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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.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:17:02
Unknown
Hello and welcome to the foster friendly Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Davis, with my dexterous co-host, Courtney Williams. Courtney dexterous. What does that mean? I do not know. I am ambidextrous, so makes me. Okay. You're on your. You're on the right path.
00:00:17:02 - 00:00:44:10
Unknown
It means to be, it's it's, same route as dexterity. Dexterity. And so, and you're ambidextrous. It's means that you're good at multitasking. There you go. And you are that you have to be when you have nine kids. Yeah, yeah, but it's quality you can't live without. So, Courtney, we have a one of our very own, guests today.
00:00:44:12 - 00:01:08:19
Unknown
From our own team, we have Laura mobley joining us. Laura, welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. And, Laura, tell us a little bit about yourself. I sometimes I read biographies, but why don't you give us your little snapshot of, who you are and, your, role with, being involved in this foster care space.
00:01:08:20 - 00:01:47:06
Unknown
Yeah. I've been working in the fostering adoption space for close to 15 years now. It kind of started on accident. Just, Yeah, something that, just grew in my heart and, have been working in working at a church in the past. I worked for other nonprofits. And I now have, three kids, one who was adopted from China, almost ten years ago.
00:01:47:06 - 00:02:12:16
Unknown
So, yeah, but in the space for a long time, I've, I've done a lot of different things. But really excited to focus on Indiana and, foster care and adoptions and foster care specifically now at IPB. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. How did you. I'm curious because, you know, being, we work remotely, all of us.
00:02:12:16 - 00:02:25:10
Unknown
And then there's Brian. I don't even know how many people there are on staff. They could be right now. But however many there are, I don't know. Very many of you, like, super. Well, so I'm curious, how did I. I don't even know how you. Did you come to work with America's Kids Belong and Indiana's kids belong.
00:02:25:12 - 00:02:52:11
Unknown
Yeah. So, Yeah, I could tell the story a lot of different ways. Or a lot of a lot of different. And I feel like Eqb and me have a lot of just very interesting, ties. So, to paraphrase it, to keep it kind of short. I met Brian and, Larry May, our former, state director, in 2019.
00:02:52:13 - 00:03:29:18
Unknown
I had heard about CQB. I had, I was familiar with the work. But we met in 2019 when Brian and Larry were coming to Indiana to start the chapter here. We had talked and then, they Brian came here to Indiana to really get things started. We met with, I was working in a church at the time as a fostering adoption ministry director, and we met with a couple of other churches and church leaders, just to talk about how we could collaborate and how they could work together.
00:03:29:18 - 00:04:00:09
Unknown
And, we were all really excited to do that. And then Covid hit just a few months later. So that sort of, changed things for Indiana and even our ability to actually really work together. I, somewhat shortly after that left my job at the church and, at some point, Larry reached out to me, and just said, hey, I want to retire for real this time.
00:04:00:11 - 00:04:22:11
Unknown
Would you be interested in taking over for me? And it was just really cool, how we had not, we've not spent a lot of time working together. But, you know, to form that connection and, Yeah, for Larry to think that I was the right person to take over for him was pretty cool. So.
00:04:22:12 - 00:04:43:17
Unknown
Yeah. So I've been on staff for almost three years now. Wow. Which is crazy. Yeah. It is. So we're going to talk about an initiative that applies, to know people no matter where they live. But before we do, just, take another minute and just, just tell about Indiana. What's been, your greatest accomplishment in Indiana in the past three years?
00:04:43:19 - 00:05:24:18
Unknown
Yeah. The thing that I'm most excited about that we have done is launch our first foster friendly community, as a northern Indiana, in Elkhart County. And the thing I'm the reason that makes me excited is, number one, there's just something really cool happening there, even without us. And, you know, again, long story short, to have a staff person there, who has just already had the right connections and relationships to be a part of, of some just really cool initiatives that are happening across multiple organizations working in this space.
00:05:24:19 - 00:05:45:04
Unknown
For Iqvia to get to be a part of it is just really, really cool. It was just yeah, there's just there's just something happening there. So the fact that we got to launch our foster friendly community and get to be a part of what's continuing to happen is really cool. But then also, I love that Hannah, our amazing staff person who's up there is the one that is really spearheading it.
00:05:45:04 - 00:06:11:20
Unknown
And it's been really, really cool to see. Yeah, I love pouring into other people, other leaders in this space. And, to see her, you know, this is her first job in the nonprofit space and to see her learn and to see her, like, just be empowered and drive, by, you know, being able to do this job is just really, really cool for me.
00:06:11:22 - 00:06:32:19
Unknown
Yeah. She's great. So, you two and the, reason I'm looking forward to this interview is I still feel like I'm learning what you guys are creating. And we gave you guys an assignment, and I'm like, I'm curious. So, to our listeners, we're best known for what, Laura just described with, foster friendly communities in the foster friendly app.
00:06:32:21 - 00:07:16:17
Unknown
And then our other, key signature program with I belong project. But, there's a new our newest, initiative. And Courtney and Laura have been the two key players in creating it. And, so it's called fostering front door. And Laura one, you just first explain what it is, what is fostering front door. So the idea behind fostering this front door is it's a place for people to start when, either they are just learning about foster care, or they want to take a deeper dive and learn more in about foster care.
00:07:16:19 - 00:07:44:03
Unknown
We know that there's a lot of information out there already, but what doesn't really exist is the information presented and sort of a curated space. And that's what we're really hoping to provide. It's overwhelming. You know, if you Google foster care, there's just a lot, and it can be super overwhelming and hard to know how to navigate the path of I'm interested to I'm ready.
00:07:44:05 - 00:08:03:18
Unknown
And so that's really what we've tried to do. So I, I get really excited about the, beginning journey. And Courtney gets really excited about the I'm already licensed and need to dig in more journey. So, yeah, like I, I think I'm just really excited about what we've put together as far as what that journey looks like.
00:08:03:18 - 00:08:46:11
Unknown
Of course, it's different for everybody, but, we spent a lot of time mapping out, you know, what questions are people is and going to have and what sort of, the more natural path of people learning and going from, I have this idea to I actually want to do it. We've we've learned that, it can take people up to 2 or 3 years and then that very initial I'm interested then thinking about it to, I am going to that licensing agency and getting started and, we it's really easy to lose people in that space because it is overwhelming where they're not getting the information that they need.
00:08:46:13 - 00:09:16:17
Unknown
And so again, that's what we've tried to do. We've tried to take the information that's out there already and, organize it in a way that, people can go through, self-paced, and feel equipped and competent, instead of overwhelmed and, yeah. And I love how you framed it in a sense of helping people move from I'm interested to I'm ready, I love that.
00:09:16:19 - 00:09:34:21
Unknown
Yeah. So I started with HB almost five years ago now. When I first started, I was hired as a recruiter, a foster care recruiter. And so people get really confused because I think a lot of times in America's longest placing agency, we are not a placing agency. So when I was recruiting, I was recruiting for kiddos that were on our IB long project, you know, waiting for adoptive homes.
00:09:34:21 - 00:09:51:05
Unknown
And also we were in contract helping recruit foster homes. And so I would get I mean, I have thousands truly of emails I've sent over the last five years just answering basic questions. And it's amazing. Sometimes I'm like, you'd think you'd be able to find the answer pretty easily. You know, some very basic questions and some very deep questions.
00:09:51:07 - 00:10:06:08
Unknown
And so shortly after I, I started with a KB, we sat down, the card kids team sat down. We said, what if there is a way for us to have this journey? Like, what is the journey of somebody that is initially just even thinking about this, to like how do we how do they get there? What's like the roadmap?
00:10:06:13 - 00:10:24:03
Unknown
And so we drew this out on our big whiteboard of the Tccb office. We had all these steps of we're messing around with that. We turned it into a Google doc and we were playing around. And honestly, it just kind of sat there. And then we used it for, you know, the emails I would get when I chat with people, but it just seemed like such a daunting thing to like, what do we actually turn this into?
00:10:24:05 - 00:10:40:06
Unknown
And so that's where we are today. And that's kind of like how I got put on to this team as, you know, marketing spokesperson for CQB recruitment specialist. I think it's my title, but also like the history of trying to do something like this, knowing there's nothing like this out there, which is crazy. It is crazy.
00:10:40:06 - 00:11:05:22
Unknown
Yeah. You can go to a visual thing and get a couple questions answer, but they really want you to go to an informational night, which they're great. And we encourage people to, but some people just don't want to go. They don't want to commit to an informational night until they just have a little bit more information. And I remember my husband and I, we started fostering, you know, we were just googling stuff, and we used this website and this website and this website, but to have one, like a one stop shop where people can go and get that information, I love it.
00:11:06:00 - 00:11:24:13
Unknown
So, Laura, kind of for you. Oh, go ahead Brian. So yeah. So, I didn't mean to cut you off and maybe, my question needs to come after what you were just about to say, I apologize. So, but I'm curious, as somebody who's, like, listening right now and saying, okay, I am on the very beginning site.
00:11:24:13 - 00:11:49:03
Unknown
Maybe. Or maybe I'm somewhere in the middle, but, what what can they expect to experience if they go to fostering front door? What are they going to, see and what are they supposed to click on? And, are they going to be sit down one path versus another? Explain what they can expect. Yeah, I can talk about the different categories.
00:11:49:05 - 00:12:09:01
Unknown
Whenever someone starts on the website, there's sort of four different paths, that people can choose to walk down. So one is I want to learn more about becoming a foster parent. The second is I want to learn more about adoption from foster care. We that that right there, we could talk a whole lot about.
00:12:09:03 - 00:12:40:12
Unknown
There's a big difference between I want to be a foster parent, and I want that from foster care. And, we're really hoping to do a lot of education around that and to help prepare people for for those differences. The third is I want support, resources in education to help me on my journey. So that's the path for people who are, already licensed foster parents and just need I mean, we know there's just so much support and so much education that you need to, keep learning.
00:12:40:13 - 00:13:03:06
Unknown
And then the fourth is I want to be involved in ways other than being a foster parent. Because there's a lot of great ways to be involved. You know, again, that's why we do what we do with foster friendly communities is to create a community. And, you know, again, that's where a lot of opportunities are curated, where people can do things other than be a foster parent.
00:13:03:06 - 00:13:28:04
Unknown
So those are the, the four options. And then within that, we've got different learning tracks. So, Courtney, and maybe you still want to ask a question. I got a so when you have these four categories and somebody comes on and they pick one, say they're like, I'm interested in becoming a foster parent. What happens then?
00:13:28:04 - 00:13:44:05
Unknown
Like what? What's what's this journey that they're going on? Yeah. So they come to a new page that has all these questions and so it'll have like what is foster care. And then underneath it I'll tell you, like what are we going to cover within this. If you click here what are we going to cover. How to placements work.
00:13:44:07 - 00:14:00:15
Unknown
What does it take to foster. Why are kids and care like all those basic things around foster care going to be on there first and again they all they kind of show you what's going to be underneath. So you know, like, oh, this is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm going to click here or, you know, I've, I've already read about this and I've read about this or about this.
00:14:00:15 - 00:14:17:15
Unknown
Now I'm ready for this part of the journey or the people that are like, I don't know anything. They're going to start it probably at the top and go through every single little thing. So it's very much laid out where they can see very clearly what they're going to get within each of those tabs. And then when they get inside there, it's, it's fun because sometimes it's just information.
00:14:17:15 - 00:14:40:07
Unknown
Sometimes there's links to blog or articles, sometimes other organizations podcast that we've done have webinars. So it's not just like it's always just verbiage that's sitting there on a page for you to statically read. It's some fun, interactive stuff as well. We have PDFs people can print off. Again, we truly sat down and tried to answer pretty much anything we could think of.
00:14:40:07 - 00:15:00:15
Unknown
Somebody would want to know on their journey. But one thing to really keep in mind is we're a national organization, so we're trying to answer these questions nationally, which sometimes is pretty tricky. So there are a lot of times I'll say in most cases or in most states, this is how it is, but we can't necessarily say exactly how it is everywhere.
00:15:00:17 - 00:15:27:15
Unknown
And we did. Yeah. Because we, we really talked a lot and thought a lot about the technology. And we wanted to we wanted it to be as organized and user friendly as possible. But also as simple as possible. You know, we discussed a lot of different ways to do it. But yeah, once I saw the layout, of the website and that's I mean, that's really what it is, it's a website.
00:15:27:17 - 00:15:52:18
Unknown
I'm really excited about it. And I think it is going to present all the information very clearly in a way that people can, you know, not get overwhelmed by and pace themselves with. So, yeah. And like Courtney said, it's not just all a wall of text. There's a lot of different options. So for people who like the videos, there's videos for people to like podcast, there's podcasts.
00:15:52:20 - 00:16:12:16
Unknown
But yeah, really just wanted to you have lots of great information in one space that was easy to navigate. So, I want to Simon Sinek says to start with why. And so we're past starting. So we're down the road and now and we talked about the way a little bit that there's different information. And you know, if you just Google stuff here and there.
00:16:12:18 - 00:16:34:06
Unknown
But Laura, I think you really are the one who made us see that there was a very clear why I'm creating this. Can you, share that experience? Yeah. Here in Indiana, a couple of years ago, there was a statewide campaign that every child campaign, and, there were different tracks for people who were interested in foster care.
00:16:34:06 - 00:17:05:11
Unknown
It was a it was a big foster parent recruitment campaign. And, what we saw pretty quickly was that it took people quite a long time. The people who said they were ready and kind of started that process, where maybe not actually ready. And those that were we had sort of a, I want to learn more track, but it was a like, let's have a phone call and I'll tell you some more and then are you ready?
00:17:05:11 - 00:17:34:01
Unknown
And if not, we're not really sure you know what to do. And more and more people were falling into that space of I need a lot more information, I need a lot more time. And, you know, that campaign, we didn't really see a lot of new foster parents come from that. And so, it was, you know, it was really evident to me when I was working in a church trying to recruit more foster parents, trying to,
00:17:34:03 - 00:17:58:02
Unknown
Yeah, answer these questions. Like Courtney was saying, that there there is just this need. It is a journey. Like, you know, it is a journey for people. And they need people. They need good information on that journey. And then we really saw it during this, this campaign that there's really a need. And then, you know, you think about the scalability of it.
00:17:58:04 - 00:18:23:23
Unknown
When I was working at a church, I could meet with people one on one. You know, we had a support group, things like that. Scaling the entire state of Indiana with our small staff team is just not possible. And so this is I think, you know, it doesn't replace people or relationships, but, it's such a good way for people to especially those who are who are researchers.
00:18:24:01 - 00:18:49:07
Unknown
Not all of us are. I personally am I'm someone who does a lot of research before I jump into something. And yeah, so I think this is going to meet a need that I've felt that we've had here in Indiana for a long time. I've heard other states feel like they need. And then through this campaign we, like really had objective data that it is a big need.
00:18:49:07 - 00:19:13:10
Unknown
So, Laura, what you just described to me, just way of analogy. Seems like that the foster care system is so desperate for good families that when they come across one, who is just now like it, like hearing about it and hearing about the need, showing, some concern and, a little bit of interest, but have tons of questions.
00:19:13:10 - 00:19:47:23
Unknown
The foster care system says, Will you marry me? It's like on the first date, and people need, I mean, you're you're you're asking them to do something really big in their life. And so they need the space to explore and learn and discuss. And sometimes that can take not days or weeks or even months, but years. And so people have to, have their info, learn more and more, before they're ready to say yes, to make that big commitment.
00:19:47:23 - 00:20:26:09
Unknown
And so, I think that's what you discover. And it was like, oh, gosh, we were expecting people to say yes, way too fast. And and so let's give them, these paths where they can, build up their confidence and their courage, get their questions answered. So, and again, it's amazing to me, the foster care system has been out there for a while, and then we weren't able to find anything where it still has that sensitivity, to, to allow people to, to learn and explore.
00:20:26:13 - 00:20:58:03
Unknown
So, okay, so love that we're creating that. And and hopefully it's not just that it might get, more people at the top of the funnel to get through to the bottom of the funnel. It's possible that some of the it'll help expedite it, like, well, what would have taken three years of self-exploration now that it's here, can, somebody like, I'm ready, you know, before a year is over to say yes.
00:20:58:05 - 00:21:13:14
Unknown
What are your guys's hopes for this? Like, if you're to look into the future and, you know, let's say two years out from now, what would you say, man, this this is doing exactly what I hope to would do.
00:21:13:16 - 00:21:29:18
Unknown
I go for kind of a, maybe, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I want both of you. Yeah. To reply. Literally, as we've been sitting here, I just got a text or an email from somebody that says, we send our emails every once in a while, people are on our email list. I got an email and he respond saying, how do I start to foster?
00:21:29:19 - 00:21:52:14
Unknown
I don't know, this guy lives right? Like I that's why I get these emails because I get the forms from our website. I get these emails probably 20 at least a week. And I know you what you want your inbox to, and not only just to go down like I'm fine to people email me, but to have a place to go to direct them and then yeah, not feel like I'm having to deal with the partial answer.
00:21:52:14 - 00:22:17:19
Unknown
This little answer, or because I'm one question leads to another and it leads to another, and not to make it a robotic thing, but also just make it this, this thing where people can go to and our staff members feel like this is something that will help me do my job so I can point people to this thing that we now have created, instead of all of us working where we work and trying to answer these emails and these phone calls, these text messages, it's like to have that one place that people can go and then the beautiful thing about it is we're not creating it just to be that.
00:22:17:19 - 00:22:33:13
Unknown
It's still going to have the form on there where if it's like, I've read this stuff and I still have this question, they could still ask questions. It's not like we're just going away, but it's just going to make our jobs easier. Okay? Make our jobs easier is your your dream that is working well and we don't have to be them.
00:22:33:15 - 00:22:55:02
Unknown
We're not the bottleneck, you know. They're not waiting on us to respond. They can, get the answers as quickly as they want them. Yeah, yeah. So, Laura, I'm wondering about have you answer to that question, but I want you to put this in the context of what even got it started in the first place of you, like imagining whether it's Indiana or any other state.
00:22:55:04 - 00:23:24:02
Unknown
And they're like, we're going to do a campaign to recruit foster parents. What would you say? Okay, I want them to know about this resource then, because like, imagine imagine answering the your hope for it in that context. Yeah. I mean, I think first of all, you have to sort of adjust your expectations for how quickly we're going to see numbers, how quickly we're going to see you know, those targets or whatnot.
00:23:24:02 - 00:24:00:13
Unknown
The goals met. You know, to answer your question, what do I hope to see in two years? Like, I hope we're starting to see, our agencies see an influx, high quality, prepared foster parents, and that they can look back and say like, oh, the common thread is that, they have been spending time on this website learning and maybe emailing Courtney, maybe emailing me, you know, probably potentially some personal interaction as well.
00:24:00:14 - 00:24:22:16
Unknown
But, yeah, that there is this, this thread of them being resource from this website or, you know, and not because, you know, we have to have our name on it just because it is meeting a need that hasn't been out there. It's filling a gap, of something that has been needed for a long time. Yeah.
00:24:22:18 - 00:24:44:21
Unknown
In that. Yeah, we're seeing we're seeing foster parents that are ready that are, hopefully taking some work and pressure off those agencies. And. Yeah, like I said, filling in that gap that's needed. So you talked about the four categories and we've kind of, illustrated it mostly through foster people interested in going down the foster care path.
00:24:44:21 - 00:25:14:15
Unknown
But I want to, make sure that I also understand, like, say, for example, you mentioned another category was that you are already a licensed foster parent. Does this allow for continuing education that is required, by states? How does that work? Yeah, again, not all states say to the same. And some states have some parameters around their licensing in their key credits that not I wouldn't say licensing.
00:25:14:15 - 00:25:32:19
Unknown
Right. They're going to have their own licensing program. Right. But as far as the credits continue education. So once when he's already licensed to go in there and to say, hey, I'm struggling with a kiddo who has fetal alcohol syndrome, and then they can click on that and find it again, not all our stuff, but we have we're going to have a wealth of resources on there saying, hey, go to here, go to here, go to here, listen to this.
00:25:32:21 - 00:25:50:01
Unknown
And so or I'm struggling with a teenager who's suicidal ideations having suicidal ideations. Like here are some resources for you. So it's going to be a resource for all sorts of topics. We already have a lot of that have done already that's been we've had in the past. But now moving it over to this fostering for door I'm fostering.
00:25:50:01 - 00:26:08:05
Unknown
I have these issues, but then our foster webinars are going to be on there. And those are free webinars that we have that most states will recognize those as we give them a certificate, and they can get two credits there. And we're going to have we're continuing to add to this. So we have multiple I think we have ten up right now from the past years.
00:26:08:06 - 00:26:27:15
Unknown
And then we have new ones coming out too. So it's going to be continually added to that for us to be able to offer those things for people. And like I said, other people's things as well. You know, if we know of a great trauma thing, we're going to put that on there. It's not all. But like Laura said, it's not all about us doing it, having it's like, let's give people this information that's out there and that easy put together way.
00:26:27:17 - 00:26:56:17
Unknown
And then the other it centers an adoption category and then the fourth category you mentioned was, what if you aren't going to foster adopt? So what what give us some examples of what that will lead to that path. Yeah. Those are again, being national. It's not as you know, dense or state specific as it could be, but we really tried to point out some organizations that are in multiple states.
00:26:56:19 - 00:27:22:06
Unknown
So things like casa, being a casa is so important and something that I think everybody in every state could, do as a volunteer, or things like, rap groups or care communities. I know a lot of states around the country, are, you know, there's an option there, or even just, you know, organic support.
00:27:22:08 - 00:27:46:02
Unknown
Just some ideas for how to help a foster family that, you know, that's not necessarily, something formal. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So, Courtney, you, just mentioned foster con. What is foster con? And, there's another one coming up. So explain what it is and what the next one is. Yeah. Foster currency's are fun.
00:27:46:02 - 00:28:08:20
Unknown
Name of our webinar series that we put on. So it's like a conference online conference in a sense, of different webinars. Last year we had a series, that was titled fostering so Fostering Support, Fostering Permanency, Fostering primer. We had seven webinars that were all with the title of Fostering Something. Okay. And our next series is coming out where it's going to release the end of August.
00:28:08:22 - 00:28:30:01
Unknown
And this series is titled understanding. So we're going to have understanding, school advocacy. We're going to kick off with that one as school is getting started. So people can know what it looks like to be a foster parent, supporting the kids and how to give them the support they need at school. We're going to have understanding the system, because a lot of people get nervous about jumping in foster care, already fostering and nervous about what that means.
00:28:30:03 - 00:28:50:09
Unknown
Understanding food insecurities, understanding, fostering, adopting teens. Just kind of a whole series around the topic of understand different things. And like I said, those are all be listed and you can still see our ones from last year. So those will still be there for CTE credit. And then we just have this new series we're coming out releasing them all on demand this year.
00:28:50:11 - 00:29:10:18
Unknown
Once a once every three weeks a new one will come out okay. And those all will then be housed under the fostering front door. And foster we can go to Foster Coorg to get those. And then but also the fostering front door will have a link to them. Yep. Gotcha. Okay, so speaking of links, how in the world do you find fostering front door.
00:29:10:20 - 00:29:25:13
Unknown
We're going to have the links in our show notes. So go ahead and click on the show notes and you'll see it. And then of course always America's Kids belong.org will take you to all of our initiatives and things we're doing. It will be on the it's on the main page. You can click on it there. But also in the show notes you'll be able to find the link.
00:29:25:15 - 00:30:09:16
Unknown
Okay. Great. Laura, thanks for helping us see the need for this. And, we, like, ask these most people, this question as we finish our podcast. How would you finish this sentence? What kids in foster care really need is. Relationship. That might seem simple and basic. But, you know, I think. Working in this space, you can see a person, a, you know, a I belong project, a buddy, change a kid in just a couple hours.
00:30:09:18 - 00:30:41:22
Unknown
Yeah, you could harm a kid in a couple hours. So. Absolutely. So if people kids are harmed by relationships, are also healed by them? Absolutely. Yeah. And bright. I had one today. I don't usually add my own, but I'm going to add one because this kind of goes back to your question of our hopes for it. And I kind of said a personal selfish one, but also thinking, I mean, really the goal of this is we want educated, qualified foster parents, those that are considering, those that are looking, you know, that are already are licensed, how can they get better at what they're doing?
00:30:42:00 - 00:31:03:08
Unknown
And our kids need foster peers that are ready, willing, able to stick with them. And what better than, you know to prepare them? I think it's so many foster homes I know that start and they just don't have this background information. And then they quit so quickly. Yeah. And I think this is another thing behind that. We want people to see like, oh, this is I need to take this seriously because relationship matters.
00:31:03:08 - 00:31:27:01
Unknown
These kids matter. Yeah. And giving them those tools like you, you need to know about trauma before you go down this route. You need to know about some of these things and don't just jump in blindly. Yes, that's for sure. Yeah. And yeah, if people's expectations are, set up right, and they're trained and prepared, then when, when those hard times come, they're like, okay, yeah, I, we knew this was coming.
00:31:27:01 - 00:31:51:10
Unknown
And, and we're, we know that we've got, resources and places to go to get the help that we need to do it. Well, well, ladies, thank you for really taking the initiative. This is, you know, discovering the the gap that exist, filling that gap with, solution and help. So hopefully that when more and more kids or more.
00:31:51:10 - 00:32:09:15
Unknown
I'm sorry, more and more adults, families, discover the need, that more of them will be able to meet the need and not just say, well, I was interested, and then I got lost and then now I don't know what to do. So thank you so much for doing that. Yeah. Thanks for