Village Partner Community

Foster Village is a “village of villages,” with locations all around the country. Our goal is to be in every community where there is a need. Find the location nearest you to discover how you can get involved. The Village Partner Community creates pathways of consistency, allowing Foster Village Charlotte to plan forward with vision and confidence for sustainability and scalability. We invite you to become part of this transformative journey.

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One hour after that call, we got another call about a child who needed a home. Your support gives vulnerable children and families the village of support they need to thrive. Foster Village bridges this gap between foster families and caregivers and those who want to help, meeting practical needs and providing holistic support beyond the system. As children and caregivers navigate a messy child welfare system, our volunteers help bridge gaps and remind families that they are not alone through the ups and downs of foster care.

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We found that grassroots fundraising was really aligned with who we are and what we are about – this picture of everyone coming together for the good of all,” said Santoro. In June 2018, we launched Foster Village and opened Tony’s new coffee shop. We also found out our new daughter’s brother, then 16 months old, had not been adopted after all. We took him into our family, and he fit right away. I went to Michigan State to be a special education teacher. We graduated and moved to Charlotte in 2007 to teach in Title I schools.

Organizational demographics

Lowell lemonade stand raising money to support foster parents - Gaston Gazette

Lowell lemonade stand raising money to support foster parents.

Posted: Fri, 14 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The results speak volumes, with FVC successfully launching their board recruitment plan, welcoming two new board members, and initiating a board chair succession plan as their founding chair prepares for a transition in the near future. Meanwhile, I was feeling enriched by my relationship with my foster child’s biological father. He visited with her and brought a new doll every week.

Village Partner Community

Even though you are already experiencing toxic stress, being placed somewhere new adds additional levels of trauma. You find yourself without a familiar face, in an unknown setting, without a single belonging. Support during the Resource Development module turned out to be particularly helpful for the organization. “During our time in Cultivate, we launched a peer-to-peer campaign that would leverage this groundswell of support.

Foster Village Charlotte connects families caring for children in foster care to each other and to ongoing, holistic support. Our approach includes support groups, workshops, one-on-one encouragement, foster parent mentorships and family gatherings. We build a peer-driven community that is facilitated by licensed therapists and experts in the field. A comfortable place to connect with people who "get it". Registration for all of these opportunities take place through our bi-weekly newsletter, website, and through our closed Facebook group community. FVC acts as a bridge across licensing agencies by providing families with responsive trauma-informed training, especially those topics not covered in their certification classes.

I’m here to be an ally.” I had a picture of her room on my phone that I showed him. My empathy grew in leaps and bounds in the hospital that day. We work to elevate the voices of children and families, build awareness, and increase access to the tools needed to end generational cycles of adversity. By connecting foster families with other foster families, biological families and trusted resources, families are strengthened and empowered to continue fostering. We believe that strengthening the families and systems that surround a child experiencing foster care leads to a resilient next generation that breaks the cycle of childhood adversity. Bill Martin echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the team’s aim to create a relief valve for directors and a template for the organization to transcend founder-centric care.

A Grassroots Movement Becomes a Beacon of Support

Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section. We understood, but just the thought of separating siblings felt so hard and so sad. We knew we were going to adopt his sister … but as we were gaining a daughter, someone else was losing a daughter. I think sometimes people forget about the other side of the story. Hat Creek Burger Company is carrying on its mission to provide support in all its communities by partnering with all of our Texas locations.

So I created a website, wrote up my story, and asked family and friends to give me 18 months to dedicate myself to Foster Village. I needed $2,500 per month to make day care payments. The social worker brought me to the hospital where the child was, and I met with police officers, doctors, and the father—a very out-of-body experience.

Kinship families, often much less prepared because of the situation, are given any resources needed. Our delivery zone is 20 miles from our resource center but all items can be picked up at the center if out of range, allowing us to serve additional families. Forms are located on our website and filled out by social workers or caregivers.

After Maeve was born, Tony started roasting coffee in the backyard and selling it to friends and family for fun. This went on for a couple of years, through the birth of our second daughter, Raeya. Create professional content with Canva, including presentations, catalogs, and more. Transform any piece of content into a page-turning experience.

To achieve program goals, we will need a continued strong partnership with Mecklenburg County DSS which may also include a court program that will help us pilot phase 2 of the program. In addition, we also need strong leadership with lived experience as a birth family to ensure we are being intentional and thoughtful in our program design. This program expansion would also include the need for a new staff member and additional oversight and navigating to community resources that extend beyond the mission of FVC to help families sustain permanency. Reunifying families is a vulnerable population but there are risks involved including safety for our team and the children we serve.

The child is familiar with the people at the center and loves playing in the backyard. As foster parents engage in professional services and programming, they experience a safe space for their emotional needs to be met and connection with other foster families. And the ripple effect of stabilizing and equipping the foster family directly impacts the child.

We need support in the sourcing and hiring process but also in the knowledge of when to grow positions into full time and what is sustainable and livable. An active board leading this initiative is an area of growth for us. Having clarity in budgeting and market-value rates of positions is a resource need. In the summer of 2022, FVC expanded to two facilities. This expansion allows us to deepen our work with our program in development and is central to our strategic plans for the next three years.

You play, show them around, and blow out the candles with so many adults that are here just for you. The team launched Foster the Movement, a fundraising campaign that asked foster families, volunteers and donors to share their stories on social media and ask for support from friends and family. The Village overwhelmingly responded, raising more than $80,000 to help continue the services that had supported many of them so well.

Work to grow part-time staff roles into full-time roles, increasing FVC's capacity for program implementation, fund development and operational fidelity. FVC recognizes that capacity-building requires leadership at the helm. We have operated on a small scale team with limited compensation for co-directors so that we could increase the number of staff on our team in the future.