• 41 parents empowered through our Cultivate Connection program to care for the complex needs of their children.
• 65 children cared for in attachment-rich, trauma-informed, healing, and evidence-based ways.
• New families discovering support through our Family Gatherings.
• Parents enjoying a much-needed break at our Parents’ Night Out events.
• Fun summer days filled with pool parties, skating, baseball, and beach outings that built community and connection.

• Parents’ Night Out
• Ice cream for 200 foster parents and children
• A roller skating pizza party
• A baseball game with fireworks and a hot dog dinner
• A beach day cookout with gifts for every family
• Five pool days filled with sun, joy, and laughter
• Over $2,500 raised for a family who lost their home to fire

1. Attachment and Trust: Changes in caregivers and environments can disrupt a child's ability to form secure attachments. This is true for many children who were adopted at birth also. This can lead to difficulties in trusting others, forming healthy relationships, and regulating emotions. Family Gatherings offer a safe community that teaches parents how to form attachment with their children to build trust, and teaches children how to regulate their emotions. 
2. Identity and Self-Esteem: Growing up in a non-traditional family, many children wrestle with their identity impacting their self-esteem. At Family Gatherings, children find friends, see families like theirs, other kids of the same ethnicity, and others who are adopted or in foster care, assuring them they are not the only ones. When they are able to build a strong sense of identity, it builds their self-esteem.
3. Emotional Support and Behavioral Struggles: The trauma of being removed from their biological families and experiencing struggles with identity, loss, and trauma can lead to emotional and behavioral challenges. Children might exhibit anger, anxiety, depression, or exhibit acting-out behaviors because they haven’t learned how to get their needs met in healthy, positive ways. Getting the right tools as a parent, normalizing your child’s experience, and teaching them ways to regulate their emotions helps to ease behavioral issues. When they learn that a safe adult will meet their needs, behaviors start to lessen.
4. Loss and Grief: Children who are adopted or in foster care often feel a strong sense of loss, not only of their biological families but also of relationships, familiar surroundings, and routines. This ongoing sense of loss and grief can impact their emotional well-being. Finding a community of others who experience these things normalizes their experience. This becomes increasingly important as the child gets older - particularly around ages 11-14.
5. Normalization and Belonging: Growing up in non-traditional family settings, many children question their identity and sense of belonging. By attending Family Gatherings, you contribute to creating a sense of normalcy for your children. As you gain insights into strategies that work, children witness the unity and strength within the community, which reassures them that they are not alone on this journey. 

​Why is it important to create a community for people who foster or adopt to find encouragement and support? Kim & Dirk recently drove more than an hour to get to one of our Family Gatherings. Being working parents with Kim working overnights is already a challenge.  Add in 3 kids – ages 3, 2 and 1 (1 in foster care), no family in the area to help, and parenting becomes even more challenging.   They have looked to their church to help with finding trustworthy, reliable people to help care for their children; but as is often the case, most people pat them on the

$35,000 IN DONATIONS WILL BE MATCHED
by a generous donor on #GivingTuesday, November 29th