Foster Parent Well
Jump into "Foster Parent Well with Nicole T Barlow," where the adventure of Christian foster and adoptive parenting gets a little easier, a lot more joyful, and deeply fulfilling. Nicole's here with a mission: to guide you in parenting with a heart full of steadfast faith, unshakable endurance, and infectious joy.
This podcast is your cozy nook in the vast world of parenting, blending laughs, learning, and lots of love. It’s where self-care meets faith-filled encouragement, and mindset shifts help you navigate the rollercoaster of fostering and adopting. For every parent out there looking to refill their emotional and spiritual tanks, Nicole's got you covered with stories, tips, and expert advice that speak directly to the soul of a Christian foster or adoptive parent.
With "Foster Parent Well," it's like sitting down with a good friend who gets it—the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Nicole dives into the unique challenges and beautiful moments of parenting children with trauma, all while reminding you that taking time for yourself isn't just nice; it's essential for providing the stable, loving home these kiddos need.
So, why not make this journey together? Join Nicole and a vibrant community of faith-driven parents, all dedicated to transforming their lives and the lives of their foster and adopted children. Tune into "Foster Parent Well with Nicole T Barlow" for your weekly dose of encouragement, laughter, and wisdom. Hit subscribe, and let's start fostering and adopting with faith, endurance, and a joy that lights up the room.
Foster Parent Well
Uniting Communities for Foster Care with Guest Rebecca Radicchi
Rebecca Radicchi joins us from Georgia Kids Belong to share her incredible journey and the transformative power of community in supporting foster care and adoption. As an adoptive mom and passionate advocate, Rebecca offers an inside look at Georgia Kids Belong, a chapter of America's Kids Belong, and their innovative I Belong project. This initiative crafts advocacy videos for children in foster care, particularly for those whose parental rights have been terminated. These heartwarming video creation days not only amplify the children's voices, focusing on teenagers, sibling sets, and children with special needs, but also aim to leave a lasting positive impact on their lives.
Foster families dedicate themselves to providing a safe and nurturing environment for vulnerable children, yet many face overwhelming pressures, leading them to quit within a year. We explore the importance of community support and how initiatives like the "Foster Friendly" program are stepping in to alleviate these challenges. By encouraging businesses to offer discounts and special offers, and utilizing the Foster Friendly app, foster parents gain access to crucial support, allowing them to thrive in their essential roles. From coffee shops to car repair services, these partnerships pave the way for a more supportive network, offering foster families respite and practical help.
As we delve into the expansion of foster-friendly communities across the nation, the conversation highlights the vital role of businesses, faith communities, and city governments in this mission. By fostering a sense of pride and unity, and bridging gaps between different organizations, we aim to create a sustainable and impactful environment for foster care. We emphasize the significance of the Foster Friendly app as a key resource for connecting foster families with mentors, tutors, and local support networks, while celebrating the efforts of businesses that have become community hubs.
Georgia Kids Belong links from episode:
Instagram
I Belong Project: Kids Waiting in Georgia for Adoption
Connect with me on Instagram: @Fosterparentwell
@nicoletbarlow https://www.instagram.com/nicoletbarlow/
Website: https://nicoletbarlow.com/
Welcome to the Foster Parent Well podcast, where we have real candid, faith-filled conversations about all things foster care, adoption and trauma. I'm your host, nicole T Barlow. I'm a certified parent trainer, a certified health coach and an adoptive parent myself. This is a space where you can find support so that you can care for your kids with a steadfast faith, endurance and joy. I hope you're catching this episode with a cup of coffee in hand or maybe while sneaking in a few moments of peace between all the beautiful chaos. Life gets busy, doesn't it? But I'm so glad you're here. First things first. I just want to say a big heartfelt thank you to everyone who has messaged me on Instagram recently. Seriously, you have no idea how much that means to me.
Speaker 1:Podcasting can be a bit of a mystery. Sometimes like I'm over here chatting away into this mic all by, sometimes like I'm over here chatting away into this mic all by myself, but I don't always know who's out there listening. So when you take the time to reach out, share your thoughts or even just say hi, it's like a little light bulb moment for me, like oh, real people are tuning in. If you're interested in reaching out, you can find me at Instagram, at Nicole T Barlow, and speaking of showing love for those of you who've taken a few extra minutes to leave a review for the podcast, thank you, thank you, thank you. I know it's one more thing on your already full plate, but those reviews not only help other people find the show, they also totally encourage me. So, whether you've just sent a quick note or a DM on Instagram, or you've written a review for the podcast, just know that you are making my day. Okay, now let's dive into today's episode, because I am so excited about my guest. You're going to love her.
Speaker 1:Joining me is Rebecca Radicki from Georgia Kids Belong love her. Joining me is Rebecca Radicki from Georgia Kids Belong. Rebecca is an adoptive mom of four, an advocate and a writer who's passionate about helping kids find the belonging they deserve. She's also a fan of travel, cooking, concerts and all things outdoors, so, basically, she's my kind of girl. What I love most about Rebecca, though, is her heart for connecting people. She's incredible at helping churches and businesses find creative and practical ways to support foster families in their communities.
Speaker 1:Today, we're going to be diving into that urgent need for families to dive into foster care, and why it's equally important for communities to rally around those families. I know this conversation is going to bless you and inspire you, so let's jump right in. Here's my conversation with Rebecca. Well, rebecca, I'm so excited to have you here. I have seen you work so hard to build community around foster care in your state and I really wanted to talk to you more about the importance of community and just how do we go about building that in our own areas. So tell me a little bit about America's Kids Belong. Georgia Kids Belong Like. What is it that y'all do and what is your mission?
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you. Well, thank you for the opportunity. I'd love to have this conversation. So thanks for the opportunity. So I am the state manager for Georgia Kids Belong. Georgia Kids Belong is a state chapter of America's Kids Belong. America's Kids Belong has 10 states and are also working in a few other cities in a few other states, so a pretty wide reach. We have two initiatives. One is our I Belong project. Our I Belong project we work with here in Georgia.
Speaker 2:We work with the State Adoption Exchange Unit, with the Department of Family and Children Services, to help advocate for kids who are in our foster system, whose parental rights have been terminated, so they are not. The goal of foster care is for kids to return home to their families, but in this particular case, with this particular group of kids, they're not returning home, so we work with them to advocate for adoptive families. We do that through video storytelling. We invite them out for fun days with lots of volunteers, lots of people to love on them, lots of personal attention. We get to take them to fun places. We were just with the Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. We've been at pizza places making pizza. We have done. We've been at Truist Park with the Braves. We've been at the College Football Hall of Fame Just trying to take them to really fun places, because they are coming on those days to create videos, knowing that they're creating videos to help them find families.
Speaker 2:So it's a day that, in their minds, represent all that they've lost and all that they're hoping for. So they're coming in. It's a very triggering and hard day. We're asking them to do something incredibly hard, so we try to make our venues exceptionally fun and special, just to lighten the weight of it and make it a fun and memorable experience project. As a result of those days, I will say that we create two minute advocacy videos that we share on our social media. We share those with lots of churches who share them with their congregations. We've got other nonprofits that share them. The state uses them on it's my Turn Now Georgia and AdoptUSKids so that when families are looking to adopt, they will find actual videos of the kids talking and sharing about themselves. So it's amplifying their own voices.
Speaker 1:That's our I Belong project. I love that. I train foster parents for a living and so many times you do have people that are looking for kids, that are waiting for an adoptive home and need that type of placement. So I love that you guys are advocating for kids in that space, but also being very conscious about how you go about that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Absolutely. We're really focusing on kids that are harder to place. So we're looking at teenagers who are aware of what's being put out on the internet about them. We're looking at sibling sets and kids with special needs. So we're trying to be very, very sensitive about that. We are honored to get to actually, you know, share their voices, share their faces. We don't take that lightly whatsoever, but it is a powerful medium for helping find families.
Speaker 2:Sometimes there are people waiting and hoping to find those kids and other times people will come across a video, not realizing that they were waiting and you know that a child was possibly going to enter their family.
Speaker 2:So it's, it is. It is our kind of our flagship initiative and one we hold very dear and are honored to get to, to get to do that work. And another beautiful outcome of it, of it is that, since we can share the faces and the voices of kiddos in foster care, people see those videos and have hearts turned toward foster care. They might see a video and not necessarily, you know, pursue adopting that child, but just feel stirred by actually getting to look into the face of a child and hear them talking and see that they're just kids with different life circumstances that are unique and sweet and fun and quirky and all the things, and then reach out to us and say you know what I've always thought about foster care? I've been watching this video. How do I start the process? And that is a very significant second outcome and goal of the I Belong Project.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, I do think it is a lot harder for people to turn away when they see real kids In our experience, when people see our family and they know some of our story. So we adopted a sibling group of five from foster care and or I mean even before we adopted our kids and we were just fostering.
Speaker 1:When they see our kids, and they're like oh wait, these are just kids, Right, and and the concept is not so foreign, Um, and they can see, um, you know, the faces, the personalities of kids, or whatever. I really do think that it makes a big difference as to make it not such a a foreign concept, but really it it brings it closer to home, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, I can share the statistic that there's 400 plus kids in Georgia's foster system who are waiting for adoption. But you know when I share Aiden and Aiden talks about loving football and how he really hopes this particular video will help him find a family and he looks right into the camera and says he wants to have a family by graduation and then tells about himself and that he's been in foster care for seven years. It's a whole different. It's a whole different thing. It's personal and real. So yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:I love that you guys do that. How did you get involved in this work, like, how did how did your heart get stirred towards foster care or adoption? How did your heart get stirred towards foster care or adoption?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Well, this job is the dream job of my life. It is the greatest honor. We are an adoptive family. We adopted internationally and when you start the adoption process you enter a different culture of people Within your church, within your community. You start being connected to other foster and adoptive families. So through that adoption process we ended up starting a foster care and adoption ministry at our church and did that for several years and, just you know, lived up close and personal and beside both foster and adoptive families and it just felt instantly like these are our people, this is what God intends for our life not only to adopt but, you know, on a grander scale, make an impact. I've done a lot of writing over the years about adoption and when America's Kids Belong wanted to start a chapter in Georgia, got the opportunity to lead their first I Belong Project video shoot here and that was going to be a temporary thing, but thankfully it is something I've gotten to step into and have helped start the chapter here in Georgia and help launch our initiatives.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, you know, I hear you talking about like starting a community at your church, and I know that that's part of y'all's mission, too is really to create communities around foster families and foster care. So why do you think that community is so important for foster families? Well, I think it is critical.
Speaker 2:I think that families who are fostering kids are, you know, taking in our most vulnerable kids in our society and I think there's just so much to it that most people aren't aware of and that I really, really believe it takes a village to serve these kids and to carry the weight of all of their needs.
Speaker 2:So our other initiative, our other initiative with Georgia Kids Belong is our foster friendly initiative and the goal of that is to rally community around foster families, because we believe that these are our kids, that, like I'm here and I live in Ackworth, and I believe the kids here in Ackworth are our kids and it's part of our job to to look out for them in whatever way is possible. And our foster families are on the front lines. I believe they are our missionaries, I believe they're community servants, community heroes, um, all of the things. Again, they are serving our most vulnerable kids and it's not a shift that they step out of. At the end of the day, they are living with these kiddos, meeting all of their needs, from academic to medical, to spiritual to physical. So I just believe it's a really challenging job and the community should be charged with rallying around them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, you know, I always tell foster parents that you know it's very different. You may be used to doing missions, you may be used to being in ministry or whatever, but it's very different when you can do ministry and then come home to your safe space. Then when that ministry moves into your home and it's a 24-hour job, there is no space without that. Exactly, it's totally different dynamic. And so I mean I agree, and I think most people don't realize just how taxing it is. I mean doctor's appointments, visits, all kinds of stuff that you have on your schedule.
Speaker 1:People are coming into your home constantly. People are critiquing how you do everything and the way you look and the way you smile and the way you introduce somebody, and I mean just everything is critiqued. And you know your home has to be set up differently. Cabinets have to be locked. I mean there's just so much stuff right, and so you know your home has to be set up differently. Cabinets have to be locked. I mean there's just so much stuff right, and so you know to have community around, I think really changes whether or not people can continue to do it. I mean, statistically, nationally, most foster parents quit within month four to month, 12. And because it's hard.
Speaker 1:And if we want stability for our kids that are in care, that need stability, that we need to somehow create an environment of longevity for these parents so that they are able to do the work for longer. So I love that you guys are taking this initiative to really rally around foster families. Not everybody can foster, not everybody's in a place to foster, but everybody can do something, everybody can play a part to really support the cause as a whole. Yes, absolutely so. Tell me a little bit about the initiative. What does it do? What is all involved in how you are creating community?
Speaker 2:Thanks for asking so. The initiative is called Foster Friendly. It's a statewide initiative asking so. The initiative is called Foster Friendly. It's a statewide initiative. We are working from border to border to raise up businesses who are willing to rally around foster families simply by giving a discount or some special offer for foster families. Businesses don't always have an opportunity to step in. Maybe they're asked for a corporate donation, something like that. But we are asking businesses to use their platform, their influence, what they're doing every day with their lives to serve foster families. So we have an app called Foster Friendly that's available to all foster and kinship families in Georgia and we've been real intentional to try to. There's several things on the app, but one being those businesses. We've worked really hard to make sure that there are businesses across the state and that includes everything from coffee shops, so a weary foster mom can go and grab a cup of coffee and have a moment of respite.
Speaker 1:Hallelujah.
Speaker 2:Hallelujah and get a discount on that and be able to afford it and to be able to walk into a coffee shop and know that that coffee shop is foster friendly, which is we call them a foster friendly business. They have agreed that they care about foster families. They want to play a role in helping them thrive and are offering some sort of a discount. It can be a percentage off, it could be a free cup of coffee, it could be a buy one, get one free. All different things. Businesses get to choose that, but a family gets. A foster parent could walk into that coffee shop and present the app there's an identification on the app and ask for that discount. And there's lots of sweet stories of owners coming out and just saying, hey, thanks for fostering, this is something small that I that discount. And there's lots of sweet stories of of owners coming out and just saying, hey, thanks for fostering, this is something small that I could do, I make, I'm making, sell coffee, I can, I can help you have a moment of rest, but with a cup of coffee. So coffee shops um jumpy places, as many family friendly things as um as we can, uh recruit um movie theaters, we have therapists, we have car dealerships, we have car repair places, we have salon hair salons, pizza places, all manner of businesses. We think that that you know our foster families need support in lots of different areas, from that cup of coffee to help with their vehicle that they're using to transport kiddos, so let's you know, give them a discount on their oil changes. Um to different attractions like Pine Mountain Animal Safari down in um, south Georgia gives half off. Wow, that's an expensive attraction. You know, taking a family out to any attraction can be challenging financially, especially for a foster family that welcomes in three additional kids and so they get to go to Pine Mountain Animal Safari and be seen by them and shown appreciation and be able to afford to have that outing. So there are foster-friendly businesses all over the state.
Speaker 2:We are identifying faith communities that are serving our foster families and kinship families. We identify those and they can be working with any other nonprofit, any other ministry. They can be trained by all the different ministries and nonprofits that serve in that area. We are looking for churches who do at least two of three what we call best practices, and that is, they have trauma trained their staff. They have an ongoing intentional ministry to serve foster families. That could be full wraparound or it could just be a parent's night out quarterly. And then the third would be speaking on foster care and adoption from the pulpit at least once a year. So if a church does two of those three things, we call them foster friendly and list them on the app.
Speaker 2:So we have foster friendly faith communities on the app so that if a family is looking for a church to go to, if they move, they're looking for, you know, a place that will see them as a family and want to serve them, then they can find those on the app as well. It also lists nonprofits. So we've tried to identify all the amazing nonprofits that are doing incredible work across the state from foster closets to mentoring, all manner of just different, beautiful and needed things that our nonprofits are doing and identify those on the app so a family can find them as well on the app. So a family can find them as well. So the app reads a user's location and it tells them within their area where the foster family businesses are, where the foster friendly faith communities are. It lists the nonprofits and it also a fourth thing that it lists is events for foster families. So that is statewide. And then we go a little bit deeper and we have started to build foster-friendly communities, which is a deeper dive within a community.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. I know that. I mean I'm not a current foster family, I don't get any discounts or anything like that, but we have a couple of businesses in our area that are foster friendly. They do have the foster friendly sticker out and it makes me feel seen, right, like. It makes me feel like, okay, I am important to this business. This business sees me and sees my kids and and really acknowledges that we're here and we're part of this community and I think that's so huge. I mean, even above the discounts is just for foster families, adoptive families, to feel seen. And I loved how you said that about the churches too. You know, to be able to go on there and to see that a church is trauma, informed, that they have trained their staff, that their staff knows and is going to be able to help my kids and meet the needs of my family, that I'm going to be seen and feel comfortable and wrapped around in that community, is huge.
Speaker 2:Being seen is very, very powerful and can mean the difference between a family, you know saying. You know I have community around me, I have people who care, I am valuable, what I'm doing is important and it's seen. You know, maybe I can do this for a few weeks longer, Maybe I can take one more case, and that's huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because so much of the work is behind closed doors and so you don't. Nobody sees what you're doing, nobody sees all the effort that you were putting out, nobody sees all the things that you have to do or the emotional load that you're having to carry. Nobody sees the weight of all the knowledge that you have about what goes on in our world and about what happens to kids, right Like. The weight of that burden is very, very heavy and it's something that nobody else really knows.
Speaker 1:And, as foster parents, because of confidentiality and because we're protecting our kids' stories, you know, even people sometimes in our close circles don't really know some of those things that we are carrying, and so to just have a community wrap around its foster families, a community wrap around its foster families, its foster children, and to say I see you you're doing important work I think is huge.
Speaker 2:It really is huge. So, basically, how our foster friendly community initiative started was I again I live in the city of Ackworth and I went to our mayor and at the time we were just working on gathering those foster friendly businesses, foster friendly faith communities, identifying all those nonprofits, which is highly valuable Um. But I went to him and um so I was asking if he knew this was brand new to Georgia term foster friendly was brand new Um. So I went to him and just ask if he knew of businesses in new to Georgia term. Foster friendly was brand new Um. So I went to him and just ask if he knew of businesses in our area who become foster friendly. And the more we talked um, he realized him.
Speaker 2:Our mayor realized himself that that our foster parents were not a population that he had addressed. And this is a beautiful man, this is a man who cares very much about his community and all aspects of his community. They've in the past have done a large initiative for our special needs population but really in this conversation realized that you know, our city had never focused on these families. He'd never had a meaningful, intentional conversation with DFAC staff. So in that conversation he looked at me and he said could our whole community be foster friendly? It sounds like we all need to be foster friendly and in that moment an initiative was born that literally has spread to other cities in Georgia and other states across the country.
Speaker 2:So our foster friendly initiative just took a step deeper and said let's really try to dig in as a community and we've developed a process and steps and some parameters around what that looks like for a city to become foster friendly some steps and some goals. But it's really been a beautiful thing and Ackworth has been a great example of that around what that looks like for a city to become foster friendly some steps and some goals. But it's really been a beautiful thing and Ackworth has been a great example of that. In the beginning we were just identifying. We set a goal based on the population of a certain number of foster friendly businesses. We wanted our foster families just to see those businesses popping up on the app and know oh my goodness there is a car repair shop and our pizza place and our ice cream place on main street gives discounts.
Speaker 2:They care about me, um. But then those businesses started to become aware of these families more and they would come out, as I said, and have conversations with these families and started to follow Georgia kids belong on social media and just their overall awareness grew. So the community's awareness has grown. We've developed and been very intentional about looking for faith communities within our community who would be willing to take the steps to learn to be foster-friendly. We've also asked the city and all of our foster-friendly communities to recruit, also asked the city and all of our foster family communities to recruit. Something we realized in Ackworth, which is most cities, in most towns in Georgia, is that there are enough foster families. There simply are not enough foster families, so we can take steps to take care of our existing ones, but at the same time, the city as a city needs to recruit. Yeah, our churches can certainly do that and they play an absolutely key role, but the city can take some steps there too. So it's just been a really beautiful thing to see. We're about two and a half years into this now and it's deepened as more people in the community are aware, and I will, you know, meet somebody at the park and start sharing about what I do and they're like, did you know? They'll tell me. Did you know? Our city's foster friendly and it's a sense of pride and it's really, really become a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2:So our city has been having recruitment events. We had a recruitment event last week that was called Ackworth Cares and we got our food from our foster-friendly businesses. Our foster-friendly faith communities were sponsors. We had nonprofits and DFACs and private agencies just having conversation and being in the same room, and so that was our second year doing it and it got deeper in the second year because more people were aware of foster care in our community and just all these beautiful things happened.
Speaker 2:We had a spa owner who already is foster friendly, who was there to represent her already foster friendly business, who heard leadership in Cobb County's DFACs talk about how weary your case managers are and she went up afterward to her and offered a spa treatment, like to come to a meeting and give a spa treatment. So there's lots of those beautiful like it's happening more organically now where people are realizing, okay, I own a spa, this is what I could do I you know I'm a principal in a school. This is what I could do that everybody truly, as you shared earlier, has a role to play and can use their life, can use the position that they're in to serve. It's been a really beautiful thing. And now we have other cities expressing interest and working on becoming foster friendly, so we've got five cities now in Georgia who are in that process.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. We talked about this a little bit before we started recording, but my city, the city I live in, is in the process of becoming foster friendly and it has just been really neat to see businesses start to pop up with the sticker and on the app and stuff and just to know that our city really cares, that. You know, going through that process Well is. So is the app itself just for Georgia, or is it located other places as well?
Speaker 2:It is an America's Kids Belong app it does it reads by area. So wherever you are in Georgia, if you're in Valdosta and you open it, it will read within a hundred miles of you in Valdosta, but any of our states who are pursuing the foster friendly initiative you are using the app. So another great feature is that if a foster family in Georgia travels to Tennessee, then they can. If they go up to Nashville, then we have Tennessee Kids Belong. So there's lots of foster friendly businesses in Tennessee around Nashville.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's kind of fun. So if you're traveling and you're looking for fun stuff to do, you could look on the app and see what are the foster friendly businesses.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and even we have. The city of Jacksonville has become foster friendly. There's not a Florida kids belong, but the city of Jacksonville reached out and wanted to become a foster friendly community. So right there on the border there's a city that is with all kinds of businesses popping up.
Speaker 1:So that's amazing. So how can businesses get involved, or how can folks begin the process of making their own city a foster friendly city?
Speaker 2:Great question. Any business can apply. We have an application form on our website. Those applications come to us and we can approve them. Of course, we're looking for businesses that are appropriate to be on the foster friendly app, Um, but it's as simple as saying you know, I can do something and and opening up that link and sharing their logo, sharing their offer, thinking, okay, I own a pizza place, I could do, you know, half price pizza or free drinks, or you know the offers are wide and all kinds of things, but thinking about what offer that they could make and then submitting that, and then they appear on the app and we follow up with information on how to onboard their employees.
Speaker 2:And we stay in communication with them regularly because, as I shared earlier, we're also looking to elevate their awareness. We want them to be foster friendly and then our hope is that their awareness will begin to build and that they'll continue to take steps in to go deeper.
Speaker 2:We've had businesses offer initial discounts Maybe they'll say we'll do 10%. And then some foster families come in and they have conversations and they get inspired and they realize you know this matters, because most of our foster families are walking into this business saying it is really cool to find our local Main Street ice cream store on this app Thank you for being foster friendly. And then we've had businesses call and say you know what, let's bump it up to buy one, get one free ice cream, or something along those lines. So that's been a really cool aspect. So any business can apply For cities that are interested in being foster friendly. They can reach out to us directly by email, through our website or social media.
Speaker 2:We are a small team and with big dreams and with these two big initiatives that have massive momentum. So, of course, like any nonprofit, we're working on fundraising. So we're also looking for partners who are willing to help fund this mission and help fund Georgia becoming foster friendly, because it is an investment of our time and our capacity is limited, because we really want to dig in. We're not interested in having communities say they're foster friendly in name. We want them to, you know, meet specific goals and then we want them to continue to go deeper, like, okay, you've reached your limit of, or your goal of, number of businesses, let's go deeper, let's recruit, you know. So it's really a time investment. We want to really be in it with our cities. So we are developing that capacity but need to fundraise to do so.
Speaker 1:But we would love to hear from anybody. Yeah, y'all. Just so you know, I got an email from Rebecca 415 this morning. That is very true. Yes, so they are working all hours of the day trying to get this done.
Speaker 1:Yes, I kind of hope people don't notice that, but yeah, yes, no, but I mean I think that shows your heart for for the mission and that you guys are not just standing back and going here fix this Right, but you're really digging in with cities, You're really digging in with communities, you are really helping, you know, bring awareness to foster care and the kids that need adoption and how to support foster families like really how to support, you know, foster care as a whole, and I think that's huge. So I mean, I think it's important that people know that, because I think that this is an initiative. These are things that people will want to invest in right. People want to invest in people that are really pouring their heart out for this mission.
Speaker 2:We hope so and we need them to because we have a lot of cities that are starting to reach out like this. This could happen in any city in Georgia. As we were standing in our that Ackworth Cares event and seeing all these beautiful connections being made from government leaders to DFACs, to private agencies and nonprofits and business owners and foster parents, it was just a beautiful thing and we were, like our teams looking at each other like this should be the case across Georgia. Yeah, but we do need people to rally around and invest in the mission Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, and I mean I think it's beautiful that you know a lot of times those agencies different private agencies and the state and different businesses that may be foster friendly but a lot of times are working in silo. So to be able to pull all of those people together in together, to work together, to get to know each other, so that everybody's moving in one accord, I think is huge as well, because there are so many kids that don't have homes and they don't have a place to go, and so there needs to be more awareness so more people stand up. I was on the phone with a defects worker earlier today about a child that's in a hotel and um and has been in a hotel and with without place to go right Because there aren't enough places available um to take kids in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't need to be a barrier for those kiddos by hanging out on our silos. We need every nonprofit, we need every agency to, you know, figure out their unique role and to play it. And so one of the goals of the Foster Friendly app is to point out other things that are happening. We don't, we don't want. It's a Georgia kids belong initiative. It is, you know, funded the app is funded by Georgia kids belong but we want to point to foster closets. We want to point to all the other nonprofits.
Speaker 2:We want, um, all the nonprofits and faith communities who are hosting things for foster families to put it on the app so that our foster families don't have to search, so that they can open up this app and realize that there are businesses, faith communities, nonprofits and events all around them wanting to work together. You know we there's no like charge for a nonprofit to be on the app, please. We want to point, point you out. Yes, you are fundraising too. We are all nonprofits and we're fundraising, but we fully, you know, we are people of faith and we believe that there is funding for everybody and it's not a fear of ours. So we want to point to, we want a foster family to be able to open up the app and see where the closest foster closet is. We want them to find a mentor, we want them to find tutors. So, absolutely, we absolutely have to build bridges to move forward because, you know, working in silos has been an obstacle, another obstacle for kids in care for far too long.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely, for kids in care for far too long. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, one of the other things that I have seen as a result of the app and businesses becoming foster friendly is foster parents building community with one another. So my daughter works at a local Chick-fil-A and that is foster friendly and they have foster friendly night on Monday night. And I will tell you, I heard some foster parents talking the other night and they're like oh well, our Monday nights are booked because we go to Chick-fil-A on Monday nights. But part of the reason they're so intentional about going on Monday nights is because they know that all the other foster parents are going to be there and they have really built community with one another because they're all there on Monday nights.
Speaker 1:Very true, yes, that's probably been great for Chick-fil-A, but it's great for these foster parents too, not just to be seen by Chick-fil-A, not just to get the discount on their kid's meal or whatever, but really to be able to have a gathering place where they're all coming together and getting to know one another and supporting one another. Has been huge and so fun to watch. I mean, I think that has been a huge benefit of, you know, our cities becoming foster friendly and more businesses becoming foster friendly is because these foster parents are gathering together in these locations.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That makes us, that makes me, very happy to hear, and we're hearing that. We're hearing great stories like that. We have the Children's Museum of Atlanta is doing a free day quarterly and we're hearing the same thing. Families are going because they get to go for free to the Children's Museum when they might not be able to go otherwise. But they're also saying we're going also just to be with all the other foster families and what a blessing it is at the end of the day to say I connected with this foster family who can relate to you know XYZ part of foster care, and it's definitely an exciting aspect. Yeah, Well.
Speaker 2:I just think that's community.
Speaker 1:That's community. It is community and I think it's been marvelous. I mean, I've seen the difference that it's made in your area and in my area. I've seen the difference that it's made in your area, in my area. I've seen the difference that it's made in these communities and in these foster families, and so I just applaud you because I think that you guys are really teaching people how to build community and how to build bridges well, so that we're all working together for this cause. So where can people find you and how can people support Georgia Kids Belong? Thanks for asking.
Speaker 2:We are on social media, of course. We are on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn. We have a website. America's Kids Belong has a podcast called the Foster Friendly Podcast as well, and in terms of support, my number one ask actually is that people who are following Georgia Kids Belong and see. So our I Belong project, as I shared, we're sharing videos of kids who are waiting to be adopted. The sharing of those videos and the interaction with those posts help those kids be seen and kids are finding families because they are sharing, because people share videos.
Speaker 2:It happens all the time that someone will say my friend, my high school friend, shared a video of this kid and I saw it and I couldn't stop watching and ends up becoming their family. So my number one request, first of all, is always for the kids is to consider sharing some of those posts of the kids in Georgia who are waiting to be adopted. We, of course, need more foster friendly businesses, so if anybody listening has a connection to a business who they think might consider it, you can find that information on our website or you can contact us and we will connect with you or that business. We'd love to add your faith community If you're going to a faith community that you think is foster friendly or would like to be, then let us know that as well, and we certainly, as I shared, do need people to help fund our initiative. We need people who can rally behind the Foster Friendly Georgia initiative and help make that possible, both financially and then just with connections.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I love that and, rebecca, this conversation has been so good and I think it will give people ideas on how to start building communities in their own areas as well, because I do think it makes a big difference for our foster families and for kids in care, ultimately that we are able to really provide what they need long term.
Speaker 2:So thank you for being here.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad that we we finally got a chance to to catch up and have this chat.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Very grateful for the time. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:All right, friends. That's a wrap for today's episode. I hope you're walking away feeling encouraged and inspired and maybe even thinking about how you can lean into supporting foster families in your own community or, if you're a foster family, really rallying your community around you guys as a group. Before you go, I want to share a couple of super practical things that you can do to make a difference. First, go check out the work that Rebecca and her team are doing and spread awareness by sharing some of their videos and helping others to see the needs that exist. I will put all of her contact information and website information in the show notes. And then, if you haven't downloaded the Foster Friendly app yet, be sure to do that. It's such a great resource for finding foster-friendly businesses in your area or even online businesses you can support from anywhere. It's an easy way to be intentional about shopping with companies that support foster families. And guess what? Right now, on the Foster Friendly app, I'm offering a free wellness coaching session exclusively for foster parents. Yep, you can find me on there by searching Nicole T Barlow Coaching. I know wellness isn't always the most exciting topic. Believe me, I get it, but this is different. I mix self-care, wellness, trauma-informed parenting and faith into one plan. That's all about supporting you as you parent kids from hard places. So go check it out. It's completely free and I'd love to connect with you there. All right, that's it for this week. Don't forget to share this episode with a friend and, if you haven't already, leave a quick review for the podcast. It means the world to me. Have a beautiful week and I'll see you back here next time.
Speaker 1:Now let me pray for us as we wrap up today. Heavenly Father, I just thank you so much for the work that Rebecca and the team that she leads is doing here in Georgia and what America's Kids Belong is doing nationwide, lord, to spread awareness for kids that need homes, to spread awareness for foster care and the need for families. To spread awareness, lord, about how people can get involved and support the foster families that are stepping up. Lord, I right now am asking you for more foster-friendly cities, more foster-friendly businesses, lord, more foster-friendly businesses, lord, more people to support these families that are standing up. Lord, I ask that you use these foster-friendly businesses to build up foster parents, to help them to feel seen and supported in all of the hard work that they're doing, because, lord, I know it gets hard on them. Lord, we thank you for how you are pouring into foster families. We know that you are their comfort and you are their strength. Help them to lean into you as well. We love you and we trust you, lord, in Jesus' name Amen.