When we saw this letter, it wrecked us. No child should have to experience life like this.

Since reading this letter, I’ve been on a journey of finding my place in supporting children like these. For a season, I provided regular informal respite care to two foster kids, and learned much about the impact of trauma and the broken nature of the system that tries to support them. I supported a family that was fostering with meal drop-offs and other things as I could. And I spent time with a teen that had overcome many challenges, but was still struggling with a legacy of abuse and neglect.

I meet many who are touched by the needs of foster kids, and other children from difficult backgrounds, but aren’t sure how they can help.

The outcomes for kids who spend time in foster care in particular are heartbreaking – and even more kids who are not adopted by the time they “age out”. Many of the big societal problems we face tie back to foster care – drug abuse, trafficking, incarceration, homelessness, joblessness. What if we could resolve the source of these problems before they became ingrained, inter-generational, and macro-level problems?

As I began to research, I became impressed with the enormous number of resources that are available to help families of all shapes and sizes. While many focus on the adoption and foster care space, there are others to support families with disabled children, chronically ill or terminally ill children, as well as myriad other challenges. So, I thought it would be helpful to gather into one place the organizations working directly or indirectly to support families and children, and to rally volunteer and donor support for these that are doing great work.