Fostering Heroes turned 3 years old last month. This is a significant milestone for nonprofits and demonstrates our long-term commitment to providing youth in foster care with a supported plan and pathway to a successful life. 30%-50% of nonprofits don’t make it past their first 3-5 years, so we are taking a moment to celebrate our greatest accomplishments along the way!

1. We are serving 60+ youth every week.

 

 

In 2023, Fostering Heroes hosted a few small events for Foster Youth and a summer camp. We were known for showing up with fun events throughout the year: horseback riding, sporting events, music workshops, arts & crafts. However, we weren’t providing the kind of mentorship and skill-building that is essential for driving long-term success. Focused on setting up youth in foster care for success in adulthood, we knew there was more work to be done. 

In 2024, we began a weekly mentorship program and started visiting group homes weekly. What began as chatting with the kids has evolved into a multi-unit curriculum and 20 volunteers working with over 60 youth every week. This culminates to over 50,000 hours of mentorship each year.

This is not where our work ends. We continuously evaluate the success of our programming through pre- and post-surveys, feedback forms, and communication with group home partners. We work closely with youth to ensure that programming aligns with their goals and meets their needs and expectations. Proud of how far we’ve come, we will continue to evolve the quality of our programming and continue to expand.

2. We provide mentorship directly in group homes.

Youth living in congregate care face greater challenges aging out of foster care, compared to their peers in kinship care or foster families. They are more likely to be involved in juvenile justice systems, and less likely to have a positive relationship with an adult or mentor (a key indicator of later success). Additionally, youth living in group homes are less likely to be involved in other extracurricular activities due to logistical difficulties. For these reasons, we have focused our programming towards youth in group homes. 

To overcome the logistical challenges, we provide weekly programming directly in group homes, meeting youth where they are at. We work closely with our group home partners to schedule sessions within their weekly calendars and have set up many successful avenues of communication to ensure undisrupted mentorship and skill-building.

3. We have built a reputation of consistent support among youth in our mentorship.

This is what consistency looks like in the life of a volunteer:

As soon as Nicole rings the doorbell, a kid is heard yelling “Nikki is here, can I open it!” She was dubbed ‘Nikki’ after a young lady shared about her childhood best friend of the same name, and decided to start using it. Nikki unloads Hot Cheetos – a house favorite – and today’s activity onto the dining table. Five girls quickly come out to join while one girl calls out something about needing to finish make up first. After eagerly pouring chips into bowls, everyone starts playing a game about skills and tools needed to enter careers in public safety. Items like “finger prints” and “evidence” lead to conversations about Criminal Minds and pathways to forensic careers. One girl, Sara, shares that she’s always wanted to be a police officer, but now she’s curious about other careers in the same space. As the game winds down, Nikki talks with Sara about how to get a job as a forensic tech and about her high school biology class. On her way out, Nikki waves and the girls say “See you next week!”

The first weeks as a volunteer aren’t always so smooth. Most of the adults in the lives of youth in foster care are paid to be there or don’t provide consistency. It takes a few weeks until youth begin to trust that they will “see you next week”, but once they do the payoff is tremendous. Not only have we built these individual relationships, but we are finding ways to do it at scale with 60+ youth every week!