Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) has launched a robust transportation program to aid New Mexico students’ mobility. The APS school board unanimously approved a four-year, $1.2 million contract with a Cincinnati-based transportation company, First Student. This partnership offers students alternative transportation, including coordination with the local bus system. This initiative tackles barriers faced by families in the community who have experienced homelessness or are involved with the child welfare system, helping them establish permanency and enabling children to stay in their school district despite transportation issues.



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Indianapolis-based Foster Success, a support network for youth aging out of foster care, is expanding via its new nonprofit, Foster Success Education Services. This not-for-profit will operate in three new locations – Arizona, Ohio, and Maryland – in addition to opening a new Indiana site. It will manage federally funded Education and Training Voucher programs, offering academic and financial aid to eligible youth with foster care experience, including those who have aged out or are in specific educational programs. This expansion across three states will greatly assist young adults in their post-secondary journey.



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Toys for Tots volunteers, in coordination with Set Free Motorcycle Club, the Montana National Guard, Helena Police and the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s office, have delivered over 2,000 toys along with furnishings to the Montana Child and Family Services Division (CFSD) as a donation. Thanks to the local community partnerships, more organizations have joined to help and donated more goods to CFSD, hoping to bring normalcy to the children and families CFSD serves. “They provide an opportunity for families and children, parents involved in the welfare system to reconvene, congregate and gather and so they’re critical to the department and to the state,” said Charlie Brereton, DPHHS Director. 

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Congregation for Kids, a Charlotte, NC-based nonprofit that mobilizes the community to advocate for children in foster care, has launched an online platform called CAREnow where people can donate necessities to children in the child welfare system, similar to an Amazon wishlist. This platform was created as a solution to social workers spending their own money on items for children who often enter the foster care system lacking basic needs. Now, community members can contribute to take the financial burden off of social workers and ensure that children are getting the items they need. CAREnow plans to expand to communities across the country as it has proven to be a highly successful resource for children and families involved with the child welfare system in North Carolina.

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The director of community relations at the Coalition Supporting Young Adults Louisville, Nicholas Marshall, shares his own experience of growing up in the foster care system in Kentucky. Marshall was raised and fully supported by his two sets of caring foster parents, which led to him being the first member in his family to graduate from college. The experiences he had played an essential role in his current career path – working for community advocacy. He advocates for changes, supports, and resources for children in foster care and families both in and out of the system; he advocates for leadership representation that includes people of color; he raises concerns for the mental health crises happening among teenagers and youth. Marshall works to bring local organizations together to support youth and families, wanting to give a “hand-up” to people to help to carry them along the way.

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Back to school season is a nerve-racking time for many children, including those in foster care who often experience additional challenges, and looking their best helps students feel their best as they head back to school. The annual Confident Kids event, hosted by Catholic Charities West Michigan, offers free haircuts and styling to children in foster care so that they can feel more confident when they go back to school. Over 40 hairstylists volunteer their time and expertise to make this event possible, often coming back year after year. The event also offers fun activities and goodies for children who are adopted and in foster care, including snow cones, gift cards, and school supplies.



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A new app called FosterPower was recently created by an attorney in Tampa Bay, FL, to give youth in foster care access to easy, digestible information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights. Taylor Sartor, the app’s creator and an attorney with the L. David Shear Children’s Law Center of Bay Area Legal Services, says that often children do not receive education or information about their rights when they enter foster care. The FosterPower app, which is available on Google Play or the Apple App Store, is divided into sections like placement, medical and mental health as well as LGBTIQ+ rights, and includes sub sections that cite the law.



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