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Have you ever seen ads or heard about programs that supply kids in foster care with suitcases to make it so they can move with more dignity than throwing all of their belongings in a trash bag? That's such a tangible concept to imagine - of course kids shouldn't have their things in garbage bags. But those ads always make me wonder "what if there were a healthy, familiar grown-up attached to that suitcase?" Isn't that what they really need? Someone consistent they can trust and who knows their story. ✅ Someone who knows what book they're on in the Wings of Fire series, ✅ who knows their favorite type of muffin (not blueberry, cuz mushy fruit=gross), ✅ someone who knows their favorite song ...someone who knows them, and will show up no matter what? Stephanie is that person holding the suitcase. Kids have no control over their situation in foster care. Love Box volunteers like Stephanie make it possible for them to have relational permanency - someone they can count on who will follow them to different placements and through the twists and turns of foster care.
Stephanie can't take away the hurt this child has lived through. But because of you, she can make darn sure this kid knows she is loved, seen, and valued no matter what. Walking alongside a child in foster care means having a front-row seat to their story, celebrating milestones, and offering encouragement through their struggles. Our programs are simple and effective - the social capital that naturally occurs through people helping people has ripple affects for many generations to come. By supporting our programs, you affect significant downstream systemic issues like housing, graduation and poverty rates, and costly health interventions. Whether you donate or volunteer, one yes will change their life forever, and it will change yours too. It was the sixth time these brothers had been removed from their home and put into foster care. Obviously there is never a convenient time for a child to be put into foster care, but this happened to be on Friday night of a holiday weekend, and the first day of the new school year was on Tuesday.  The boys showed up to their foster placement with just the clothes on their backs - nothing else. Our Case Manager went school shopping with the foster mom the next day, accompanying her on the two hour car ride. They bought the clothes the kids would need and gathered their school supplies. Fostering families don't have to do this alone - a Love Box group who had walked alongside this family before was reactivated. By that evening, meals were being delivered and the load was being shared. All for one purpose- that the children were seen, felt safe, and got to be kids on their first week at school. One of the volunteers ended up driving the boys to school every day that week while the caregiver got the bus arrangements worked out with the school. They even got one of those first-day-of-school pictures as well - and this was particularly meaningful because it was the little one’s milestone first day of Kindergarten. Now this sweet boy will have this photo as part of his story. We can all feel how important this is - for these kids to have people who will catch them when their family falls. To make sure they have a safe bed to sleep in, warm food in their bellies, and people who care about their first day of school. 🎓 Only 50% of kids experiencing foster care will graduate from high school.
Through community-supported foster care, volunteers are matched with kids and families in care. They are fierce friends who:
Volunteers show up the way a family would. 💫
After a few rounds of going through this alongside a kid, you start to realize that this is not only heartbreaking - it's also very common and very expensive. 💰It's expensive for the child who is missing more school. 💰Expensive for our small-town hospitals with limited ER beds. 💰Expensive for the social worker who has to find a new foster family if this one decides it’s all too much. 💰Expensive for the foster parent who is expected to pick up the child when it’s all over. (The hospital will transport the child to the facility, but there is no one to help transport the child home when it’s all over.) And even more than expensive, it’s not effective. The next time an episode comes on, the whole cycle repeats itself.
It’s also not what children need to get better. Our children need safe, consistent, regulated and attuned adults. Kids in care need a known and loving person beside them to help them hold their worries - to calm their breathing, and find solid ground again. How can it be that something so simple, and so cheap, can be so effective? Over the last few months, an incredible team of volunteers has built trust and come up with an action plan for that teen ^ when crisis occurs. That night, they took turns being with her- both at the ER and later back at home. Together, they called her pastor, a trusted adult in her life to be with her on the phone. They sat beside her until she was stable enough to be released into their care and back home to sleep in her own bed. The next day, she was in school. You don’t have to even like kids to see the return on investment a volunteer can make. It saves society tens of thousands of dollars every time an incident comes up for a child in foster care. The ripple effects of this kind of invaluable connection for kids can result in cycles broken - your support can bring stability and hope for the future. There's this awesome 14-year-old girl in our programs who has needed significant medical attention over the last year. A couple of incredibly intense surgeries, another two trips to facilities for mental health crises - all many miles, hours, and ferry rides away to access treatments. Each time she has needed medical care, and all of the many subsequent follow-up appointments, she has had to make this long journey from Port Angeles to the urban side of the sound (usually about three hours one-way).  Her foster parents have been able to make most of the big appointments with her, but they have jobs, obligations, and other kids in the home that they are beholden to as well. This added care is a huge burden.
Caregivers are asked to do the impossible sometimes...be in multiple places at once and parent kids who have been through so much hurt and dysfunction. So when Olympic Angels volunteers and Case Managers see an opportunity to ease the burden on the family or soften stress for a child, they say YES. For this youth, when her foster parents haven't been able to take her to appointments, her Olympic Angels mentor has been able to step in. Even on the days that start at 5:30am in the car, they have some of their best conversations. Heartfelt, in-depth talks about her past, what she's into now, and how they can prepare for her future together. Even though this last trip started before the sun, it was a happy one - she's thrilled to have gotten her cast off and is healing well. Looks like she & her mentor will be making the full-day Children's Hospital trip again next week for a follow-up visit though. -- Every family and every child is different, and we can meet their specific and unique needs. We can say yes when other people just can’t... No bureaucracy, no red tape - just people helping people. A few months ago, we told you the story of an eight year old boy who suddenly was pulled into foster care - with a family who had never parented before. They benefited tremendously from having a Love Box group of volunteers wrap around their family. This is a continuation of that story - about how this child’s life has been forever changed because of this support: He was getting lost in the mix of the large foster family, overwhelmed as more children were placed in the home. A Love Box volunteer named Stacy saw the opportunity and importance of mentoring the little boy.  When the child expressed wanting to take martial arts classes, that became their thing - their connection. Every Saturday morning, Stacy would pick him up and take him to a kids Jiu-jitsu class. One day, Stacy asked him if he would also like to go to breakfast. “Like you and me?!” he asked. He had assumed that Stacy was like the other people who took him places- hired transporters. This Jiu-jitsu and breakfast routine went on for some months before a greater need arose. The foster parent shared that she was considering removing the little boy because she was becoming overwhelmed and unable to handle his big behaviors. Stacy stepped into a bigger role with the child that day, making a room for him at her house. On a particularly difficult week when it looked like the foster parent might utilize respite services or possibly end the placement, Stacy was ready. With the help of her Olympic Angels Case Manager, Stacy asked the foster parent and DCYF if they could have a week sleepover instead. The foster parent’s needs were met- they got a break, and the child's need was met- he had a sleepover with a familiar, trusted adult instead of going to yet another foster family, likely hours away. This also preserved the placement through the end of the school year.
Today, four years later, Stacy is an anchor in this now middle schooler’s life. He now lives with his aunt and still sees Stacy weekly. This has given everyone a sense of deep emotional safety.  "One of the most memorable evenings I've had with my mentee was last spring at the beach, her feet soaked in freezing water, but she was getting the most glorious senior pictures taken. This alone is remarkable as only 50% of children experiencing foster care graduate high school. But this particular week was monumental for her.  In addition to the year of mentorship documented above, in this one week, she:
Monumental, right? Just two weeks prior to that list, the only thing that was certain, was that she was turning 18 and aging out of foster care. Because of all her hard work and relationship we'd built, and because trusted adults consistently stepped into the gaps, her outcomes have been dramatically affected. She graduated! She skirted homelessness. She has a job, license, and car. She has healthy, responsible adults who genuinely care about her. When you step into this kind of life-changing role, whether you're a volunteer, donor, or supporter from afar, you need to have a strong back, soft front, and wild heart. Being strong and consistent for kids in care, being open and meeting them right where they are, and dreaming big - even when they can't do it for themselves yet." -Emily, Olympic Angels Dare to Dream Mentor
 In early fall, he was picked up from school by the local sheriff's department and brought straight to their home - a loving home, but with caregivers who had never parented before.
At seven years old, he had already been making his own life decisions for years. Dressing himself, navigating a troubled household, finding his own food, and his own way to school... So when he entered foster care, there was suddenly structure - and like kids who enter care, he had also experienced profound neglect and abuse. With all of this came big, challenging behaviors. The foster parents needed help finding calm in the chaos, and oftentimes the only people who would answer the phone were their Love Box volunteers. They didn't always have the answers, but they were there, willing to talk it out and help the family get through that day. From the very first child that entered their home, this Love Box showed up in life-giving, deeply meaningful ways: ✓ delivering countless meals ✓ giving rides to soccer and gymnastics ✓ sitting through court hearings ✓ celebrating and grieving with them ✓ helping with house projects ✓ babysitting They held the hands of the foster parents and hearts of dozens of children over time - even following them as they returned home or to a new placement to keep familiar support for that child in place. Love Box volunteers connected so deeply with this family that lifelong friendships - relational permanency - naturally developed. This improved the lives of everyone involved, and changed the story of foster care for the kids who lived in this home. An Olympic Angels mentor is a fierce advocate for the youth they are matched with. They truly commit to a kid and guide them into adulthood. This is a life-changing relationship.
In late summer of 2021, I was working at the kitchen table with our Case Manager. She answered a call from a woman who, through tears, told us how rough it had been. She and her husband had never parented before when they got the call from CPS to pick up two children who were distant relatives. They weren’t prepared for the things that the kids had been through - AND she was expecting a baby soon. It was a hard call - we didn’t have the ability to match them with a volunteer group immediately. The couple made huge life-changing sacrifices to accommodate caring for the siblings. And the kids had extreme trauma and anxiety that was constantly resurfacing. They felt abandoned. The family was on our waitlist for a few months while we assembled and trained a Love Box group that was just right for this family. Volunteers worked hard and loved hard, and showed up for a solid year in a variety of ways that made the Love Box a stand-in, massively supportive family. They helped them hold their sadness and stood by the kids through the unimaginable situation that brought them to where they were.
 Along with their foster parents, this patchwork family held them accountable, guided them, accepted them, and LOVED them.
Our Love Box groups mimic a healthy extended family. And it serves the volunteers as much as it serves the children. People are meant to belong to each other. We’re built for connection. We’re meant to serve and be with and love on each other. To be at each other's football games and art openings, and sitting around a table laughing while eating pizza together. All Olympic Angels does is give permission and a framework for people to do it well. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
September 2024
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