Fostering Hope featured in the Colorado Springs Independent

Fostering Hope Provides an “Instant Family” for Foster Kids

By J. Adrian Stanley

Consider all the people who got you where you are, and those that would be there for you should anything go wrong.

Then imagine they’re all gone. Imagine you’re a boy who grew up without a family. Abandoned at 6. Adopted, but abused. Back in foster care at 12, now with a distrust of adults and little chance of being adopted again.

Now imagine what that was like for him and around 20,000 other kids that “age out” of the U.S. foster system annually. In Colorado, most of these kids emancipate by age 18, though the state allows kids to stay in the system until age 21. Their worldly possessions may fit in a single bag. Once on their own, they likely have no place to stay, no adult to offer a word of encouragement. Their chances of success? Slim.

Read the full story.

Fostering Hope wins $50,000 Encore.org Judges’ Prize to support expansion

On Nov. 14, Fostering Hope was awarded the prestigious Judges’ Prize by Encore.org, a group devoted to inter-generational initiatives that improve communities. This grant was given to help the organization begin the work of designing a plan to distribute what we’ve learned to other communities, which may be interested in replicating the work we do with foster families. In a fun twist, a cartoonist from the New Yorker in attendance at the prize ceremony captured the moment that Brian Newsome, Development Director, and Angela Carron, Executive Director, received the prize.