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We bring ideas to life that restore hope to children in foster care.

 

We take a peer-to-peer approach to our work. Our clients are co-creators in all of our Great Ideas.

This collaborative mindset defines who we are as a company and how we think. Our team understands who we serve. Alumni of foster care serving youth currently in foster care, moms in recovery with prior child removal are helping moms toward reunification, and kinship/foster parents serving foster parents. We also take great pride in listening to what our clients think, feel, and want. Then we respond innovatively and involve them in every step of our process.

Our Innovation Process

Our Great Ideas
1

We ask the client questions and listen intently to their needs.

We seek to understand what a child in foster care is experiencing. We ask detailed questions and actively listen. What problems do you face? What current solutions exist?

Our Great Ideas
2

We identify the most prominent needs expressed by multiple clients.

As we listen, we take note of common problems that children in foster care face. The grief, loss, and pain associated with a problem becomes the driving force that spurs our idea-making.

Our Great Ideas
3

Based on what we hear, we innovate a solution to the problem.

We look for new and creative solutions. Our team brings an innovative, entrepreneurial spirit to all our brainstorming ideas.

Our Great Ideas
4

We take our idea to clients and ask, “Would this solution help you?”

We ask children and youth in foster care for feedback. We see them as co-creators of our work, and seek to empower them through this process.

Our Great Ideas
5

We adjust and adapt our idea based on client feedback.

We adjust our proposed solution based on what we hear.

Our Great Ideas
6

Our idea comes to life and restores hope to children in foster care.

Our idea becomes an actionable solution to a problem that children experience in foster care. We implement the idea, and collect tangible results on the impact.

Our Great Ideas
7

We scale our idea to have greater impact.

We collect data through surveys, interviews, and other feedback measures.

Our Great Ideas
8

We incorporate what we learn to improve our product

We take what we've learned and improve our service offerings for the future. This process happens continually as we grow and scale the work.

Learn how you can support our Great Ideas.

Fostering Great Ideas® runs on your financial support — no gift is too small or too large.

Our growth is only possible through the support of corporations, faith-based organizations, and foundations, and individuals. Thank you for embracing our work.

Research That Has Informed Our Great Ideas

Sib-Link®

Many interviews with youth who are in or who have experienced the foster care system indicate that children usually want to be placed with their siblings and when separated to maintain frequent visits and to receive information about their siblings.1

Life Support®

According to stakeholders and research data, encouraging youth to establish stable, lifelong connections may be the most important factor in ensuring the overall well-being of youth from foster care. These connections promote social and emotional functioning, as well as improve employment and financial outcomes.2

No matter the source of hardship, the single most common factor for children who end up doing well is having the support of at least one stable and committed relationship with a parent, caregiver, or other adult. These relationships are the active ingredient in building resilience: they provide the personalized responsiveness, scaffolding, and protection that can buffer children from developmental disruption.3

1. https://youthlaw.org/publication/keeping-siblings-together-past-present-and-future/

2. The Northwest Alumni Study. (From Pecora PJ, Kessler RC, Williams J, et al. Improving family foster care: findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. Seattle (WA): Casey Family Programs; 2005. P. 245.

3. Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strengthen the Foundations of Resilience, The Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. 2015.