The Dare to Dream program offers you the opportunity to serve foster youth ages 11-22 on a one-to-one basis. Based on what is needed, a mentor can serve as an advocate, teacher, guide, role model, valued friend, and general life-coach for the young person with whom they are matched.
Mentors support their matched youth in achieving major milestones, such as budgeting, getting a driver's license, setting post-graduation goals, and housing. In March 2020, one of our mentors let us know that her mentee, a South County youth in kinship care, had been sleeping on the couch in the family living room for well over a year. Now that school was virtual, she needed her own room to make progress in her studies. As we talked with the mentor and family, it was clear that they knew exactly what they needed. The caregiver was a skilled builder and the youth was more than willing to work; all that was needed was materials. Olympic Angels put out a call to the building community. G-Little Construction took the lead, and we got out of the way. The needed materials poured in with incredible generosity and speed, and within two months, the family had completely built a sleeping structure for the mentee. During this year like no other, the community came together to ensure this youth could study, sleep, and have her most fundamental needs met. Her mentor summed it up this way: "To be in a safe home is one thing. But to be in a safe home that also feeds your soul is what we are going for with all these kids."
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 Hi <Anonymous>! This is April at Olympic Angels. It sounds like you’ve got a real heart for kids experiencing foster care. I love that you’re asking these questions with such curiosity and an open heart. I’m happy to try to clear up a little from our Olympic Angels perspective. Fair warning, this response is long - it’s a quite complex subject. I should start by saying Olympic Angels is not affiliated with the State, CPS, or any foster licensing agency. We are not religious or political - we are simply a nonprofit working toward improving how kids and caregivers experience foster care and changing (the statistically bleak) outcomes for children who have experienced foster care. Further, we are in the relationship business - focusing on real human connection and being another healthy, consistent presence in a child’s (who has experienced significant instability and trauma) life. We don’t focus on “stuff” - no new pair of shoes, coat, or backpack can affect outcomes for kids the way a consistent, caring adult can. Our volunteers actually give foster parents very little in the way of direct financial support. Most of what they get is people. 🙋 People to help make all the appointments possible. 🙋♂️ Someone to go out and get the groceries while the caregiver holds a grieving child. 🦮 Someone to walk the dog, so the caregiver can meet with the court-appointed advocate. 🙋♀️ Trusted, familiar people to babysit while the caregiver reads up on bedwetting for 12-year-olds. ...Real, messy, trauma-fueled life that caregivers bravely say yes to. Think of a time your world has been shattered or someone close to you's world was turned upside-down. So many appointments, things vying for your attention, and big, big emotions. What we do is “journey with.” We take things off plates. We give rides, pick up the birthday cake, give a date night, and bring the pizza. 🍕 To more specifically answer your questions - this is the source we have on-hand regarding the compensation for licensed caregivers.  Here is the link if you’d like a closer look: https://www.dcyf.wa.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/ProviderPaymentsFAQ.pdf
But that information ^^ is for LICENSED caregivers. The majority of the families in our programs are actually in informal care. They’re grandparents who thought they were done caring for young kids, they’re aunties who very unexpectedly took in their drug-addicted newborn nephew, they’re distant relatives who had never planned on parenting. In these situations, most often they receive NO assistance from the State. So when these unsuspecting caregivers (and licensed caregivers as well) take on the important role of fostering kids whose families have failed them, Olympic Angels steps in. Volunteers from the community figure out how to make life easier and be an extra set of eyes and hands to ensure a child’s heart is held and needs are met. The “statistically bleak outcomes” I referenced earlier plague some of our country’s most fraught issues - take a look at our resource page to see why we’re so committed to changing these kids’ lives: https://www.olympicangels.org/resources.html I hope this helps explain the need, and Olympic Angels’ role in the foster care community. And while the need for more foster homes is very real, we know not everyone can take that on. If you’d ever be interested in volunteering and walking alongside kids in foster care and their caregivers, we have two simple programs and would love to meet you! https://www.olympicangels.org/programs.html Thanks, <anonymous> - happy to keep the conversation going if you have any more questions. Have a great day! April Transparency is trust! Have a listen-in on our conversation about financial transparency and find out how Olympic Angels makes and spends donor dollars. We promise it's worth your time. 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. |
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March 2025
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