Foster care is vitally important for kids who cannot or should not be with their parents.

But it's a system fraught with challenges, and that's magnified in the Pensacola area by a very high rate of children in need.

We'll go in depth on the realities, opportunities and efforts to make a difference.

On this edition of InStudio.

Foster care.

There are many alarming statistics for children in the foster care system.

Around 90% have been exposed to some type of trauma.

And around half will develop substance abuse problems.

There's a huge need for foster care services in the Pensacola area, and a lot of work is being done to produce good outcomes.

Will delve into every step in the system on this show, but we start with a critical new resource.

At the end of the process, Pensacola's Fresh Start Village is already making a huge difference for young adults who age out of the foster care system.

Yeah, just a tremendous project that's on the corner of Peace Boulevard and Blood Street.

And joining us in this segment to talk about Fresh Start Village.

Kevin Hagen, board president for Amber at Pensacola, who spearheaded this project.

Melody Kohr supervisor of Young Adult services for Families First Network.

And Olivia Thomason, a former foster care child who lives at Fresh Star Village.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

And Melody, I'll start with you.

Just just how challenging is the scenario for kids that age out of foster care?

It's very challenging.

Our young adults don't have the supports or the financial means to age out and be successful.

Housing has always been one of our number one challenges, and Fresh Start Village has really alleviated some of that for us and given our kids an opportunity.

So, Olivia, you're someone who's been able to take advantage of this.

So before you moved in there, how worried are you about, you know, what your prospects were and what your options were?

It was a very loss at first.

Well, after I graduated high school, you know, some traumatic events happened with my cousins.

So any of my younger cousin to come live with me and my grandmother, because of that, I would have to give up my room and my space there.

So I had the option of either, you know, being on the streets or, you know, being in a shelter.

Luckily, I had a great friend who let me stay with him for a while.

And and then, you know, Brandon, my caseworker, he came to me and he told me that there is a better opportunity for me, which was the first village, thankfully.

And since then, it's been so much better.

I'm not as worried anymore.

That's tough.

That's fantastic.

Well, Kevin, of course, your group is the one that got this done.

That they built this a spearheaded this.

A lot went into it.

Right.

How did this come together?

So our company, Amara Pensacola, is a nonprofit housing company founded in 1989 by Jim Reeves.

I've been a friend of his since the nineties, and we established a new board to serve Amara.

And I've been on the board for about six years with the president for about three years.

And our goal is to provide housing for people that need housing and can't quite afford it.

And so the opportunity came because we visited a project called the Dwellings in Tyler just outside Tallahassee, and it was done with a philanthropic fellow by the name Rick Kearney.

And so the process is that he built or he got the county in the city of Tallahassee together to build a low end barrier shelter.

And the next step was dormitory type housing.

And the third step was a village of tiny homes.

So the dwellings is that village.

And that kind of inspired us that this could be a solution to affordable housing.

And so we at that point, we really didn't intend for it to be for kids that age out of foster care.

But in a long saga that Melody has been around for.

We moved the site into multiple locations.

All the while we had an impact 100 grant for the community building, and we got an opportunity to get a fee free piece of property from Baptist Hospital at the corner of Pace and BLOCK.

They used to have a monument sign.

There was kind of the back gate, the Baptist hospital, and that we took it this free, we took it, and Baptist kind of let it lead us to families first.

And so it kind of just kind of evolved into this organic team effort to say, we have property, we we want to build stuff, we have the program to do housing, and they have the built in clientele, unfortunately.

But that's kind of the short version.

There's a lot that went into that and the property wasn't even in the city.

We had to annex it into the city because we have a very welcoming city for different types of development.

So that's kind of the first part of it.

Yeah, we can get into some more of that in the process, but with Melody, just, you know, how, how significant is this to have this option there for, for some of these young people?

it's great.

Gives them such a great opportunity to have stable housing, to focus on their education, career goals.

Yeah, and you're seeing that right now.

So what is it been like living there and what has it done for you?

What has it allowed you to do?

it's been great living there.

All my neighbors are just awesome.

It helped me be able to get into college and everything and get really good job.

I'm now working at an elementary school as a TA.

It's awesome.

I work with kids.

Most are disabled, but they're all wonderful, beautiful children.

it's just opened up so much.

And I got a car and everything too.

It's all things you would not have had the opportunity.

You did not have the stability.

And this is this place to live.

You know, Kevin, I know, you know, you guys have done affordable housing projects, different kind of things.

But did you did you realize when you're doing this project, how much of an issue this was and how important this was?

No, you know, unfortunately, Stephen, I think a lot of your audience that watches this will probably be surprised at some of the things are going to be discussed today.

Everybody grows up and lives in a different kind of bubble.

And fortunately, I you know, I didn't have to go through foster care.

So I actually didn't didn't know this.

But to hear Olivia, I mean, I just seen her smile the whole time because it's just it's a testimony that when you come together and do something for somebody that helps, the recipient is the winner.

And that's what we wanted to have here.

Opportunity for kids that that that didn't get adopted and age out to have a fresh start.

That's why it's called first start.

So no, I certainly didn't know the need existed as much as it does.

You know, they call it a village.

So, you know, you said you love the other tenants.

You all the kind of the same boat, same scenario.

So what's the camaraderie like there?

Is it really does it feel like a village?

Is there a lot of support?

What's what's it like with it with you guys?

it's great.

We all run around from house to house together.

Hanging out.

The other day, one of my neighbors were having a little cookout and everything.

It's just it's great.

It's awesome.

I can't wait for the holidays to see All of our house is decorated and stuff.

And also, you've been through obviously, a lot of you've been through different challenges and that's something people can't relate to.

All the others, other kids your age maybe kid, but everyone there can.

Yeah, right.

So it's a great support system for all of us.

Yeah.

And how about the the level of collaboration you talked about?

What has to happen for this to come together?

I mean, a lot of different people stepped up, people stepped up, donations, people stepped up, you know, within the government to have to do what get done.

So.

So how impressive was that level?

How many different things had to be maneuvered to get this done?

Yeah.

So, number one, the side didn't have any utility, so we had to crawl Space Boulevard with water and sewer.

That really wasn't something that anybody really wanted to help with because it's not that glamorous.

But the kind of the linchpin that started it was an impact, 100 grand.

And so, you know, you got the stamp of credibility and approval, the Good Housekeeping seal that said, this is a real thing we want to get behind.

And it kind of led us to have some credibility.

Judge Ross Goodman was instrumental and fundraising and helping personally with the project.

And then we you know, we reached out to like the Crowley family, Sandy, Samsung family Maguire Martin Ale stock week increase and over holds firm and then it kind of trickled down into like I actually got SCA to waive impact fees which they will hate me saying this on air but every little bit helps the city the city Grover Robinson was the mayor at the time, championed the annexation effort, which was necessary on my roof, and I actually acted as the contractor.

Also, my roofing contractor did the work for half price just because, you know, he felt like it was a quality thing to get behind.

So it's a once you get the ball rolling, people really want to get involved and really want to help.

You just have to have that first initial get go.

And what does it mean now?

You touched a little bit on it.

What does it mean to you?

What does it mean the EMR to see now the impact that it's having, the kind of difference it makes and how it changes lives?

It's just heartwarming to hear Olivia.

I mean, I've two daughters.

To look at her is special, and so that's why we did it.

We didn't do it to to to make a statement or anything else.

We did it to help folks like Olivia.

And so I'm so glad to see that's happened.

Yeah, no doubt it's been pretty special, the impact.

So not everybody, you know, there's a limited amount of space there.

There's seven units.

So what else is being done, you know, for jobs?

What else?

Well, the things are in place.

We're always working within the community trying to locate extra other housing options, working with apartment complexes, individuals rent out their houses, you know, rent a room.

So we're always flexible and looking for new housing.

Do you have some some other friends or kids that that are are in this kind of scenario?

But you know what so what are some some scenarios out there for some of them?

What are some of the challenges and some of the unfortunate things that they're having to deal with?

Well, I know one of my best friends right now, she's dealing with, you know, finding her own space.

And a lot of her siblings are in the foster care system right now.

And she's trying to take them on and try to, you know, cause they're all separate from each other.

And it's so hard for her, you know, like seeing all of them be so far apart, away from each other that she just she wants them back.

Yeah.

It's it's, it's amazing.

So, you know, you guys do a lot of other different things also.

What are some of the other projects that you guys have done?

So we have 160 roughly units scattered on scattered sites throughout Escambia County that are mostly in a HUD voucher program.

We have some that are on open market, open rent market.

We have a project and working group that set aside for elderly housing.

And so we recently were awarded a grant from the state for what's called First Art Village Phase two.

We hope to put it right next to Fresh Start phase one.

But that property kind of became tied up between the city and Baptist Hospital.

And so we have some property on goal for each highway that we hope that we can get planned to put another eight tiny homes set aside for kids aging out of foster care.

And then next, we look know, we're really interested in trying to get some help to veterans, trying to find a way to get some veterans housing done.

And it's just it is a it's tough.

I mean, it's not like you just go do it.

You have a lot of steps to go through and hoops and and you need help.

And financially anybody that can help us as much appreciate it.

Hopefully they'll be there'll be more.

And obviously there's a limited amount of space there.

So.

So how do you pick who gets to go there and what is our process there?

And then how does that evolve?

Because they stay there for a certain amount of time and then move on to has that right?

So as a kids age out, we, you know, talk to the young adult, what is their goals where they want to go to school?

Is the housing in that area?

Is it affordable, mean reasonable for them to get to their job and stuff like that?

And then I would ask my thoughts.

Yeah, well, you how do you how do you choose, you know, the ones that get to stay there and then I guess they're there for a certain amount of time.

So what's the criteria for then moving on And then how do you then how has the process worked to bring different different young people in there?

Yes, we've chosen you know, we sit down and we talk to the young adult, we determine what their goals are, and then we select housing in that for that goal, they're allowed to stay in our program until they're 21 years old.

And if they're in college, they can extend it to 23 years old.

So they have a long time to, you know, get the support and everything they need to achieve their goals.

And there is money.

They get money from the state.

Right.

That that helps pay for the rent.

How does that if they're in school, how does that process?

Yeah.

So as long as they're eligible for the program maintaining eligibility, we pay their rent and utilities for them so they can be in the program and focus on school.

And so they have to just keep a certain standard or right level to be able to stay there.

But I imagine it's a pretty good waiting list of of all the ones you could get in there, you had more space.

We were always looking for housing for our kids.

So yeah, that's obviously a fantastic project right here.

And Kevin, thank you so much.

Thank you.

So I believe that that part of the segment here.

Kevin, thank you so much for joining us.

You two young ladies will be with us for the second segment as we move on.

While first, our village is making a difference at the end of the foster care journey, so much happens before a child gets to that point.

We'll go in-depth on the foster care process and the specific challenges in our area coming up.

The need for foster care services is very high in the Pensacola area.

In 2023, the rate of kids in the foster care system for Escambia County was over double the state average.

Families First Network provides case management services for a four county area in foster care in northwest Florida.

And joining us in this segment is Cory Borcherding which is Family First Networks president.

And rejoining us from the first segment is Melody Kohr, supervisor of Young Adult services for Families First Network, and Olivia Thomason, a former foster care child who is now a student at Pensacola State.

We are here on the Pensacola State campus.

So very, very fitting as well.

So we talked about the end of it.

Now, there's so much that goes into the foster care system very, very detailed.

How does the process work for for this system getting in it and how it plays out?

So in a given day, a hotline call coming through the department, children, Families, the hotline, it's one 809 six abuse an investigator will be assigned.

So when it goes to the hotline, it'll be assessed for and filtered out to see what's the proper place that they need to go.

Maybe it doesn't need to be on a call that the department will investigate.

Maybe it's just a need for services or support system someplace, but if it rises to the level that it needs investigation, an investigator will be assigned to the case.

They can have an immediate, depending on what the allegations, what the concerns are in that call.

It can be a 24 hour call, again, depending on what the allegations or the concerns are on that call, they'll go do an investigation.

Typically, they move pretty quickly.

If during the investigation, if they can assess that the child can children can safely remain in the home or they don't have enough to do more with it, then they'll continue their investigation.

That might be put maybe put a safety plan in place.

They can access us for early engagement services to kind of help and stay with the family while they're doing their investigation.

But sometimes they walk into a situation where they call present danger, where the child's at immediate danger, and then if they can't safety plan around it or they may still be able to safety plan and keep the child in the home with a real strong safety plan.

But if they can't, then unfortunate child may be sheltered at that time and then go into licensed care or a relative care or non relative care from that point within 24 hours, that family has a right to a hearing.

They call it a shelter hearing.

They'll go in front of a judge and the judge determines is there enough to for the child to remain out of home care or would not enough.

And we'd have to you know, the child would go back home.

Typically, they do a good job with their investigations and the children will remain out of home care within that amount of time, within 30 days.

My my staff are working with them.

We get the referral from the Department of Children family, so my staff will start work with them full time.

They get become primary on assignment on the case.

They'll develop a case plan with the family, the mom and the dad and the children.

And that's kind of their to do list that's out of a treatment plan.

We don't do treatment, but it's a case plan.

It's a task developed with the kit, with the parents based on what the allegations are in the case, If it's substance abuse, you know, they'll they'll have a substance abuse assessment, maybe complete some other ways or be referred to from that assessment so that they can substance abuse.

They'll go from the assessment to identify what the actual needs are within the substance abuse community.

So then we continue to work the case plan to be accepted.

Will continue to work with the family.

If it's an out of home setting.

The law states that they have 12 months to work in that setting.

From the day the child was born, they the child is removed.

So we have a 12 months to work with the child in our home setting.

We also work with families in home.

That's what we prefer.

So some some of the cases that come over to us, the child may not be sheltered still the foster care system, but we work with a number of families in it in a home setting where they don't have to go in front of a judge.

The least restrictive means.

We work with families that are in home that still go in front of a judge.

So there's different ways that we can work with the family.

The least restrictive being in-home in a non-judicial setting.

We just work with them.

They're working with us.

We can safely plan with that most restrictive being an out of home care setting.

So 12 months to permanent sees what they do that first 12 months that's either to reunification or if we can't reunify safely, then the court would determine is the proper goal at that time may be adoptions or another permanency goal.

So it's so much that goes into it is a big long process.

Olivia you're familiar with another because you've been through the process, so what was the scenario that happened in your life that that ended you end up having to go into foster care?

Well, I did grow up in an abusive household with my mother, we were living in Louisiana at the time, and, one night my mom went out and, she didn't come home for, I think two days, which was normal at the time.

and my mom's roommate came into the room and hand me the phone.

It was my mom, and she was calling me from jail to tell me that she had got put back in jail and that they found her.

at this point, she had got arrested for, you know, prostitution and dealing.

And I was left at the house for a week and a half all by myself, no food or anything.

Her roommate didn't really care enough to look after me.

Luckily, though, my, my family came.

She was able to.

you're sorry.

It's okay.

We know it's.

I know.

It's very hard.

So I'm going to be able to bring me here and get me such a better life.

I'm so grateful for that.

How old were you at the time when this was happening?

I was only ten.

So, I mean, obviously there's a lot of, you know, stories similar to yours.

So.

So what are what are some other kind of scenarios that that happened that they caused these kind of the foster care system to kick in?

I mean, how strong are you?

You know, you stood there.

Thank you for sharing your story.

I'm sorry.

So gets me to hear these stories after all these years.

I mean, it's every is the stories that she just told.

That's you know, it's could be related to some substances, substance misuse and substance abuse is the number one thing that our families and our community is dealing with.

You know, it leads, unfortunately, to bad decisions and neglect and putting kids in an unsafe situation.

We don't get involved with every family that has substance of substance misuse of substance abuse.

We get involved with families where that to a child being unsafe.

Right.

So the with you talking about, you know, the parents leaving her or not putting in unsafe situation, that's where we would get involved.

And so just everyday stories just like that and these poor kids in such difficult scenarios and things that are very hard to come back from and succeed.

And some of the statistics, if you find kids that have to go through the system, 25% will not graduate high school, 50% will develop a substance abuse problem of their own.

70% of young women will become pregnant before the age of 21, and only 3% of kids who age out learn a college degree.

So obviously, you're you're in, you know, a scenario where you're proving the odds wrong because you're on your way to doing that right now.

So what are some of the biggest, you know, when they first come into the system?

Well, some of the biggest needs and challenges that you try to address.

Well, I can I can take that one and I'll be working toward the end of it.

So the needs and the challenges when they come in the system, it's it's different for every child, of course, And that's part of the process we have.

When they come in, we do an assessment and see what the needs are.

What are the children just again, using Olivia's example to her strength and storytelling.

It's, there's a lot of neglect.

So what does that mean?

It's their experiences lead to trauma.

And how does that trauma that come out in trauma can come out in depression.

It can withdraw.

it can come out in anger.

if they could have needs because they weren't supported educationally, they weren't supported nutritionally.

so there is anything from a safety or a wellbeing stance for any child, that those are the things we identify in the needs.

And so we're start working with the kids and trying to get those needs put in place.

And whereas Melody, when her team, when the young adult services kind of place they're doing a still doing an assessment, you know, child's 16 years old, what is a child's need just like you know we had as with I had with my parents how to do the laundry, how to do your budgeting.

But there's still could be other needs too.

So we're assessing the needs at that time to try and transition into adulthood and on a monthly basis, my case managers and our young adult services coordinators, adoption workers were going into the homes.

We work families and we continue to assess.

Each month is a 30 days.

We're going in and assessing the needs of the child.

So when now initially reunification, that would be the top priority.

If it can be done right, in-home keeping them in-home would be our number one goal.

If right.

If the child couldn't safely be in the home, then it's reunification.

That's our number one permanency goal.

That's what we work for.

We want every child to safely be in the home.

We recognize that the best place for a child is safe and home with the parents, with their needs being met, their safety and their well-being needs be met.

And that's that's what we push for.

How often does that happen?

It happens a lot.

So numbers wise, of all the cases that I want to throw out and just misrepresent a number, but you know, we had over 200 reunifications this year from our cases.

That's 200 children that were reunified in our four county area last year.

Is there.

So when you're finding and vetting the foster families, what is that process like and trying to find that families that are suitable and that they can meet this need So through social media?

Well, this is where, you know, northwest or northwest Florida is the lead agency in our area.

And they do the licensing for the foster homes.

So there's a lot of social media posts out there.

There's other types of advertising, too, to pull in.

Anybody who's interested in fostering go into churches in the faith based home runs with for a for foster family.

So once they have identified it, foster families can enter into a a training program.

And once they complete that, they go through a home setting process and the licensing background checks and vetted that training program, gets them acclimated and trained in to awareness of the system, what they're going to experience, how to work with a child who might be exhibiting some trauma.

So it's not a long process, but it's a detailed process.

And then each month, my case managers, when they go in the home, they're assessing the child safety in the home, providing feedback, and they'll go through and become re licensed.

So it's a regular process for them.

And Olivia, you touched on the so what was the foster situation that you you came into when you came here?

Well, fortunately, I didn't have to go into, you know, another home.

I was able to go live with my grandmother.

And, you know, it was it was nice.

It was great.

I love her so much.

And then my siblings came later.

they're much younger.

And, you know, I was very fortunate to not have to go to home for my own home.

I know there's so many kids out there that do, and I know how hard it is for them.

but yeah, I got to be with family and have like so many opportunities because of that and just a better situation, better living.

And how did, how did you become Melanie?

How did you get acquainted with her and, and helping her, you know, through, through a lot of part of the system.

So our young adult service program starts working with the young adults when they're 16.

We're always their life skills and what their goals are in life.

And each year we're renewing that.

And so when they age out, we are able to put those planes into place.

And that's what we were able to do with Olivia.

And I know part of the process, the NWFP Health Network, is part of this process.

What part do they play and how important to what they do is tremendously important.

So their lead agency, so they actually had the contract with the Department children, Families for the Region, which includes circuit one, judicial circuits, judicial one, two and 14, which is Tallahassee to Pensacola.

And then we subcontract the case management services.

So we're subcontracted for case management services, our young adult service programs, which you all talked about, and then our adoption program.

So should a child not be able to safely be reunified?

No, They have to go through the adoption process where the parent's rights may or may be terminated.

And if they start term, they go see a national process.

So our job then is to find a forever family or Olivia, maybe live with grandma, with her family, with are forever family or potential long term family.

So that's what our job there would be is to find forever.

Families match kids and, you know, get them to finalization and permanency through the adoption process.

Are there enough are there enough families, you know, for the need?

Never enough.

Even if we had ten families for every child, you'll hear me say there's never enough.

Because what we want to do is when a child is has to be sheltered from their parents.

First of all, let me touch on the importance of family.

So first of all, we look for is family.

And around here, between 50 and 60% of our kids actually are able to place with family.

So looking for a family member that's appropriate in and willing to care for the child, or if maybe it's a family friend we call nine relatives, that's another home run because, you know, there might be there's a relationship, there's bi in their support, this love connection to the family.

If they can't placed with a relative or non relative, then the child could be placed in licensed care.

And when I talk about license care, I mean the things we're looking for is in our goal is place a child with a relative, a home run and be a relative that is in the same city so the child can continue in the same school, they can continue with their same friends.

So the more families we have in the area, we're able to meet the placement needs of the child close to home with their friends, close to the family, being able to visit with their parents through that, through that, the process and that home care process.

And that's really what we're looking for.

So the more families we have or the child like we talked about, that there may be some needs for the child.

So we need more medical homes or more homes that specialize in therapeutic treatments because some kids have some higher needs.

So the more homes we have, the more chance we have of placing a child in the home that can meet their needs close to home, close to their family or with the family.

So you'll always hear me every time I ask that question.

Ten years from now, even if we have a bunch more homes, you always hear that need.

But specifically, we could definitely always we could use some more homes there.

Yeah.

Olivia you mentioned some friends of yours that are in the system and not as fortunate as how the way you and I are working out towards the end there.

What are some of the, the challenges for for people that are for young people that are going through the foster care system and going from different families?

You know, what are some of the realities with that?

I think the hardest part is just finding the family for the child, because I've heard so many stories from my friends of, you know, horrible situations that they had to go through before they found their forever homes and stuff.

And, you know, it's it's hard, but in the end, it's still not as well as well.

But so how is that navigating the system if it's not a good fit or obviously, we hope everybody goes into the becoming a foster parent for the right reasons, but maybe, maybe it's not always the case.

So that obviously has to be monitored really closely.

So what's the process like there?

Yes, sometimes that unfortunately, that may not make you say a good fit.

I mean, there might be other kids in the home that might be a good fit for that child or we don't know what we don't know about the child.

But, you know, through our assessment period and we learn more about the child, we might need, that this might be a fit because of medical issues or for some behavioral health issues that meet the needs that might be met.

So that's what we're saying when we're saying is assessment.

We're constantly assessing and trying to work with to figure out what's going.

Because when a child comes into care today, we only know what is on a piece of paper, what the parents tell us or what the child tells us.

So we're constantly in that assessment period, trying to figure out what's what the child's needs are and meet the child's needs.

And, you know, some sometimes it's just on a personality setter, you know, whatever the reason is for that child not being a good fit in that home.

So we want you to myself, always hear me say we want the next placement to be the last placements.

Right.

And that hope with that first placements, the last placement, that's the goal we're working on.

What are some of the challenges and the barriers, you know, with some of the children that you deal with?

What are some of the some of the biggest challenges, the biggest barriers to being able to to get them to a successful place, supportive connections.

A lot of these kids don't have someone in their corner being their champion, someone to tell them, hey, you can do it.

You can go to college, you can do all these great things.

And that's what they need to do.

Believe.

I mean, at what point did you did you realize this can happen for me?

You know, I can have a normal success.

I can go to college.

You know, I had that kind of a for you.

Well, you know, at first it was I would not ever think that I was going to go to college.

You know, like growing up.

It just my kind of like alcohol.

It was you're either going to be one thing or you're not.

And it's just growing up with, you know, someone who deals with, you know, addiction and all that.

You kind of you parent them more than my parent, you know, which is the hardest part.

But coming here, it was great, you know, And now I definitely want to be in college.

I definitely would be in school.

I don't want to be, you know, parenting my parents.

I just it's great to be able to be my age if you know what I'm, But I'm so excited to be able to be in school and, you know, be able to make a life for myself that I thought I would never have.

Yeah.

I mean, your grandmother stepped up for you.

How important was the services that were provided to you, the help that you got from Melody and this organization?

it's so great.

And it's awesome.

You know, they were the ones to push me to be able to go to college, especially proud of my caseworker.

He is amazing.

he was really on my butt about it, and he is my number one supporter.

This is my curveball, cause it's just everyone in this program is so amazing and so supportive and helpful as well.

So.

So what can people do to help?

You know, there's different ways to help, right?

So what are some some different ways people watch this?

I want to do something.

What can I do?

So, you know, we talk about meeting Foster parents, but sometimes people don't can't open their homes up and have a chat place with them, but they can offer support in other ways.

You know, our faith based communities are amazing.

I know that you're going to talk about the care portal coming up and what just an outstanding program that is, too, where you know that sometimes we need a car seat, sometimes we need a bed, sometimes we need to somebody to spend some time and a helping hand, you know, whatever you can think about, whatever child needs for their wellbeing, needs, all of that.

We need all of that, right?

We're an organization.

So the support that we get to be able to support the children of support that they want to provide, just like we have Christmas coming up right now.

You know, we try to provide and make sure that Christmas is provided.

We don't try.

We Christmas for every one of our kids.

And right now we have 1700 kids that we work with.

So Northwest Florida and ourselves, we work together and we make sure that every one of our kids just doesn't have a Christmas present, but has their wish list met.

And so just things like that every day needs to the big and to the small.

You obviously we want to see success stories come out of this.

Olivia is a success story, you know, what are the success stories?

Do you see the kind of different paths that some people have been able to take to get out of this?

This challenge and find success in their life?

Yeah, I've had and I've been doing this 22 years.

I've seen a lot of success.

Thankfully, we've had a lot of people achieve, their college degrees, bachelor's and master's and running their own businesses at this point.

So and seeing them having healthy families and giving back to the community.

So what does that mean?

You know, you two obviously are really heavily invested in this.

It's your job, but it's obviously a calling for you as well.

What does it mean to you?

You know, you can't leave the emotions out of the right.

So what does it mean to you to be able to to do this?

And obviously you see failures also, Right.

So how challenging is it and how do you try to you know, how do you try to rise up within it?

the one thing I've always wanted to do.

I love this job.

This is the only job I've ever have.

I believe in it and I believe in the kids.

And we push them are always there for them, even when they're not in our program.

We're there for them.

And some do fail, but they come back and they get the support and assistance and I've seen them, you know, achieve those goals that they get wanted.

Yeah, You know, it's a new case.

Workers come in, I tell them it's going be the hardest job.

You're ever going to have.

It is to give me that.

You know, the book, The most rewarding Job.

And you might experience that all in the same day and the emotions that come with this job difficulties.

But the payoff and the rewards, when you sit here and you still are tugged emotionally by the stories and the successes and you hear the successful in the staff, it's just amazing.

You know, we're the one one of the one part of the system that says, yes, you know, when a home may say, no, I can't take that child, the hospital may discharge a child or GE may discharge a child or a mom and dad may not being no child, no matter what happens, a caseworker that's assigned to that child, we say, yes, we'll be there at night until a child is placed.

We'll be the first thing in the morning.

If a child needs to go to school, if the child doesn't have daycare, we'll watch that child in daycare, it means a daycare no matter what is no matter who else may say no in the whole system, a caseworker or an investigator say yes.

And it's pretty amazing to see the kind of work that gets done on a daily basis from the frontline staff.

Olivia, it's great to see, you know, you're on a great path right now to tell us what are you studying at PSC?

What's kind of your plans moving forward?

Well, right now I am trying to get my MBA first, but I'm majoring in radiology.

I want to be an X-ray tech and then later become a radiologist.

After a few years of being a tech and getting, you know, in the flow of stuff.

And I'm very excited.

For a while I was debating between, you know, the medical field and the teaching field, because this what I'm doing now was working out of school.

But, you know, I always liked photography and the human anatomy and stuff.

So I figured, you know, I think Max stuff and, you know, in high school I had a great teacher who really got me into photography and stuff.

He was amazing.

so I give props to him for helping me find my, my path and like, how my future and stuff were excited for you.

And thank you so much for sharing your story and thank you for what you're doing, succeeding, showing Joan the path.

And this can be done and you can come through.

This succeeds.

Thank you so much and thank both of you so much for all the amazing work you do and and sharing your stories and share your insight here today.

Some great teachers.

Okay.

All right.

Well, there are faith based organizations in the Pensacola that put an impressive amount of effort and resources towards foster care services.

We'll hear about what's being done and the impact coming up.

faith based organizations play a sizable role in providing support for foster care families.

Joining us to share some remarkable efforts in our area are Amy Floyd, volunteer leader for the foster ministry at First Baptist Church in Pensacola.

And Julie Zabcik, a foster care and adoptive mom who received help from First Baptist and is now planning her own outreach efforts.

So first of all, thank you very much, ladies, for joining us here today.

For everything you do.

So, Julie I'll start with you.

What was kind of your road to becoming a foster mom?

Well, it started at church.

We had our pastor ask all of the foster parents in the congregation to stand up.

And he acknowledged what they were doing and mentioned that they were starting training at church.

And so my husband and I took the training and became licensed foster parents.

So you first adopted it was Reagan, right?

In 2020.

How did how did that kind of evolve and then expand from there?

Well, we were probably licensed a day before we got the call and she showed up this we waited on her all day.

And these things take time.

You know, it's hurry up and wait.

And we were I remember running and getting Target, getting little girl clothes.

I didn't know anything about her.

Four year old little girl showed up and I watched her sister say goodbye to her and drop her off at our house.

And she never left.

She was our only foster child.

We got Reagan and ended up, you know, of course, just falling in love with her.

She immediately became a part of our family.

You know, you get to these decisions in life and you're like, well, is she going to be in the Christmas card?

And it's like, of course she's going to be in the Christmas card.

We just explain it.

You know, everybody that loved us knew who Reagan was.

And so we we just never, never goodbye to her.

You know, she stayed and it kind of expanded from there.

But we'll get back to the committed.

Amy, how did you you know, you were heavily, heavily involved in this.

How did you first get involved?

So I did pharmaceutical sales for my career.

So say that because I had zero, I didn't even know about the foster system, really.

And 11 years ago, Lauren Fein came to our small group on Sunday.

Her parents were in her class and she is a therapist.

And she said, We've got to do something for our kids that are in foster care.

And she had read about this camp called Royal Family Kids Camp, and it's an international camp.

And she said, is there anybody in here that would be willing to go to training and I was like, I don't know anything about this, But there are sisters gut feeling like I couldn't think of a reason to not go like, well, I'll take medication.

I kind of went through all the lists of why I couldn't do it, and then it kept just hanging around and I thought, Well, I'm pretty good at organizing and I have other skills.

Lauren's got the kid part.

And so the day before the applications were due for us to go to training, I took it over to their house and I'm like, I'm in.

And that was in 2013, and we just celebrated our 10th year of camp.

So that's where it started for us.

So what are the services?

What do you provide?

What are the big things that you're able to do for foster families?

So like I said, Royal Family kid's camp is once annually, one week a year, and then we have RFK Club, which is September through May, and it's once a month and it's like 4 hours for the kids that come to RFK can come to club.

We also do our under our Leaf ministry.

We have services that help primarily our kinship caregivers, which are caregivers that did not do what Julie did and went through the training and said, okay, I'm ready for Reagan, even though she didn't know it was Reagan.

Kinship caregivers are family members, neighbors, church or school that are familiar with the children.

So when children are removed, they get a call and sometimes it's 45 minutes and it's like, can you take a sewing group of five?

You know?

And it's like, we've helped five, we've helped seven.

And so we help them with beds and cribs and diapers and all those things because they really had no plans to do that.

So that's what we do as far as helping families get through the weeds and the beginning.

We also do at night, which is our tutoring and slash mentoring program.

And we had we just started back this week and we had 23 children and 13 families.

And so many foster families say that tutoring is probably one of the number one resources needed.

Our kids move and move and move.

And every time they move, they lose six months of their education.

We talked about this.

We were waiting so many these kids like we have kids that have missed 85 days of school in a school year when they're in before they're removed.

So once they're in care that that changes typically.

So we do tutoring and mentoring.

do Birthday Buddies, which we volunteer for a child.

But apparently, you know, obviously we get information from the parents just like we just randomly pick kids and they get a $25 gift card, a birthday card balloon, a cake of their choice.

So we find out what their colors are.

The themes like it's not just a generic.

So many of these kids have been given generic their whole time generic.

So we make it really special for them and we deliver it to the families.

So I think that's primarily what we do.

Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of things.

Exactly.

Well, you started with Reagan, but.

But you didn't.

You didn't stop there, right?

So.

So after you adopted her, what happened after that with the rest of her life?

Well, we realized before we got to adoption that she had a sister in kind of the Shalamar area and a brother and Milton, and they were both in foster homes, but they split up and we were trying to, you know they they just need each other.

And that, you know, they want to be together.

It's so good for them to be together.

And I realized that Reagan's sister was going royal family kid's camp, and Reagan wasn't quite old enough to go.

So as soon as she was, I signed her up and she went away and got to spend a week with her sister.

And then I was able to tell her brother's foster dad about it and Caden was able to go.

So we were able kind of unite them and then spend some time.

I got to there's there's a process called respite care.

If you're a foster parent and you need to go somewhere and you want to put you need help taking care of of a child, I was able to take care of Reagan sister and get them together.

And we just kind of fell in love with them.

And it fell into place that that they wanted to be adopted.

And and the children told the judge they wanted to be with us.

And so we were able to adopt all three together.

So so they were reunited with their family now, and we were able to reunite them before we adopted them.

And that's Cassidy and Caden.

Cassidy is now 11 and Caden is ten.

Cassidy is about to be 12 in February.

Caden just turned ten in August and Reagan is eight.

So how did you become acquainted with Amy and kind of using the services that they provided for?

Well, we have a mutual friend and a mutual friend had volunteered at Royal family and was telling me all about the Tea Party.

She I mean, when you hear this camp is is not like your average camp, they go all out.

I mean, they it's it's like she was saying and it's not generic everything's monogram aimed and love.

It's royal.

It's very royal and it's what they deserve, you know.

And so she's like, you've got to meet Amy, You've got to meet Amy.

And so the minute I met Amy, I was like, I'm anything Amy does, I'm all for.

So what?

You know, we're talking about this camp very much, the royal family camp.

So this is done other places, right?

And then you can try to bring the model here.

How did that evolve here?

And just how special is this?

It's it's really it's it's really cool.

It really is.

So it is international.

So we're Camp 300 and I think the camp will be turning 30 this year.

And like I said, this is our 10th year.

We did one year of training.

So the person that started it was a youth pastor out in California, and he apparently had a really big foster population in his church and he took them to camp one summer and he found that the kids that were in foster care were trying to be like those in traditional homes, like my dad this.

And we went on this vacation and all the things and he knew there's none of those were true, but they're trying to be like the other kids that they're hanging around with, with their peers.

And their life is very different.

So he's like, next year we're having a camp for them and we can take our other kids in their camp, too.

And that's where it all started.

And it's really cool.

We we don't when we're at camp, like we don't tell their stories.

We don't beat them up about being in foster care, but they all know that.

And they all try to act like they're not for the first hour.

And then we're like, Time out, all of y'all, are all of you all either been in foster care, Are you started in foster care?

Because once they've been adopted, they're still allowed to come.

And you can just see them relax and you can see them like know that it's okay that they're different and that they're not living with their parents.

And there's there's I mean, I'm sure that one of the biggest all these kids have experienced trauma and one of the biggest is being removed from their families.

And maybe even bigger is being separated from your siblings.

So we have, like Julie described with her as the three came together.

We had one year siblings that hadn't seen each other in a year and they saw each other.

And then we had another situation where two little girls came and they ran and embraced each other when they saw each other.

And so one of the volunteers thought maybe they were long lost per se, but actually they had been removed the same night.

A lot of the removals happened late at night and they had been removed and they were in the same.

I don't know what you would call it unit before they could get them in another home.

And they didn't know each other until then, but they hadn't seen each other since.

So we were able to get them on the bus together.

We put them in the same cabin.

I mean, you can imagine what that bond was feel like when you're scared to death and you're little.

And the only thing you knew, even if it wasn't good, was you were taken away from and for somebody that was there with you that night, you got to see again.

So, yeah, you know, so for you, we talked about the three siblings, but you didn't stop there.

You have two other youngsters you also adopted as well.

We are oldest all of our we have five adopted children and we adopted and adoption runs through our family.

You know, adoption I'm familiar with.

And I guess that is kind of what opened our heart up to Foster.

But we had no intention of adopting through.

Foster.

I just thought, we have room, we can do this.

We can do the training.

I come from a large family.

You know, we were a little too quiet.

Now we're not we're not quiet anymore.

But yes, we have five, four girls and one boy.

So.

So the journey was just started.

You just got your feet in there with foster care, and then it became.

You've adopted children.

Yes.

And and it feels like it happened quickly, but it didn't you know, there was a lot with COVID that slowed the adoption process down and there was a lot of stress.

And Amy, was there for that.

You know, even, you know, tutoring is such a huge blessing because, you know, there's this offer of free college.

If you're in the foster care system a certain amount of time.

But like I told Amy earlier, I said I just want to get them through third grade and doing homework for that many kids.

There's so many challenges for those kids, so many so, many.

I remember Julie saying one word, introducing birthday buddies.

She was like, Look, I don't know you birthday buddies, but I need like a double dose of tutoring.

Yes, I had homework for me for five You know, at the time I said I can't do I said fifth grade math is really hard.

And that's what at night night, that's what that program is.

Yes.

Yes.

And how about that?

But there's also a lot of physical needs.

And how about the care portal?

How does that work?

So that's really how we started to connect with our families is the caseworker or other DCF.

There's other agencies in our community that can enter a request like we have a mom who I'm a grandmother who just took in five siblings.

She needs crib, she needs badge and she needs diapers.

She needs everything, really.

And so we say, yes, we can help.

And we have a team of about 50 people at our church.

Some deliver, some donate, some pray, some bake.

And we say, yes, we can help and we purchase those items or.

People donate them for us.

We do new items primarily.

We do have some in good shape that we've given to families, but that gets us to the door and I always say that Jesus looks like a stranger on your porch with a box of diapers, a casserole, a crib, you know, and they're in there and crisis.

I mean, Steve, it's unbelievable.

I mean, they don't even know what they don't know.

And so we start there and then three weeks later or or sooner if we need to check back.

Hey, how are you doing?

What else can we do for you?

We only have underwear.

We need shoes.

And then it goes from there and we develop relationships and we've gotten them in RFK.

We've gotten them.

And at night we do birthday buddies with them.

We just helped a family recently with a generous donation get a van because their car wasn't big enough for all their kids.

We try to help them with dental.

I always say that people want to, you know, are like, my gosh, I thought they would have scars on our mother clothes to be dirty and like, well, they've you know they're in a better they're in a home now that that's taken care of.

But look at their teeth.

Yeah.

They don't care is just not a priority for a lot of the kids in these homes that they're removed from.

And this is all kind of part of the wraparound support, right?

Yes, yes, yes.

That's exactly what it is.

Sorry.

It's kind of a comprehensive.

Yes.

It's providing a safety net and a connection and all the things like I grew up in a neighborhood where, you know, I say this all the time.

If we had like a history fair or something like that and my parents didn't know the answer, we could go to the next door neighbors or we could go down the street.

And if we needed something for a project, they had it a lot of these kids before they were removed.

Move, move, move.

They don't have that safety net.

They don't have that network.

And we want to be that for them.

That's really something that's really missing from their stuff.

And trust is such an issue.

They don't have a lot of trust goes on either.

Trusts have been broken, so we really that's if we can do that, we're going to make an impact that now you attend echo life, now you're trying to start these kind of efforts with echo life, right?

We no longer foster parents.

Our house is full.

But and Amy has been such a blessing to me, and I've kind of watched what she's doing.

And I said, you know, I'm at a place in the life in my life where I can do something, what can I do and bring my church, bring to my church, how can I help?

And so I was able to be trained and be a representative from Echo to help with the care portal.

So you go and minister to the people and the area of our church invite to church because it is a community and everybody needs we all need each other and especially families in crisis.

And if they can get plugged into church and you know, that's where we started our foster care journey.

So if anybody's interested, that's a great place to start is at church.

Absolutely.

And you recently received a grant at First Baptist from Hope, Florida.

So what what is the grant and what is that going to allow you to do?

So it was a big surprise, actually, and we just have to use it on children.

And so our ministry is for kids in foster care.

We also have a ministry at church that deals with everything else so we can help other people as well.

But our goal with that money is to get kids involved in extracurricular activities, I was telling Corey and the group in there that we did a little survey with them and it's not zero of the kids we surveyed knew what a hobby was.

These kids don't even know what they don't know.

So we we've gotten some kids plugged into McPherson's magic and guitar and piano and a class, and we know we want to help them because that's where things are going to change.

And they're also going to meet new people who have experienced new things and different things they have where they were, they were being raised.

And I'm not saying that a negative way.

It's just we all need to mix it up and be in different places and encounter different people.

So we're super looking forward to that.

I think somebody because I know she went through the foster system and but I didn't know that that's where she went into a gym for the first time.

And she was like, maybe I want to do I think there are kids here that can can be changed, right?

So so, Julie, you're an example of a family that stepped up and, you know, your five, five kids now you're helping.

So what would you say to a family that is considering, you know, thinking about foster care?

Well, when you see the need, you know, initially we said, okay, we're going to take one, you know, a little girl, we've got girls, I can do girls.

And then you you realize she's got a sister who loves her very much and she's got a brother and there's thousands of cases just like that.

You know, not not everybody is called to be a foster parent, but everybody is called to do something, you know, And there's a there's small part we can all play.

And I even feel like I'm not doing enough now.

But it's like, okay, if I can start this like life group at church where we can help or we can, you know, participate in the care portal, there's something everybody can do.

I was licensed through one more child, and it's a faith based licensing agency.

So that that was where I started and it didn't feel as overwhelming.

Just one class at a time, learning what I needed to learn in order to become foster parents.

But it's amazing.

Well, thank you all very much for sharing.

You know, all that, all your insights and all the amazing work that you're doing so.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Well, thanks to all my guests for their time, their stories and all the amazing work they've done.

As we've seen, foster care is a serious issue with serious challenges.

But we should feel heartened by the organizations, the people and the programs that are out there making a difference, to give foster kids and foster families a better chance of success.