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GROWINGSTRONG
Foster Village celebrates ninth year of service
Under the shade of a lovely oak tree on Fitzhugh road sits an unassuming pale yellow house. Other than the sign out front, it doesn’t look much different than other homes in the area. But what’s going on inside is anything but ordinary.
This is Foster Village. Founded by Chrystal Smith in 2016, this nonprofit organization provides support to children and families that are experiencing foster care. They provide them with critical supplies such as carseats, beds and clothing, as well as with skills for coping with some of the issues that can arise in foster care situations.
“A lot of these caregivers just don't know how to navigate some really tough stuff that can be complex,” Smith said. “That's something that's really unique about Foster Village our expertise is traumainformed care.”
Smith said that in most cases, foster care placements happen without much warning. Even families that have signed up to foster don’t know when they might get a call, or what age their foster child might be. And sometimes it is relatives, rather than a foster family, that are getting the call.
“A lot of single grandmothers get the call from CPS one day, like, hey, we have your four grandkids in the office, can you take them?” Smith said. “And so things like beds, car seats, clothing are a determining factor in their ability to take their grandkids. But she doesn't have the resources to go out and buy those on a whim.”
Foster Village can help those foster families and relatives get basic necessities in place quickly - often within 24 hours. While most of the supplies can be delivered directly to the home, a lot of times the children and family will come to the resource hub at Foster Village.
“When they come here, kids can pick out their own items or the caregivers can pick out for them. They get a week's worth of new clothes,” Smith said. “Everything's brand new. We have a variety intentionally, so that they can pick things that they like.”
They also receive toiletries and get to pick out bedding.
“They'll be here for a couple hours getting this stuff, but really it's also about the relational connection and support that they're met with,” Smith said.
The house has a lot of cozy spaces for kids, and an inviting outdoor area. Its centerpiece is a tree that Smith calls the Wishing Tree - an oak wrapped in colorful knitting with a perfect spot for sitting. She said a lot of times the kids just want to hang out while the caregivers shop.
“It's just a place to decompress that's not real utilitarian or sterile,” Smith said. “It's designed for them, and I think kids pick up on that and it means a lot.”
Most of Foster Village’s staff members are former or current foster parents, so they understand the struggles that families face. In fact, it was Smith’s experience as a foster parent, as well as her childhood experiences, that led her to found Foster Village.
“I came from a really adverse childhood - domestic violence and a lot of things,” Smith said. “It was just like a driving factor in my desire to learn about child development and how to change things for the next generation.”
Smith pursued a degree in child development. From there, she went on to become a parent educator to court mandated parents - the parents who had their children in state custody.
She felt like that experience gave her insight on what it would be like to foster a child. She and her husband, who have three biological sons, decided to become a licensed foster home as a way to help out. They ended up adopting their youngest daughter from foster care, and also developed a relationship with her birth mom, who is a former foster youth.
“During our time fostering, our eyes just opened to the realities of it and how hard it is to be a foster parent and to be really in the thick of it with the kids, but also the families,” Smith said.
With that in mind, Smith started Foster Village from a storage unit in Dripping Springs. Her vision for Foster Village was to engage people who wanted to be involved with foster care and with supporting foster families. She said Dripping Springs answered the call, and set the gold standard of what it looks like for neighbors to come alongside kids and families experiencing foster care.
“Everything's donated by the community, which is really meaningful - just knowing that they're not doing it alone and that the community cares and is showing up to provide the resources,” Smith said.
Over the last nine years Foster Village has grown not just into the house on Fitzhugh, but also into a second location in North Austin. The nonprofit also gained nationwide attention, which led to the development of an affiliate program. Now there are 13 locations throughout the U.S., each one separately governed and separately funded.
“All of our affiliates come here for their training. They see what Dripping has built and then take it back to their respective communities throughout the U.S. and replicate it,” Smith said. “It's been really, really awesome and humbling to see how people are taking what we have created here back to their communities. It's probably close to 20,000 children nationwide that have been served, which is really cool.”
Smith said that while becoming a foster family can be a whirlwind on the front end, it’s the ongoing support that is often most critical.
“From there, it's caring for kids who've been through a lot of trauma, and we have the expertise and tools to equip the caregivers with how to navigate that,” Smith said. “We're giving caregivers tools on how to navigate behavioral challenges and mental health challenges related to trauma. And that's really the heart of where caregivers are getting the most out of our programs is that ongoing therapeutic and relational support.”
Foster Village hosts seven support gatherings a month for caregivers. They also do parents night out once a month. A key aspect of these events is providing childcare.
“Childcare for children who are in state custody is really complicated,” Smith said. “There's certain requirements that we are able to meet, and so it just alleviates another barrier that these families have in getting a break.”
Ultimately, the goal of Foster Village is to sustain the caregivers and create stability and permanency for the kids.
“A lot of the statistics around kids in foster care are really troubling,” Smith said. “Over half of our homeless population are former foster youth, same with our prison population. Sex trafficking victims in the US, the majority are former foster youth. So that pipeline, if you trace it back, the common theme is the trauma that kids experienced from bouncing from home to home.”
Volunteers are a key part of the effort. Foster Village has about 300 active volunteers who help out each year.
“Our volunteers do all of the sorting and organizing, they basically run the place,” Smith said. “It takes the village. Literally.”
There are volunteers who deliver welcome packs, there are volunteers who provide childcare, and there are volunteers who serve on the hospitality team.
“We have committees for our gala, for our fundraisers and different ways for folks to plug in their skill sets to keep this running,” Smith said.
In June, Foster Village held their annual “Growing the Village is Sweet” campaign, which gave members of the community an opportunity to help raise money for the cause by hosting lemonade stands.
“That's the beauty of the campaign that I love, is it's completely open to the community, anyone, the more the merrier,” Smith said.
Families could sign up on the website and receive a kit full of goodies to help them run their lemonade stand. It included lemonade mix as well as a kid-friendly business plan and tips for talking about foster care.
“It is always so impressive what these kids pull off. I mean, we have kids who raise a thousand dollars with a lemonade stand,” Smith said. “They are out there just like pushing the mission and get really excited about it.”
Local businesses get involved as well. This year, Mazama Coffee sold a lemon cookie, and all the proceeds for the month of June went to Foster Village. And Hat Creek Burger Company donated $1 from every lemonade slushie to the organization.
'It's just a fun awareness campaign that's really low barrier for anyone and everyone to get involved, and obviously the fundraising is a huge help,” Smith said. “So it's been sweet.”
The next big opportunity to get involved is with the annual gala in October.
“It sells out every year,” Smith said. “People really care about it as a way to support the mission, but also to learn more and stay involved.”
To learn more about Foster Village, visit their website at www. fostervillageaustin.org.
