Fostering Hope Foundation

Where there is help, there is hope. Where there is hope, there is a future.

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Fostering Hope receives $10,000 from Sky Ranch Foundation

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Media Contact: Brian Newsome | Executive Director                                                                     

brian@fosteringhopefoundation.org

For Immediate Release

Colorado Springs nonprofit, Fostering Hope, awarded $10,000 from Sky Ranch Foundation

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – Fostering Hope Foundation has received $10,000 from the Sky Ranch Foundation to support its work helping emancipated foster youth thrive in adulthood. Fostering Hope was one of 15 organizations awarded more than $305,000 by the foundation(See the foundation’s press release here.).

Sky Ranch focuses on initiatives that help improve the health and opportunities for at-risk youth. This aligns with Fostering Hope’s commitment to level the playing field for former foster youth, who without support are far more likely to experience homelessness, joblessness, incarceration and poor health compared to their peers.”

“From supportive housing to employment, investments such as this make a huge impact in helping young adults to become the productive citizens they are meant to be,” said Executive Director Brian Newsome. “Our teens and young adults are finding gainful employment, going to college and enjoying apartment life, and this would not be possible with the generosity of our partners.”

About Fostering Hope Foundation

Fostering Hope volunteers provide stability, enrichment and connection to foster families and to young adults emancipating from the foster care system. By working in close partnership with faith communities, businesses, child placement agencies and the Department of Human Services, Fostering Hope seeks to improve foster care outcomes by supporting foster parents so they can be at their best, and by leveling the playing field for former youth in foster care so they can become the productive citizens they are meant to be. For more information, visit fosteringhopefoundation.org and follow @fosteringhopefoundation on Instagram and Facebook.

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Middle schoolers, who can relate? Our Volunteers can!

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As one can image, in 2020 there was a tremendous amount of change in one of our foster parent’s home. The four girls they fostered were moved into a different home to meet the biological parents’ desires to have their children in a home who shared their same ethnicity. It was hard for the foster parents to say goodbye to the children they loved so much, but they understand the biological family’s request.

Now the Beardmans have two new children in their home, a pair of brothers who are very spread apart in age. The Beardmans and their support team of volunteers have already started helping these children adapt to their new home and are showering them with love. It is a seemingly perfect match when looking at the background of some of the volunteers. The older boy is in middle-school and one of the volunteers used to help run a children’s camp where she specialized in working with at-risk boys of this age. A second volunteer teaches middle school and knows how to relate especially well. As we all know, working with middle school boys can be challenging, but these two volunteers come with years of experience and developed patience.

The foster parents themselves are part of the music ministry at their small church and love the process of introducing these kids to music. The team and the foster family are excited to try and help these two boys by bringing them stability, enrichment, and connection. The team and family relate like a true family would, and it will be great to see how these boys bloom under their care and constant support.

The team itself is growing with its number of volunteers being added to often. Seeing more people jump in to help support this family is what we at Fostering Hope love to see.

Soup for the Soul

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Local restaurants and foundation team up to provide soup to foster families and “aging out” youth

Editor’s Note: Names have been changed to protect confidentiality.

Danielle’s husband died the day before Thanksgiving, and she hadn’t been hungry since. She ate, of course, but not much. A foster mom caring for two children, she needed to survive, but grief had dulled her appetite. That is, until Christmas, when she received a savory bowl of soup made fresh for her and her kids by a local restaurant and donated by a local philanthropic organization. Maybe it was the meal itself, or the love that went into it, but she said it was the first meal she enjoyed since her husband passed away.

Over the holidays, The Petritz Foundation and Colorado Springs Food Rescue developed a unique plan to help both local restaurants struggling to stay afloat due to the pandemic as well as community members suffering financially from the economic slowdown. Aptly named the “Soup for the Soul” campaign, the sponsoring foundation purchased soup from local restaurants and then distributed it to local nonprofits, including Fostering Hope, to ensure vulnerable populations had soup to eat for the holidays. The week before Christmas, our coordinators helped to deliver each foster family and emancipated young adult in our program three quarts of fresh homemade soup. Participating restaurants included Red Gravy, Pho-N-Thai, Edelweiss, Fujiyama and Switchback Hillside Cafe.

“An equitable food system is about more than just emergency food access. We are excited to partner with local restaurants, who have been hit hard by the COVID restrictions, to both support their bottom line as well as provide a gift to members of the community,” ​said Patience Kabwasa, Executive Director of Colorado Springs Food Rescue.

Just as important as the delicious soup was the message it sent to its recipients: there are people who care about me. That’s a powerful message, especially for counteracting the message that trauma sends: people are threats, not resources, and I’m not worthy of love or kindness.

For example, Everett, a young adult who recently aged out of foster care, had been bouncing from motel room to motel room. Although usually reluctant to reach out for help, he was out of food and options, so he contacted a Fostering Hope coordinator. Desperate and hungry, Everett was on the verge of tears. Our coordinator brought him groceries and three quarts of the homemade soup. He was so appreciative, particularly to have warm, specialty soup from a local restaurant to enjoy. But most importantly, the soup showed him that there are people in the community who care and will offer a helping hand in a time of need.

We are so grateful to live in a community that shows up for each other, exemplified by the Soup for the Soul campaign. Thank you to The Petritz Foundation, Colorado Springs Food Rescue and the local participating restaurants for spreading warmth and love over the holidays!

A note from the director

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Fear. Isolation. An inability to focus. Living in the present and unable to focus on the future. The world around me – and social interaction – is dangerous and to be avoided. This is how I’ve felt at times during this pandemic, as many of you may have. Likewise, it’s the connections and experiences with friends and family – even by text or Facetime – that seems to shed perspective on it all and bring the calm.

I realized recently that this is a window into the experience of kids in foster care and why Fostering Hope exists.

To be clear, childhood trauma, in the technical and scientific sense, is very different than typical fear and grief, and toxic stress is not normal stress. We are feeling these things in the face of real and imminent danger, and when it goes away, so will much of our fear. For our youth, this is the constant, even debilitating baseline they live with when the world around them is humming along uneventfully.

But even a glimpse into their world can help us understand more personally why the love and support they experience from our wonderful foster parents and volunteers and greater Fostering Hope community is so healing and transformational. Just today, a friend sent me a care package knowing I was going a little stir crazy. The warmth from this gesture and knowing I was on their mind will carry me through whatever today’s headlines bring.

So, as I reflect on this, I just want to say thank you. Whether you’re a donor, a volunteer, a foster parent or one of our community partners, your contributions to creating calm out of chaos and shining love into darkness are truly something special.

Volunteers Get Creative to Support Foster Families from Afar

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Sue knew her foster parents would be struggling to keep their kids entertained and engaged with no school or activities and strict stay-at-home orders. Normally, she’d take them to the park or on a play date, but in a Covid-19 world she did the next best thing: she dropped off a pair of activity kits at their doorstep. One included all the materials to create a balloon rocket, and the other a pom-pom drop game.

She is one of many Fostering Hope volunteers who have found new ways to support their foster families during the time of coronavirus. Instead of childcare, transportation, or date nights, all of which are not allowed or safe during the height of the pandemic, they’re relying on video and doorsteps.

Volunteers for another family read stories to the kids via video, and others put on a YouTube-style puppet show. It may not seem like much, but an hour of respite for a foster parent in quarantine can go a long way.

Others have left hot meals on doorsteps, complete with a side of toilet paper and other supplies. One volunteer stepped in to do video math tutoring for a child struggling to make the adjustment to e-learning.

“I want you all to know it means so much to have your arms around us as we go through this,” one foster mom shared with her team. “All of you are heaven sent, and I don’t mean that in a Hallmark kind of way … please know you are so, so needed and loved.”

In an interesting turn of events, the “extended family” is serving in new ways. Foster families and volunteers have brought groceries to elderly volunteers who are homebound and unable or at high-risk of going to the store. One foster family who received more food than they can eat as a family, repackaged what was left and distributed to an elderly neighbor.