Empowering Foster Families: Brittany Viebrock on Support and Community

My guest today is Brittany Vbrock.

She is the program success manager with Austin Angels.

She works with case managers across the country to offer coaching and support.

She's a licensed master of social work with master's in social work from University of Texas Austin, a master in family and child studies from Texas State University, and a bachelor's in psychology from Texas A and M University.

She has worked with children experiencing foster care in a number of capacities over the last seven years, including case manager, home development, working in a residential treatment center, and working in a psychiatric hospital.

Her family also provided foster care when she was in middle school, reunifying one placement and adopting her little sister.

I am so happy to have you here.

Welcome, Brittany.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm really excited to be here.

When I was looking for guests, I came across the Angels.

Like national Angels, I think it was.

And then I didn't know how to get in touch with anyone, but it just seemed like such a cool organization that I wanted to talk to somebody.

So I wrote into the website, and then, lo and behold, you guys got back to me very quickly, I might add.

Appreciate it.

I'm dying to know the difference between National Angels and Austin Angels.

Is Austin Angels like a little offshoot of the national program?

Is that how it works?

It's actually backwards from that.

So Austin Angels was started by our founder and CEO, Susan, who is actually, I believe, the first person who reached back out to you.

Yes.

So Susan started Austin, and it started out as just a small little passion project that she was working on, working in the community and just trying to give back to her community.

As things started to take off, she realized and recognized that she had something that could be spread out and really could go out into the national world.

We could affect multiple states and really reach across the country.

So we started National Angels as a little offshoot of Austin Angels in order to support those other chapters as they were opening up.

So we went from having Austin to growing.

We currently have 17 chapters across 14 states, and we are hoping once again to open up our applications come 2025, 2026, so that we can continue growing and continue serving children, youth and families across the country who are experiencing foster care.

What do you guys do?

Like, what's your primary mission?

So, our mission is to walk alongside families, youth, and children who are experiencing foster care.

We do this by providing volunteers who can partner with them to provide relationship, intentional giving and wraparound support.

We really want to be intentional about placing people with these families who can stay with them.

Well past our program and well into the future and really just become a part of their life and help them as they experience this journey of foster care, adoption, reunification, whatever the path is for that family.

We want people there who can support them along that journey.

I think that's so brilliant because I know for myself I adopted two children through the LA foster care system and I didn't really feel a whole lot of support.

I mean, we were with an agency, extraordinary families and they were wonderful.

So I did feel the support from my social worker, but I wasn't in touch with any other families that were doing it.

I didn't really have beyond my social worker.

I really didn't have anyone to reach out to.

And I think it might have been like a little bit easier of a road had I had that.

So are the people that you are partnering with, have they already walked through this journey or are they just all different types of people that are helping out?

Yeah.

So the volunteers and the mentors that we bring into our program really come from all walks of life.

Some of them absolutely have done this before and now they're looking to turn around and provide back what they have received.

We have some mentors who come into our program who are former foster youth themselves.

And so they want to come in and have the opportunity to help guide a youth in a way that maybe they didn't receive or maybe someone did for them and now they want to give back.

And then we have some who just have it in their heart to help in some way.

You know, we always say that not everyone is called to foster and adopt, but everyone can help.

There's always a place.

And so we'll bring in some people who come in to provide.

We have two different programs.

We have our Love Box program which serves and wraps around the family.

And then we have our Dare to Dream program which is a mentorship program which wraps around our youth over the age of 11.

And so people will come and just give back in whatever way they can.

Some people say I really want to help, but maybe I don't have the time commitment to be able to do a full year of commitments.

So they'll come in and they'll help out with our one time events.

So maybe our Christmas party, or maybe they'll drop off Love boxes.

Or we have businesses who will host box building events where they'll curate boxes with stuff in them for our families that will really be able to help and provide them with some of the resources that they might need.

That's great.

You know, there Was a video in your signature that I watched, and it was about, like, the number one reason why most five foster families don't continue to foster.

They don't re up, basically.

And it's a beautiful film.

I think it's about eight minutes or so for the listeners.

Can you just give us a little broad strokes of why that is?

Why don't people continue to foster?

Yeah, I mean, I think, Rachel, you even kind of hit on it just a little bit whenever you were talking a little bit about your story.

Foster care and being kind of wrapped up in the system as a foster parent can feel very isolating.

People who aren't in it, aren't experiencing it themselves, don't always understand the nuances of it or, you know, where or why you have to make decisions the way that you do or how you have to approach certain situations.

And so that can feel really difficult the longer you're in it, Whenever everyone around you is just questioning, well, why didn't you just do this?

Or why don't you just handle it this way?

Or, you know, why are you even putting up with that?

Well, it's for the kids, right?

We're doing it for the kids.

And so because of that, people have a tendency of, you know, whenever their placement wraps up or, God forbid, if they get overwhelmed and have to have to move the placements that they have out of their home because they're overwhelmed, oftentimes they're shutting down their homes and they're closing it out and saying, I can't keep doing this.

But what we found, both from the perspective of the youth that we serve, but also the families, putting someone there specifically just to be a support system for them makes a world of difference.

And especially when you approach it the way that angels does, we are very intentional with the matches we make.

We're not just throwing anybody together.

We're looking at where they're living, what their interests are, you know, what experiences that they have, what difficulties that they may be, maybe that they're.

They're viewing or that they're experiencing, can we find someone who can maybe step in and specifically support that?

So we're very intentional about the way that we match these families together with these volunteers.

And ideally, if things go the way that we hope they do, and they often do, we create a match, we create a relationship.

So whenever that relationship is formed, it can continue on, and that family suddenly has a support system that they can lean on, and it can help them keep their doors open for longer than they would have had they Continued to feel isolated and alone.

That's so great.

And do you have any statistics about how many people, like, how many families that you work with end up continuing on versus the national average or something like that?

Just curious if this has been like, a proven thing of, like, this is like, super effective.

It sounds like it.

It would be, yeah.

So we actually just did a study we released to entire.

Into our entire network.

We released something that we call customer first measurement.

And it was specifically asking about the experiences and the relationships that were formed and the experiences that our volunteers and our caregivers had within our organization.

So the national average is about 50% of foster parents have to close their doors following their first placement, leaving in whatever capacity that is for us.

About 77% of our caregivers report that they will continue fostering, that they will continue fostering into the next year.

So we've got at least a 25% bump on it.

And what we're hoping to do is that's really good systems.

We can continue increasing those numbers.

Yeah, that sounds great to me.

And can you give us a sense, give our listeners a sense of what is the need in foster care right now?

And has that need changed since the pandemic?

Let's start there.

Yes, there's a lot of interesting things that have happened.

I mean, the pandemic itself.

I was working in a.

I was working in a nonprofit placement agency at the time of the pandemic when that all came up.

And the huge difficulty is an impact that it had on all of our existing foster parents and the placements that were in their homes.

The stress of that really had a very difficult impact on that.

And we're still seeing some of the fallout of that.

Right.

We had a very large decrease in the number of foster parents that were getting licensed at that time, which meant we had an increase in children that we call here in Texas, it's called cwop Children Without Placement.

Those are the kids that we hear about in the news that are sleeping in offices or sleeping in hotel rooms that don't have a place to go.

So we saw a really significant climb in that, in those numbers.

And things have started to improve over the years.

We've got people coming back in and becoming foster parents.

And we have.

Because of that, though, we had a lot more older kids who were in the system who really needed the support.

And by and large, you know, for a number of reasons, children who are older can be harder to find placement for and harder to keep those placements long term.

And so our program really helps to step into that space by providing both support for the family.

So we, like I said, we have our Love Box program that steps in and offers that wraparound support to everyone in the family, including biological children, previously adopted children.

Anyone in the home receives the support from that program.

But then we can also partner children who are actively experiencing foster care with a mentor.

So you kind of get that double whammy effect where they're.

They're both getting the additional support.

And so what we're seeing with that is children aren't turning those placements, aren't turning over as often.

We're able to keep those kids in those spaces because parents feel supported.

Children have someone who they.

Who is showing up and rooting for them, who they feel supported by.

And so they're not acting out as much.

Maybe they're not blowing out of their placement like they are when they're feeling unsupported.

Right.

And I think this is probably obvious, but just for listeners who might not be totally familiar, it's like every time a child needs to go to a new home, that's a trauma.

That is just another trauma.

And it's really difficult.

So a lot of these children, particularly ones who've been in the system for a long time, have experienced this over and over again.

And so that it's just so crucial.

What you're doing just seems so wonderful and crucial.

Because of that reason, we're offering an.

Opportunity for those attachments that have been broken down through those disruptions of placements.

You know, every time a child comes in and gets to know a new person, and then that person says, I can't do this, that's a breakdown in the attachment.

And so when we can keep them in a home longer, we're able to build back that attachment.

And then by bringing in those additional volunteers, those additional mentors who are just saying yes to those kids, we're offering additional attachment figures for those children to be able to build back and heal from those previous breakdowns and attachment.

And if someone is listening to this right now and they are like a foster family and they need support, would it be as simple as them calling your office and just saying, like, do you have a program in my state?

Is that how they would get connected?

Yeah.

So they can look on National Angels or they can call us.

National Angels does have its own website, so you're able to go on NationalAngels.com and look up that, or you can do simply a Google search of your area.

Like I said, we have 17 programs across 14 different states.

We've got all the way from Washington all the way over to New Jersey, Texas, all over the place.

And so pretty simply, you know, just typing in to see if there's one in or around your area would be a really great starting point.

Do you also do certifications?

Like do you do home studies and do the actual placements or.

No, that's not your deal.

No, we solely offer the support.

We do work with a number of agencies who do provide licensing.

So if you ever wanted to, you know, give us a call if you, if we did have one in your area, we could probably point you in the right direction of a couple different places that could get you license.

But we ourselves do not do the licensing process.

Once a family is licensed or has placement, then we're able to step in and offer.

Offer that support.

Gotcha.

You personally, you've worked in so many different facets of this space, and I always find that to be.

When somebody's done that, it's kind of.

I liken it to.

I used to work in restaurants back in the day, and you could always tell the people who had like, worked all the positions in the restaurant, like they, you know, they were a host, they were a bartender, they were a dishwasher, you know, whatever it was.

Cause they were so awesome and valuable because they really understood all the different jobs and they could pitch in anywhere.

And do you, do you feel like that with your experience, number one, and number two, what has been your favorite or your most gratifying position that you've been in or what are the differences?

Oh, wow, that's a big question.

Yes, I do.

I do really feel like I've gathered so much information and so much knowledge.

And the interesting thing about foster care is it's, it's huge.

Like the learning curve when you step into working within foster care is so enormous because there's just so many facets of it.

And so I think my history does play into that and allowing me to have just a breadth of information that I'm bringing to the table.

My favorite thing to do, what I love most about my job, I like to teach.

Ironically, I didn't want to be a teacher when I was a kid.

I really didn't think that that was going to be something that I wanted.

But as an adult, I have really realized that, that I really thrive in those roles.

And so the two favorite things, the two favorite positions that I've ever had was working in my previous role, which is a home developer, so working with incoming foster families to train them.

I'm a TBRI practitioner, Trust based relational intervention.

So I worked with families and taught them how to be trauma informed, how to work with and parent children who had experienced trauma.

So, so that by far was one of my favorite things that I've ever done.

But I get to, in this capacity, I get to bring that knowledge, that understanding, that history, and I get to use it with my case managers.

So we have case managers all over the country.

Every chapter we have has at least one, if not more case managers.

And every time something comes up that they're not sure how to navigate, they call me and I get to help walk them through it.

So some of it is crisis management, obviously, but some of it is more nuanced.

Right.

Some of it is just they're not quite sure how to navigate a relationship between a match and a youth or they have a youth who's really struggling and they're wanting to know how they can support that youth better.

And so I get to step into that space and use trauma informed care and TBRI and just my experience with foster care and use that to coach them to better support the families and the youth that they're, they're working with.

And I, I adore that.

I love that part of my job so much.

That's really cool.

You were a foster family, like growing up, your parents fostered.

Do you think that that attracted you to this work?

Is that part of the reason why you got involved with this?

That is absolutely the only reason I got involved in this.

My family, we were foster parents.

We started the process when I was in fourth or fifth grade.

We got licensed when I was in sixth grade and we provided care for a couple of years.

So we had two foster placements.

Our first, we worked very closely with mom to get him home.

She was struggling with a lot of things.

She was young and really didn't have a lot of support.

And so we as a family were able to see step into that space and provide her with support which you've adopted.

You know, sometimes that can be difficult to be able to partner with biological families.

It can be difficult depending on the situation and what's going on.

So I view that personally as a very just eye opening experience for me of being able to meet this parent as, you know, a 12 year old and see that she had really been struggling, but she was overcoming so much in order to get her son back and to be able to love this child and then, you know, let him go and let him go home.

And so that, that was A very cool experience for me as a young child.

And then were.

Were you an only child, or did you have siblings?

I.

I also have an older brother.

Okay.

But, yeah, so then with the.

With my little sister, it was a very different experience.

And I had that chance to.

To kind of view the system from a different direction in the way that that kind of played out.

And we ended up ultimately adopting her.

And so I got to see kind of both sides of the equation, which I felt really rounded it out.

And then as I got older, I kept hearing all of these really negative statements, and people would talk about foster care and foster families and all these things in such a negative way.

And I really remember getting so offended as a kid because I was like, no, that's my family.

That's not my family that you're talking about.

What are you talking about?

And just getting very frustrated with the unfairness that I felt was associated with that.

And so, yeah, as I got older, I looked for the opportunity to really dive in and get involved, because I felt like, you know, as I got older, I started to see, oh, they're not talking specifically about my family, but what they're saying is valid, that there are things in this system that need to change and they need to shift, and that there are a lot of spaces and opportunities for growth within the foster care system, especially here in Texas.

And so when I had the opportunity to step into that space, I really looked for places that I felt were doing something for that.

So when I came across Austin Angels and I had the opportunity to really step in, I saw this program specifically as an organization that is actually filling the holes that are associated and really trying to change the statistics.

You know, Susan, our founder, is so passionate about wanting to figure out not only how do we support and help the families that are right here in the moment, but how do we also look back and see how are these kids falling into this?

How do we change the statistics moving forward?

How do we prevent cyclical damage from continuing to happen?

And that was what really called to me with this specific organization, because just this mission and, you know, we talk about, we've got our mission, our vision, and our North Star.

Our North Star.

The thing that we're always working towards, the thing that guides everything that we do, is we want to change the statistics associated with foster care.

And so everything that we do, every.

Every decision we make in this organization is specifically geared towards are we doing something that's changing the statistics and making sure that these kids have a better life, a better future?

And ultimately a better life.

That's great.

So do you follow and track the children, you know, the youth that come through your program?

Do you track them as they become adults?

Do you.

Do you keep those statistics?

We try the best we can to keep track of people.

We're still a relatively small organization at this point.

Most of it is just, are we able to keep in contact with them?

Right.

We've talked about trying to introduce some kind of, like, alumni program where we're able to kind of keep track better, and that's something that we're going to do eventually.

That's the plan as it is right now.

We just continue to build those relationships and keep track of people as they leave our programs.

Right.

Getting back to something I wanted to ask you about, getting back to your experience growing up.

I hear from a lot of parents that they're concerned.

They have maybe one or two biological children at home or whatever, and they're like, well, I'd like to foster, but I'm so afraid of, like, what it will do to my kids if, like, they, you know, if they get reunified and, like, having them go through that kind of experience and experiencing that sadness and that trauma.

Can you speak to that at all?

So, I mean, I.

I think it all has to do with how you talk to your kids about what you're doing.

If you're approaching it from the perspective of, like, we're going to bring this kid into our house and keep them forever, then it is going to be hard if that child were to go home.

But if you're approaching it and being open and real with their kids, that, like, we're bringing this child in because we want to help, that they need some help right now, and that, you know, we're going to step into that space and we're going to provide the support and the help and the love that they need.

And then if they go home, you know, then you have those conversations as you build up to that.

You know, cases don't typically don't happen overnight.

Right.

You usually have at least a little bit of time to prepare.

That isn't always the case, but generally.

And so if you're having ongoing conversations, I think that it can be.

It can be supported and your children's needs can be supported as you go.

Right.

I'm not gonna lie.

It was hard.

It was hard to watch the little boy that we'd had in our home for a year go home.

It was very difficult.

Yeah.

But I had been prepped and primed and.

And knew that this was what was best for him, that he was getting to go home and be with his mommy.

And that was something that I could understand, you know, And I.

I was also.

I was 12.

I was a little bit older, but I have.

I've seen families.

I've seen licensed families who have younger children.

And again, it's all about just the communication and how you're talking to them about what you're doing and why you're doing it.

Anytime you're coming at it from a perspective, we're here to help the child, not we're doing this for us or we want something out of this.

We want to expand our.

Those conversations get a little bit more difficult when things don't go to plan.

And so if you're coming at it from the perspective of we just want to help and love this child, then when things go in either direction, it's a little bit easier to kind of support and explain to your children.

Absolutely.

That's a great answer.

And was the child younger than you, or was the child older than you, same age?

I'm just curious.

Okay.

Yeah, he was young.

He was about 2 when he went home, so we had him.

He came into our home when he was about one.

Okay.

And were you able to ever keep in touch with him after that, or.

No, for a number of years, we did.

We lost touch when he was probably about 15, but we kept contact with his mom for about 10 years.

So that's a long time.

We did.

We did keep touch for quite a long time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then with your sister, I'm assuming she was younger as well.

Was she much younger than you as well?

So she actually was placed with some friends of my parents.

They had gotten licensed at the same time, and so they had taken her as a newborn, and then she transitioned into our house when she was five months old, and we adopted her when she was about 2.

Is she also involved in any of this kind of work?

Or is she interested in it or.

Or is that not her thing?

I'm just curious.

Particularly, she's talked to me a lot about her experience.

I've asked a lot of questions about her experience, especially whenever, you know, part of my job, especially as a home developer, was to train families on transracial adoption and having, you know, people that look different in the home.

And so I asked my little sister a lot of questions.

She's Latina, so I asked her a lot of questions about what it was like to be raised by a white family and what her experiences were to help Better inform the way that I could communicate a child's experience, the child's needs, to the families that I was working with in training.

So she's been very open with me about that.

But as far as a career choice, it hasn't really been something she's been overly interested in.

She does ask a lot of questions about what I do, but she's gone into cosmetology.

She does hair now.

Nice.

Does she do your hair?

Cause it looks really good.

I like your hair.

Nice.

Sometimes.

Sometimes when I can convince her to.

She does.

Right on.

Yeah.

I'm always interested in listening to adult adoptees, particularly transracial adoptees.

Both of my children are.

My daughter is Filipina, and my son is African American.

And so I'm very, very conscious of that and wanting to do the best that I can to support them.

And still, I know there's gonna be stuff, you know, I know that that's inevitable.

What would you say, as a professional, what are some of the most important ways that you can support a transracial adoption or that child?

Yeah, I think one of the primary things that I would say is that it should be just talked about.

It should never be something that is pretended otherwise.

Like, you know, it should never just be, you're living in this home, so this is your culture now.

You never want to be dismissive of the background that that child comes to you with, regardless of the age at which they are when they come to you.

And so being open and curious with the child allows that space.

Right.

It can be very difficult for children who are being raised in a home with people who don't look like them, because there's this.

There's this dichotomy where they feel like they want to honor the family that.

That they're living with, that they're forever family.

But that should never be at the exclusion of their own.

Own personal history.

And so when you hold space for both, it allows them the safety to hold space for both.

And so, you know, if they have the cultural heritage project at school, it should not be your personal heritage that they're going to talk about.

Research together what that child's cultural heritage is and celebrate it.

Make dishes that are reflective of that culture in your home.

Make sure that that child has access in their life of positive, healthy adults that look like them.

Go out of your way a little bit to find the doctor's office that has the doctor that looks like them.

Make sure they're surrounded by people who.

That they can look up to, who actually look like them.

And that is really going to surround that child and make sure that they don't feel isolated or excluded because of the way they look.

Because naturally none of us want to hear it.

But whenever you have a child of a different race being raised by a family of a different race, it can feel isolatory.

The best intentions can be had by that family.

It doesn't change that fact.

And so it's the responsibility of the adults in that situation to provide space for the child to celebrate and be proud of who they are, both within the context of that family, but also with where they're coming from.

Agree.

That's really great advice.

Thank you for laying that out.

We moved from LA in 2003 back to where I'm from in upstate New York.

And we were in a very nice school.

When we started, it was great, but it was just so white.

It was just so white.

And we were just like, this is not.

It didn't feel okay.

And so we changed.

And now he's in a school that is predominantly African American.

The teachers are almost all.

It's like 90% African American.

Because it's true.

It's not just the student body, it's the people in positions of authority, role models, you know, that he needs to see as well.

So that's good.

Thank you.

Thanks for sharing that.

Are you.

And this might get into territory that I don't know if you even want to like go there or not, but with what's coming, with the new administration and everything that's coming, is there a sense that things might be in jeopardy or how are you preparing for that?

Are you preparing.

Is that a conversation that you guys are having?

So it's interesting.

I live in Texas, so I already live in a very, very conservative area.

You know, I live in a blue dot.

We live just outside of Austin.

So we're kind of in a blue dot in a red state.

Right.

Texas as a whole already has a lot of the reflections of what the incoming administration has.

So specific to where I live.

There's not a lot of preparation that's being had.

One of the big changes that we are preparing for and that we are making sure all of our chapters are aware of because I believe that it is going to be something that continues happening is there was some recent changes and there's already a few states that have done it, but Texas just passed it just over a year ago.

We just hit our one year anniversary on this decision.

But they changed the removal.

The reason for removal previously, for a child who was being.

There was an investigation.

A child was removed previously based off of eminent risk of harm.

So if CPS went in or DFPS did the investigation and they determined that there was a high degree of likelihood that that child was at a high risk of being hurt, they could be removed.

Okay.

They've shifted it now to eminent risk of death.

And so that changes a lot of things.

Children are not being removed at the same rate that they were before.

Which there are some cases where that's great.

There are some cases that are right.

You know, maybe a child didn't need to be removed and they were removed previously.

So there are some pieces that are good.

But there are also kids who are being left in very unsafe situations because they haven't been hurt enough to justify being removed.

And that's a fear that I'm concerned that we'll see that spread out.

Wow.

Yeah.

As the years go on.

Right now Washington has, has already made those changes.

We have three chapters in Washington and one of them's seen a 50% reduction or more in cases of children being removed.

And so what that might do as we go along, we'll.

We'll have to see.

It could affect our, our eligibility criteria or things like that to make sure that we're still serving and helping the youth and the families who really need us the most.

But that's a fear that I have moving forward, especially with the shift in administration, is that we will see less kids getting removed because the numbers look a little bit more favorable.

Ah.

Whenever we're not removing kids.

Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh.

So it's such a complicated subject.

So is it that they don't want resources going to that.

Is that why.

So it's better if less kids are removed because then the resources aren't going to those families?

Or is it just because they want it to look better?

Or.

I'm just trying to understand like the, the reasoning behind it.

We start getting into that.

I'm assigning my own assumptions about why I'm seeing the changes.

Yeah.

I don't completely know.

I know some of it has to do with there's a very long standing lawsuit in the state of Texas specifically that essentially made the argument that children who entered care, and especially those at a young age and had multiple placements and bounced around and then ended up aging out, experienced more trauma through their time in care than they would have had.

They just remained in their family of origin based off of what was going on at the time.

And I absolutely agree with that lawsuit.

I think There is a high degree of validity to that.

And so Texas has made a lot of changes in the last 10 to 15 years in an effort to address some of that.

Some of it feels a little bit, you know, like trying to make a change but not actually doing it in a way that's going to be long term impactful.

They closed a lot of group homes because there's.

There's a lot.

Plenty of group homes that have a lot of stuff going on in them and are problematic.

And so they closed those, but they didn't have anywhere for those kids to go.

So we ended up with more kids.

And remember, I think about CWOP earlier, the children without placement.

And so some of it feels like just shifting things around as opposed to putting resources behind it to improve the actual system.

So there may be a piece of that to it.

Some of it is going to address some of the kids who are being removed unnecessarily, which is fantastic for those specific cases.

This is a good change.

Right.

But there are.

We're already seeing some children end up in really desperate situations because they weren't removed when they should have been.

Right.

Because the other thing is it's kind of subjective if the risk of death is like, I mean, according to who?

Like, do you know what I mean?

That's a.

An interesting thing.

So it also almost requires the child to end up in the hospital, which.

Yeah, that's awful.

Who's taking them to the hospital?

You know?

Yeah, right, Right.

So it's.

It's not enough for, say, the children's parents or whoever they're staying with to be.

If they're like, actively using drugs and there's like neglect and abuse in that way, that's not enough anymore to remove the child.

Oh, my God, that's.

And we've seen a lot of that in Washington.

We've seen a lot of that in Washington is children remaining in.

In homes with people who are heavy drug users.

But if they're old enough to take care of themselves, then they're being left in that situation.

Wow, that is disturbing.

Yeah.

I'm sorry.

So that's my fear, and it's insane.

A lot of people don't even realize these changes have been made.

A lot of people in Texas don't even realize this change was made over a year ago because it's all been done very quietly.

And so that's one of my fears, is that that's going to continue spreading across the United States.

There's already a number of states who are already looking at Enacting the same measures and so something to keep an eye on and what that's going to look like.

Thank you for letting us know.

I'm sure there's also with the abortion bans, there's going to be more children ending up in the system.

I mean that just seems like a logical.

Am I correct in assuming that?

Yeah.

So.

And then what?

Yes, yeah, we'll see.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

That's really unfortunate.

Or through private adoption.

Uh huh.

Um, what about the undocumented individuals?

Is that a factor as well?

Do any of those children end up in the system or has that not really been something that happens?

They have before.

Yes.

I have seen them come across.

They're typically gonna stay closer to the border.

And so the farther away you get from the border, the less of those children and youth you're going to see.

But yes, absolutely.

Especially as detention centers end up being put into play again, those kids that are getting separated from their parents absolutely do end up in care.

We have seen that before.

What are some of the things that have surprised you about being in this field?

Oh, gosh, I think people's willingness to show up, you know, we live in a society where, you know, people tend to put themselves first.

And I'm always constantly blown away by the willingness for the people who come to this, their willingness to serve, they really do just want to show up and help.

And I've seen people really go out of their way.

We recently, and I think it was actually in that eight minute video you were talking about earlier.

We had the story of Connor and Abel.

Abel is a young man who's in our program.

He is a college, he's a college freshman last year, so sophomore I believe this year.

And he's been partnered with his mentor for I believe four years now.

And he had, he has a bunch of siblings.

He's the oldest of something like six siblings, I believe.

And he needed a car.

And the amount of people who stepped forward and were ready to buy this boy a car, buy him or pay for insurance, pay for gas for a year.

The people who stepped in and just wanted to surround this young man and really provide him with support and love and just belief, belief in him as an individual just really blows me away and just, you know, brings tears to your eyes.

And I see that every day.

We do what we call impact reports where we talk about just stories of impact, people showing up and volunteers and mentors and families really coming together and doing beautiful things together.

I had a family tell me the Other day, a story about one of our case managers brought to me a story about one of their.

They're volunteers who.

The volunteer and the family had a little bit of a rocky start.

They had a little bit of trouble making that connection.

But now it's been, you know, some time and they've, they've really built this connection.

And the family comes forward and says, you know, I think we're getting married today.

Like, decided to go to the courthouse that day and they mobilized the volunteer and the case manager.

They made flowers, they bought a cake, they showed up.

And of all the people there, they were the only non family members who were invited to be a part of that day.

I've seen, you know, people show up and create these beautiful, like a, like a baby shower for one of our youth who's expecting and just show up.

And these moments of this just beautiful humanity that I get to see through the work that we do is absolutely one of the coolest things that I get to see.

You know, there are so many negative spaces.

There's so many ways to really get just downtrodden about the way that the state of the system, some of the experiences that these kids have.

But, man, getting to see the way that beauty shines through in the relationships that we get to create is just absolutely awe inspiring.

I love that so much.

The reason that I started this podcast was there's so much negativity about that.

Everyone talks about, everyone's heard the horror stories, everyone's heard the negative side of it.

And that's very real.

It's not that it's not real, but there's also so much beauty.

Yeah, that was my whole thing about why I wanted to start that if people want to help, if they're listening right now and they feel inspired, maybe they're not ready to like, jump into being a foster family.

How can they help?

How can they be involved?

Absolutely.

Like I said a little, a little bit earlier, you know, not everyone is called to foster adopt, but every single person has a place that they can help.

So there's a number of ways I would encourage people to look up.

Whether you have a local chapter or a chapter that's near you, if you do, you can absolutely volunteer.

We have, if you are open to a longer term commitment, we have our Love Box program.

So you would be paired with a family who is providing foster care.

You would get to work directly with them once a month.

You would go in and spend time with that family, hang out with them, bring them dinner, take the kids out to A movie, whatever works for that family.

We talk about intentional giving, so showing up and doing for the family what is actually beneficial to the family.

So you would partner with that family and really walk alongside them if you're called to it.

Also, we have our Dare to Dream program where you provide mentorship to a youth who is in care or who is aged out of care.

We work with children or youth up to age 22 and so you can walk alongside them and work on goals and milestones to really prepare them for being successful on their own out in the world.

So those are both longer term commitments though.

We ask for you to commit at least one year at a time.

So it's a one year at a time commitment.

You can keep moving forward.

But we do ask for at least one year on the front end.

Beyond that, if you are feeling like that might be a little much, we have lots of one time opportunities so you can come in and help volunteer at a specific event.

Like I know here in Austin, we have an upcoming Christmas Shop Day event.

We're actually taking our caregivers shopping and we'll provide Target gift cards for them and a personal shopper who will walk alongside them within the the store to help them pick out some Christmas presents, wrap them on site, we'll have a hot cocoa and different things that they'll be able to do while they're there, but really get them kind of set up as they're moving forward for Christmas.

So those, there's opportunities like those that come up throughout the year.

There's also build a Box events.

So if you work for a company who maybe you have some philanthropy type things within your organization, we do build a box events and so you can buy all the supplies and usually we'll show up with the boxes and then you guys can just stuff the boxes together.

And then those will get provided to families who are in the program or new incoming families.

So those will go to our families that we serve.

And so there's all those opportunities.

And if you're like, you know what, I really just want to show up financially.

That's what the capacity I have right now.

You are able to go and donate to any of these chapters as well.

So we always appreciate that.

And some of our chapters even have something called an angel ally.

Those are people who go on a list and say we have someone who gets a new placement and they need a crib.

We can reach out to that group of people and we can say, hey, is anybody able to help support them through this?

And then you can say, yep, that's me.

I'll get that crib.

I'd love to do that for them.

And so there's that kind of one time giving through that as well.

I love that.

Wow.

There's something for everyone that is really great to know.

Yep.

Again, your website, I'll put it in the show notes, but can you say it again in case they're listening?

Yeah.

So if you just want to go to national angels, it's NationalAngels.org any of our chapters also is just typically the name of the chapter followed by dot org.

Except Austin, because we were the first.

We are a little bit different.

It's AustinAngels.com Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Is there anything I missed, anything that you were hoping to talk about that we didn't cover?

Oh, my gosh, no.

I feel like we covered so much and it's just been so much fun.

I know.

So exciting to be a part of this.

It's been so great talking to you.

I really appreciate it.

I know you're busy with your little one there and.

And just in general with life, so I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today.

Absolutely.

It was an absolute pleasure.

Thanks so much for this.