foster longer and stronger. And to your point, I think we're finding that that retention and recruitment realities are very much a part of the story out of the gate as it relates to communities and how they look at owning the foster challenges and in some cases foster crisis that they face. So that's, don't know if that's 20 seconds and if it's...
Nanette (35:41.274)
Keep filming.
Brian (35:42.089)
Hahaha
Phil (35:42.221)
It's clear as anything.
Nanette (35:44.09)
I was gonna say the micro level of that, like it feels esoteric as a movement, but when you bring it down, like part of what I love about it is there's the numbers are so big nationally, it's almost 400,000 kids. And you think I can't impact that, but when you boil it down at the community level, it becomes very measurable and doable. And I don't think there's a better example of that than Atworth, Georgia, which is.
Phil (35:47.203)
Yeah. Yep.
Nanette (36:05.26)
really proud to be Georgia's first foster-friendly city. They're very focused as a community on quality of life and maybe unpack that story a little bit as just a great microcosm of how that looks when it works well.
Phil (36:16.773)
Yeah, and I think, again, there's this tension of everything, right? When you get into a community, you have the trajectory that you want to go after. And then as you get into it, you start looking at the specifics of what you're articulating, right? So, Acura Georgia has a unique story there where if this question is we're trying to create an environment, we're trying to create a community that is supporting foster parents and we want to elevate this and businesses are coming on board and churches are coming on board and the mayor is making a proclamation and things are happening.
And then you realize where are the foster parents? We have kids that need foster parents, but where are they? And they didn't have any. So quickly it became a, we need a recruitment event. And this initiative of becoming a foster friendly community was essentially in the early days launched with recruiting six or seven new foster families. obviously we talk about, this massive, 600 % improvement in terms of the number of foster parents that were in that community. But.
It was a great response where a community came around the situation and realized, we want to invite these families in specific to the needs that we have. And it starts with actually elevating the story of the need itself. And yeah, I think it's a great example of both, like you said, the esoteric concepts and then the practical reality of this community. I'm going to guess a little bit, but let's say 20,000 people. What does it mean here?
And then how do we go to Wichita and there's 500,000 people in Wichita and how do we go after this thing similarly but very different because the types of approaches we need to take here are different than there. And at the end of the day, we're trying to create a similar environment in both places and again, elevate and support the foster parent community in these areas simultaneously. So it has a unique tension of being both nuanced to what it needs to be and sort of move at the speed of the community, but then also sort of having the...
the bigger guidelines of how we're trying to go after it that allows these successful factors to continue to be replicated from community to community for sure. The other thing I'll throw out there that I love about this that I think is incipient in that story as well as other stories is the ownership that's happening, right? One of the challenges may be too in terms of recruitment challenge, but a lot of people, you know, again, we say it this way, like not everybody can become a foster parent, right? Not everybody can foster, but everybody can care.
Phil (38:35.866)
And this foster-friendly community concept gives them a pathway for caring, especially a business or especially a church that allows them to say yes to this whole issue that we want to go after, but they don't have to just be a foster parent in order to do that. So that's kind of what we're seeing in these communities as well is when you start nuancing and getting to the specific situations, they're, can I help? How can I help? A lot of creative solutions start happening when businesses start saying how they can help this.
with just doing what they do, but tailoring what they do towards the foster parent community, or how does a church maybe help, or how does there another nonprofit that comes in, a community partner, a lot of creativity, and a lot of synergy, and a lot of excitement around building that community that we're hoping to see there.
Brian (39:18.742)
Yeah, so when I want to think like somebody saying, okay, I'm trying to understand foster friendly community. I live in this community. You know, what's that mean? And say, okay, we'll start high level move down. First of all, imagine a picture of your city and picture a city that says, if you say yes to fostering, we're going to say, we got your back and thank you. And what does that mean practically?
Nanette (39:41.872)
you
Brian (39:48.844)
First of all, in no particular order, that the business community, which is probably when you think of sectors, is the largest and least active in this space. Because businesses, mean, they, first of all, they're thinking about doing their business. And secondly, if they ever think about social issues at all, it tends to be kind of the big three is homelessness, addiction and mental health. And
Nanette (40:13.605)
you
Brian (40:18.184)
foster care is upstream to those issues. If you don't connect a child to a family, they're going to experience one of those issues or all of them and maybe some others. And so by getting the business community involved, the problem with the business community is virtually with every social issue, they're asked to do one of two things. Write us a check or close shop and volunteer for a day. And we're saying,
what we're asking you to do is do what you do for the benefit of a foster child and a foster family. So if you have a hair salon, open it up for foster families and learn, come in. So when those kids come in, knowing that they might be scared, maybe you've never had a hair cut before or whatever,
that you're sensitive to that and you're giving them a financial discount that if your own kids do go to a dance studio or a martial arts studio and your kids that you brought in just have to sit in a parking lot and wait for them to be done, ask those studios to be foster friendly. And so that those kids can also participate for free possibly. So it's.
Nanette (41:15.578)
you
Brian (41:41.928)
You know, we have a car dealership that loans out vans for free to keep keep siblings intact all sorts of ideas the creativity is is endless when it comes to the business community and again, it honors the business because you said your vocation is the solution your what you do is is part of the answer the second part is the faith community and Having them step up into this issue
And we're asking the faith community to go after three key best practices. And in fact, we're saying just pick two. hope you do all three. But one is that they are trauma trained. At least they may not be experts, but they at least have some awareness around trauma, especially the children and youth workers and volunteers. And hopefully there's somebody in their church who says, I'm going to be an expert at this or I am an expert. And they'll be able to point people to me. Secondly,
is that that faith community has an ongoing support ministry to those families or wrap around or kids night out, things like that. And thirdly, that they teach on it in a significant and responsible way, at least once a year. Then we're saying we want the civic community involved. So whether it's special events at the park or the zoo or something like that. And it's not just that, it's the political side. want the mayor of that city to offer
a proclamation and be the straw that stirs the drink and pulls other people in and using their platform and bullhorn to inspire people. And then other nonprofits that are already involved, but our people just don't know that they're there. And so we're inviting them to be a part of this and easy to find. All of this is tied together through an app that is a platform. So,
All of this can be discovered by a foster family as easily at their fingertips. And so we believe, and I guess it was a conviction that there is no one silver bullet. There is no singular solution. It's going to require this village to come together and to support these families. And that's what will help them stay in the game.
Nanette (44:00.728)
I think part of what's significant and what you just said too, Brian, is a lot of communities have some of that happening at some level, but you're saying yes to fostering. You step into this new space and just like moving and getting your kids into new school or doing anything new, you've got to figure out the systems and figure out what's available. And even the caseworkers have to figure out how to share information. So if there's a new foster closet, what do they do? Do they send out an email once? Do they tell you when you start? There's too much to track.
And so the app becomes this connective tissue between the families and all the resources in their community. So not only does it do the logistical work of connecting them with it, but it creates this impact that when I open the app and I see all these resources at my fingertips, in my area, it sends a message that you're not alone. Like you said, we've got your back, we're standing with you and we value what you're doing the same way that we do with military and other first responders. It's just being acknowledged.
Brian (44:55.308)
Mm-hmm.
Nanette (44:55.396)
for the commitment that they're making to the kids who are part of this community, who are gonna be part of our futures is really meaningful and I think really encouraging to families. I think that's a key part of the value.
Brian (45:04.844)
Yes, and it is there is that just psychological, emotional, social impact, not just the financial, tangible side. OK, I want to keep things moving. So what's our third solution? Nanette, I'm going to have you take the lead on that.
Nanette (45:25.882)
Our third is really parent recruitment and it is helping people from the moment that they get intrigued. They come to our website and they see some videos or they know someone who's fostered and they think they might want to get involved. That can be a really long process to try to understand what's involved and figure out how to move forward where you live. And so we've started to build resources and connect with families at the very top of the consideration process. So
someone comes to our website and they say, I'm interested in exploring fostering. We have a lot on our website. There's a lot of resources, books, videos, experts that you can connect with. There also are resources in your state. One of the first things you have to do is go through an information meeting in most cases, learn what it takes to get licensed to foster. And so whether we serve that particular state or not, we provide resources to help you take that next step.
And then one of the really, I think, exciting things that we did this year is Launch FosterCon, which is a webinar series where we deal with a number of different things. Getting started fostering, learning about permanency and considering adopting out of foster care, taking care of your family while you're fostering. How do you stay healthy so that you can stay in the game and really bringing in people who have been there. We're super blessed in this organization with about 50 people. have fostered hundreds and adopted
many, many kids together. So we have a lot of experts right on our team who are really well connected and we really rely on them as subject matter experts. And we're trying to harness the knowledge and the wisdom of their experiences to really benefit people and come alongside them through that entire cycle until they're to make a decision about what they want to do. And our goal is make a decision to do something to make a difference. And it may not be fostering today. It might be
Brian (46:54.479)
Mm-hmm.
Nanette (47:15.674)
being a foster friendly business. And we have a beautiful story in Colorado this year that we were able to capture where a woman went to her church, heard about foster friendly businesses and that call. And she talks about how her kids all looked at her like, what are you going to do, mom? And she owns her own salon. It was a new business at that time. And she made the commitment to become a foster friendly business. And so in serving some of those families, it started to just really grow her heart for the needs of kids there. And they would come in super traumatized, afraid to sit in the chair.
The mom's worn out and she was able to just be respite and support to those families. And now a couple of years later, she and her husband are starting to get licensed to foster themselves. And that's not the expectation or the path for everybody. But I think once you say your first yes, you start to find progressive ways to continually say yes, to make a difference and make an impact.
Brian (48:03.916)
Mm-hmm.
Brian (48:07.446)
For sure, yeah. Julian, I definitely did not have the courage to foster. That was not our first yes. Our first yes was her volunteering at a thrift store that focused on foster families. And then one thing led to another, and here we are. So.
Nanette (48:24.366)
Well, there's another great story in the reverse of our friend Nicholas in Georgia, who was a foster parent first, and his family started a business, started a family restaurant. And through knowing his own journey, fostering and the importance of connections, he was very quick to say yes when he heard about foster friendly to make his business foster friendly. And not only does he offer a discount, it's created new conversations with his staff to understand.
foster care and understand how to welcome families. And he goes over every time he knows there's a foster family and welcomes them and prays with them and just really wants them to know that they are welcome there. And so I think it can go both ways, which is kind of the beauty of the array of things that we're able to offer to people now.
Brian (48:56.613)
wow.
Brian (49:07.786)
That's awesome. Well, yeah.
Phil (49:09.232)
Just to throw out there, I think it's important just to, I'll say it this way, I just acknowledge that. think we get it, right? We get that reality. And so often this goes back to probably one of earlier questions, Brian, about why is it so hard to recruit? Sometimes the ask is one time and then you don't ever have to hear about it again for one year or two years, or you just don't intersect the need. There's not a journey. And I think for us, that's part of this podcast, right? The idea is...
We want to go on our journey with you. want to navigate the ups and downs of the tension of saying yes and saying no and the fears and the excitements. And so all that to say is it's, it's a long journey. get it. And that's a huge part of why that third solution exists.
Brian (49:51.2)
Yeah, and there are other things that people can do. because of that journey along the way, again, this is something that you two have already said, but people may never start if the first step is.
You got to foster. It's like, okay, there's other things you can do, other things you can learn, other ways you can get involved. And then as you go, there is a lot to learn. so it's not walking alone is important. mean, it's a lot easier to be courageous when you're with someone else to do it. So that's part of
Nanette (50:35.483)
And you have to know the need before you can find a yes, right? Like you said, there's, foster care doesn't come in one solution. It's not just long-term placement. There's lots of different ways that you can say a smaller yes. And so helping people understand that it's a need, that it isn't a need that's fulfilled through a government program. There is a need for people to step in and that no matter where you are in life, there's probably a thing you can do to make a difference in the lives of these kids and help them have better futures. that's
Brian (50:47.425)
Yeah.
Nanette (51:01.816)
super compelling when they're kids in your neighborhood and kids in your community.
Brian (51:05.708)
Yeah, well to kind of wrap things up and then again, let's talk about smaller yeses for people listening to this. Things you can do, one is follow us on social media if you aren't doing that already. Phil mentioned going to our website amkidsbelong.org and that is a place where you can view the videos of kids who are.
Nanette (51:29.722)
probably have to edit this, but we need to say the website's americaskidsbelong.org.
Brian (51:34.784)
White what? OK, alright, OK. The second thing. The second thing you do is go to America's kids belong and Phil mentioned that and you can go and watch videos there and then of course if you. Are wanting to learn more, you can attend like some of these.
Nanette (51:36.655)
Because of that, I'll explain.
Nanette (51:43.066)
because it's actually the last night.
Brian (52:03.724)
online learnings we're doing through FosterCon, things like that, and read some of the things we've written, great lessons there. And then foster-friendly, we've got a couple thousand businesses in the country that are foster-friendly. Maybe you have a business that would be interested in being foster-friendly. I will say a bit of maybe the bad news is...
When we're trying to get foster friendly communities going right now, we have about 10 in play and we're wanting to go and grow. And so we have to be selective. We were very interested if you think you could help be catalytic and having your city be foster friendly. But it'll come to a place honestly, where we have to say, why should we choose you? And if there are preconditions there that
look good to us, then we'd be interested in a conversation. So there's small things and big things you can do as next steps. Well, Phil and Annette, thanks for joining us and helping our listeners understand through 123 what AKB can do. It's not ABC123, it's AKB123. All right. Thanks. Bye, guys.
Nanette (53:04.298)
Mm-hmm.
Phil (53:21.126)
Love it. Awesome. Thanks.