Wrapping Community around Foster Care and the Amarillo Angel's Story

Hello and welcome to All Things Foster, a place for coffee, connection, and community. I'm Matt Darrah, your host. Today's episode is sponsored by Classic Cleaning. At Classic Cleaning, we believe a clean space clears the way for a better day. Our team shows up ready to deliver a detailed and reliable service. It gives you that amazing sense of relief when everything feels fresh again. We're serious about creating peaceful,

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So today's episode is called Wrapping Community Around Foster Care, The Amarillo Angels Story. So the purpose of this podcast is to provide foster families a sense of community and inform them about available resources that are here in the community. so community support really benefits ⁓ families in foster care. It's a lonely, lonely journey. And so

That's why we want to do this. We're having community around foster families. so today we have Serena Carpenter, who's the executive director of Amarillo Angels. How are you? I am fantastic. I'm loving the weather today. I'm telling you, like, I'm the rain too. We just never get enough around here. So, yeah. So, Amarillo Angels is a nonprofit that is dedicated to supporting kids in foster care, kids and families, right?

So let's talk about the mission and vision. What is Amarillo Angels in a nutshell? Yeah, so basically, anytime anybody asks me, does Amarillo Angels do, I always say we are an organization that is meant to provide support and stability by walking along children, youth, and families experiencing foster care. Right. Yeah. And so how does that play out?

⁓ I know you've got a couple of different programs. So, you you guys' core values, hope, community, empowerment, curiosity, transformation. You support foster families and community. What does that look like? Sure. You let me tell you a little story. So, every Tuesday we have our team meetings, and one of the very first questions I ask them is, how did you see our core values in action this week? That's good. And so, it's really cool because it allows us to reflect on

This is what we're doing. This is the vision of it all. And let's put that into play every day. And so that looks different with every single family.

Matt Darrah (02:58)

Okay, so every Tuesday, sorry we had a technical difficulty, we had every Tuesday you have a team meeting and you talk about the core values. And what does that look like for foster families? Yeah, so you know, every single family is different. And every single experience is different. And we want to remember in the times that we're serving our families, every single thing is significant. So community, empowerment, hope, looks so different in every single eyes of the families that we serve. That could mean something as little as

hey, we're gonna help you figure out what size shoes this kiddo wears. Or we're gonna teach a kiddo how to write a resume. You know, that just looks so different in every single situation. Yeah. Awesome. So, let's talk about the Love Box Right? There's some confusion because people say, well, there's the Placement Package and then there's the Love Box. And I tell folks, like, the Placement Package, we're there within 24 hours and we're providing that emergency...

support to just get the family started. Love Box, totally different. So, kind of talk to us about that. Yes, so the very first time I heard of Love Box, I thought it was a physical Box that you take to these families. And in reality, it's just a symbol for so much more. So, what we do is we provide like very tailored needs to each individual family. And that can look like a lot of different things.

And so it's not technically a physical Box, which it certainly can be, but we provide monthly recurring support to those families. And not just the kiddo that's in the home, but every single person under that roof. Right. And so what is that? What are some examples of some things that they might get? Yeah, so every single family has different needs. Sometimes it may be time needs. Sometimes it may be more, I need help making dinner tonight.

And so what we do is once a month, and it definitely can be more than that, but we encourage once a month to have that normalcy and stability. So maybe a volunteer, and maybe it's a group of volunteers, will go to a family and say, hey, I brought this Box of goodies and it has just fun items. Maybe it's just chalk and bubbles and fun things. And I'm going to take your kiddos outside and we're going to play for an hour. And we're going to let you, mama, just go take a break. I like that. I like that.

So every month, so is it a, it's like a small group at church or just an individual or? Yeah, so it can be anything that you want it to be. So it can be a group, it can be a couple, it can be a person, it can just be any single soul that feels the need to help in some way. Sure, sure, I love it. ⁓ so how many, how many families do you know are receiving Love Boxes every month?

Yeah, so currently right now we have 42 families and then we have about 50 families on our wait list. Wow. Yes. And so what the wait list? you wait for folks to say, I want to do a Love Box? Yeah. And that's OK. Yeah, so what we do is we have either individuals will refer themselves or maybe a child placement agency or a school counselor or something.

refer the family to us or even people like you Matt who refer your families to us and So we have a set number of volunteers that say hey, I want to help so what we do is we basically play like match .com we do matchmaker with volunteer and Family and we want to make sure that we pair whoever wants to volunteer fits very

Perfectly with the family that they volunteer with and so what's currently happening right now is we're kind of having a shortage of volunteers and so that's across the board in any nonprofit area and so while we're waiting we have about 50 families on our wait list and We try to serve them in whatever way we can while they're waiting to be matched with their volunteer sure sure and is it just to in Amarillo or is it?

across the whole Panhandle that gets that are in the Love Box program? Yes, so Amarillo Angels actually serves the top 41 counties of the Texas Panhandle. So the whole region? All of region one? All of region one. Do you have an office in Lubbock? So we had a caseworker in Lubbock and currently they actually move back to Amarillo, but we still serve the Lubbock area. OK. And so what we do is we partner with different organizations and groups and volunteers in Lubbock. And so we're able to serve just a broader

range of families. Yeah, didn't know y'all covered the Lubbock area. Yeah, it's really cool. We have tons of families that are in the outlying areas. Okay. So let's talk about Dare to Dream. I know this much. I know it's a mentorship program. So foster kiddos.

I mean, they're just kind of out there, right? They've probably been 10, 12, 15 different places. And so they need that kind of one-on-one connection. So what is the Dare to Dream program? What do y'all do there?

So the Dare to Dream program is a mentorship program that's for ages 11 to 22 because, you know, at 18, most of the kiddos will, they'll age out of the system and then they're kind of just let go. They say, here you go, figure it out yourself. And so what we're trying to do is prepare them for life. So we cover 11 developmental milestones that helps them learn and prepare for what life looks like when you're on your own. And so that...

It's so awesome. I love that program. And it can look like a lot of things. So the mentor, we'll have a mentee. So the mentee is the Dare to Dream kiddo. And the mentor is the volunteer that walks alongside them. But they teach them lots of things, like maybe how to prepare for an interview. What does it look like to create a budget? What is a budget? Like, let me help you and let's walk alongside and figure life out together. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so how many kiddos are in the Dare to Dream program right now? Do you know? So let me tell you about that. It's very interesting. So right now we actually have more volunteers that are waiting on kiddos than kiddos that we have in the program. That's awesome. But it's good and it's bad. It's good because all of the kiddos who are currently experiencing...

foster care that fit into our model that are in our area are hopefully in our program. But what that means is the kiddos are maybe not living in Amarillo. So they get shipped out to somewhere else because there's just not enough places for them. Yeah, the last state numbers that I saw, I think it was out of the number of kids in care at the moment, like 22 % are

placed in the county they're from. And the rest of them, I mean, they can be anywhere. They can be in Lubbock, they can be in San Antonio or Dallas or whatever. So 78 % of the kiddos who are here are not here. Yeah. And it makes it hard, but...

we definitely want to encourage anybody who is currently experiencing foster care, even if they're not in a traditional sense. So even if it's a kinship family, they definitely qualify for all of the services that we provide. Good. Yeah. that's, mean, that's, that's big because we, we just connected a couple of weeks ago with the kinship folks at St. Francis because we're telling them, hey, we've got these Placement Packages. want to, we want to provide them for them. And we've been getting a lot of referrals on, foster families, but

but not on the kinship. So we have like seven kinship workers at the Moses Closet showing like, hey, we got this stuff. We want to connect with these families and we've gotten a bunch of referrals that way. So it's good to know that they don't have to be foster families officially to either qualify for the Love Box program or the Dare to Dream program. So do you all have like a curriculum that the mentors go through with the kids? Yeah, so it's...

It is a curriculum, but it's structured based on the needs of the kiddo. So we cover the 11 developmental milestones, so we have an awesome team. So we're part of National Angels. It's an organization that has 19 chapters across the United States. And they've poured their hearts and souls into creating the curriculum that really helps move the kiddo along through their journey. All right. So what are some examples? I know you said budget. I you said ⁓

Resume interview stuff. What other kind of things are you going through with them? So I'll just I'll just tell you a little story So we had a girl and she's 20 years old and she's currently being served in our program and She recently moved out from being with a family friend to moving out on her own in an apartment She had nothing in her apartment

And she was the happiest she could ever be because she's like, you know what, I'm doing this on my own. But she didn't understand like, you need pans to cook. You need to be able to not buy those Doritos, but get great value brand because you are on a tight budget. And so what we were able to do is sit with her and you know, with her ⁓ mentor and say, hey, these are the things that she's needing. Let's help her walk through life. So I actually was excited that I got to take part in that and I...

talked with her and I said, let's write down your budget. Let's write down every single thing that's going out and every single thing that's coming out, coming in. And then she realized, oh, I don't make enough money. I have no idea what I'm gonna do. So I was like, okay, if this is the problem, then what are we gonna do about it? Here are some options. You can either get a cheaper apartment, which is not really a thing because she was at a pretty good price for what she had.

or you can get another job. And ultimately she took the responsibility and the initiative and she got another job. And she made sure because she still couldn't afford a car, it's like if you can't afford a car, you need to understand you have to get something you can walk to. And so just teaching her those life skills of we gotta figure it out. You're at the age now that no one's gonna walk your hand through it.

but let me help you." And so she had our office and her mentor and everybody else just kind of walking her through it. That's good. That's good. I mean, the episode we were talking about a little while ago, the episode from a couple of weeks ago that where Jazzlyn was, I mean, she was she at 18, she was done. I'm out of here. Yeah. And then she just, I mean, she just had such a hard time. And just, mean, at one point she's pregnant. She's in Lubbock. She her

biological mom just dropped her off and she has nowhere to go and nothing. And so yeah, it's so critical that we just we don't get them out of foster care and then they just float away. ⁓ And so walking through that with them is just so...

so stinking important. Yeah, like with Jazzlyn if she would have had that extra just support system, maybe she wouldn't have gone crazy when she went straight to college and said, you know what, somebody is still holding me accountable. Somebody is still caring about me. You know what we like to say in Amarillo Angels and I know everywhere else is every single child deserves to have somebody who knows the color of their eyes and the passions of their heart. And that's what we want to do as many times as we can. Yeah, that's great. So, so

You're new-ish to the role of Amarillo Angels, right? So, what... I heard you tell the story last week, but for our listeners, tell us the story of how you ended up here. Yeah. So, yes, this is my official...

going on six months of being with Amarillo Angels. As the executive director, I started March 1st as having that full entire role. But the way I actually heard about Amarillo Angels was a few years ago in a previous position that I had. We had a staff member who came into my office in a panic and he said, I don't know what to do. I have my niece who's going to come live with me and she's about to be born right now. And if she doesn't find a home, then she's going to have to be placed in a care facility. And I was like, okay.

What do you need? And he said, I don't know. I have no idea what I need. And so we're like, OK, we had a bunch of mamas that were on our team and was like, let's band together. Let's see what all resources we have and we will get you going. But he didn't have everything that he needed. So, you know, whenever you have a new kiddo coming in your home, you need to have a all the things you know, that. Yes. But you have to have the crib and you have to have a car seat and a whole space.

that is their own. And he got the resource through, I'm not sure who gave him the resource. I don't know if it was a placement agency or what, but they said, hey, call this organization and they will help you. So he comes back to work the next day and we told him, you know, don't need to work today. But he said, no, I got to tell you about this really awesome experience. And we're like, okay, let's hear it. Let's hear all about it. And he said,

I had this organization come to my home, help me put together a crib and make a space for baby Jay. And we were like, okay, who was it? And he said, it was the organization called Amarillo Angels. And I said, okay, tell us all the things. And he said,

I don't really know a whole lot about him, but I know that they helped me. And I said to that, it's so awesome. And so what we did is we got very familiar with what Amarillo Angels did after that. And we did a Christmas toy drive for them. And, you know, they were just kind of on everybody's radar now of like, what is Amarillo Angels? And then when the position became open, I did a lot of praying about it. And I was like, if I'm supposed to be here, lead me here, Lord. And so he sure as heck did. He made the

Transition very apparent and so as I was going through one of the interviews They asked me what do you know about kinship families? And I said I have no idea what that is. What is that word even mean? Yeah, yeah, they said, you know a kinship family is a family who ⁓ Takes care of somebody basically that's in their family and maybe it's not a traditional foster care setting I said, okay, there's that I said, can you give me an example? They're like, yeah when it may be a grandmother takes

the kiddos in and raises them or when an aunt or uncle and I said what about a sister who helps raise a brother and they're like yes absolutely and I had an epiphany moment because I said I'm a kinship family and so you know I raised my brother and I didn't realize that I too was experiencing the things that Amarillo Angels helps with and so that just drove it home I'm like please

pick me as the new executive director and I told him at that interview, said, even if you do not choose me, please sign me up as a volunteer because I want to help. Yeah. So, it's not on here, but let's talk about that experience with your brother a little bit. Are you okay with that? Oh yeah, absolutely. So what happened there? So, know...

Growing up, we had what I thought was a traditional home at first. I had my mom and my dad, and they lived with me and my little sister, who's two years younger than me. And I didn't realize until I got a little older that I had a very dysfunctional household. So my mom and dad, they grew up in the 70s, and they were just party people who never grew out of it. And so...

There was always drugs in the home. There was always alcohol in the home. And we were either told to be stuck in our rooms or we were wild little kids everywhere, all over the street and just playing and having fun and not realizing what was truly going on. And I was 10 when my mother had my youngest brother. And at six months old, his bassinet started staying in my room. Because what I found is that

He would cry all night. Nobody would ever check on him. But what I found is because they were high somewhere and they didn't even realize their kiddo was crying. So he moved into my room when I was 10 and it just expanded from there. my dad and mom eventually got a divorce. My dad left. He moved away and my mom did not make great choices. She would...

be gone for weeks at a time. Eventually she stopped coming home. And I would call the school whenever my brother was in elementary and I would say, hey, my mom's sick. I need to go register him for school today. And so, you know, I just would make up excuses. And I feel like everybody kind of knew around in my community and in my family.

No one said anything about it. No one did anything about it. And I just did what I needed to do to take care of my brother. So whenever I turned 15, I lied and said I was 16 so I could start working at Long John Silvers. And so what I would do is I still kept up with my school. And so I made really good grades considering all the things. And I would go to school half day and I got to be in a program where then I get to work half day.

And my neighbor would take care of my little brother until I got off of school. And then I would go home and do all the things, and we'd do it every single day, over and over again. And there was times where I did not make enough money to pay the bills. So I would either, we'd have gas one month, or we'd have electricity one month. But we figured out a way to make it work. And I never even saw myself in such a terrible situation until looking back at it and having kids of my own saying,

what in the world went on. And there's so many other families that currently go through that. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, gosh dang. That's one of the things I try to communicate to folks is whether it's a six-month-old that gets removed or a 15-year-old that gets removed.

Their normal is nothing that we would consider normal. But when you pull them out of that and put them into something completely different, that's just not... Everybody's like, well, they should just feel so lucky or this or that or whatever. And it's like, no, no, no. You don't understand. We don't consider it normal, but that's their normal. Yeah, absolutely. I tell folks, it's kind of like...

It's kind of like dropping you off in the Amazon jungle naked and just trying to figure out how to make it. Because nothing's similar, nothing is consistent, everything is just completely out the window. so, gosh, wow. I hate that you were in that situation, but it's pretty awesome that you were able to...

do what you needed to do for you and for your brother. Yeah, and you know, that shapes who you are when it comes to things. And so I have since then had a heart for service. And that's kind of just been molded in me since then. I'm like, what can I do to help? How can I help? How can I, especially in the position that I'm in now, how can we help families that are going through this?

every single day, how can we lift those kiddos up? And I think I'm a great person to be able to speak to some of those kiddos and say, I get it. I may have not gone through what you went through, but we all go through stuff and we have a story and you can succeed. You can do better. If nobody else is believing in you, believe in yourself and to just plant that seed of hope into their hearts and say, you can do it. I love it. So, ⁓

Let's talk about community engagement, right? So we talk about the Love Box program, we talk about the Dare to Dreams program. How do folks get involved? So the one thing I can say about Amarillo, and I'm sure every other person that's in a nonprofit can say this, we have an amazing community. And the cooperation and collaboration we have in ⁓ just the nonprofit world and for-profit world.

So awesome to see. And so with Amarillo Angels, there's several ways you can get involved. We need volunteers all the time, as I told you a little bit about. We have lots of families on our wait list. I need people just to love on them in so many different ways. maybe you don't want to volunteer. Maybe you're like, I don't have time. There's so many other things that you can do. definitely.

always need donations and monetary support. But more than that, we need people just to spread the word of what Amarillo Angels does and just to say, hey, we know of an awesome organization. Maybe they just connect us to some other organizations and says, hey, can you go speak to them? Can you let them know what we do? Yes. Yes, yes, and yes. Every single way that somebody can help, they're like, maybe I don't like to do all of that. I like to organize. Well, we have a closet that definitely needs to be organized. So.

so many ways to volunteer and support Amarillo Angels and the families and people that we serve. Wow, that's good. ⁓ So let's talk about some statistical impacts here. We pulled this off your website. So it says 92 % of caregivers reported receiving valuable resources and strategies. I mean, huge percentages. We talk about... ⁓

that normalcy and just helping walk through this such a difficult, lonely journey of foster care and adoption. so, know, 94 % of Love Box volunteers said they, it benefits them, right? I mean, we don't serve because it benefits us, but there is a benefit on the volunteer, right? mean, you are...

you get to be part of something that blesses families. there is a blessing that comes along with that. Yeah, absolutely. So what we found, we did the customer first measurement to say, is what we're doing valuable to our families? Is it valuable to our volunteers? And clearly the numbers show that. But basically, if families and volunteers allow us to have the opportunity to serve them,

at least 94 % of the time, they are going to be very satisfied by what they receive. And basically, you know, our North Star has changed the stats and we want to do that. But by providing an opportunity for maybe the kiddos to stay in one placement, because, you know, they're moving around all the time. An average kiddo moves seven times in two years. And that is hard. And we want to be able to provide that support to those families and say, hey, we see you.

are here to support you. We want to be able to keep the kiddos in the same home for as long as we can. And that is very clear with our numbers that we're able to do so as long as you allow us and say yes and open the door, then we will do the rest. My brother, so I was in foster care too. And my brother was seven when we were adopted at 17 placements. what they talk about,

behaviorally and developmentally is every major move like that is a six-month behavioral regression. And educational as well. mean, these moves have a significant impact on the kids when they have to pack up and go somewhere else. And a lot of folks, mean, the statistics, the study, the national study that I looked at said that a

⁓ between half and two-thirds of foster families quit within the first year, and the number one reason they cited is that they don't feel supported. Yeah, absolutely. And that's just, we just got to change that. I mean, we absolutely... These families are doing just such important work, and we've got to, as a community, that's why we walk with families, we work with churches.

wake up the community to better care for kiddos and foster care. ⁓ so foster families feel so isolated and lonely. ⁓ And so if we can just come in there and provide that just encouragement, that will extend the amount of time that they're going to foster. That's going to extend the amount of time that they're able to... ⁓

keep those kids in their home and not disrupt a placement. so, I mean, the numbers are there. They're just there that when families feel supported, they do better, the kids do better, the family does better, everybody's better. And so we've got to do better as a community about wrapping our arms around these families. Ironically, that was the title for today's.

Yeah, worked out perfectly. I swear to God, I did not plan that, but yeah, wrapping community around foster care. Yeah. okay, we talked about volunteer opportunities. Let's talk about just some basic challenges that children and families in the foster care ⁓ deal with. We talked about them being moved seven times in two years.

What are some other things that you think that are just top of the mind that are some challenges that foster families face? There's a story that I just recently heard about that was with one of our families in the Angels community. And it was a kiddo, now he's an adult, but he said, know, when I was in care, the, you know, like the CPS worker would take me out and, you know, they would go take me for a soda or take me for whatever.

And when I came home, none of the other kiddos in the home got that. Like, she only got that for me. And so the kids that were in the home were kind of resentful of, why didn't I get that? And so it started to create this stigma around, well, you get certain things and I don't get certain things. And in reality, that foster kiddo, he had no control over what somebody else was doing. And so things like our program, we serve the entire family because we never want to make

a kiddo feel more isolated than they already are. But you know, we have the statistics are just so overwhelming. 97 % of kiddos who turn 18 never go to college if they're in care, even though a majority of states provide that additional resource for free. You know, it's 97%. That's huge. Yeah. You know, and once they become 18 and start to live on their own, two thirds of them will end up

trafficked, dead, pregnant, or in prison. And those statistics are staggering. But those are the things and the challenges that our kiddos are dealing with every single day. You only see what's on the outside. You only see what people share. But they're dealing through emotional trauma, physical trauma, all the other things, all while trying to just make it. Yeah. Let's just sit with that. mean, these kiddos have just been through it.

Chances are if they're aging out, they've been in care for a while and they've been to shelters and RTCs and this and that and they've been probably all over the state. ⁓ I remember ⁓ Kelsi Webster from A World for Children. talked about when she was ⁓ at Arrow, ⁓ she was a case manager there and she was taking a

15 year old boy ⁓ to the shelter out there. And he's been in care since he was five and he didn't even know where he was born. mean, yeah, I mean, just no connection. 10 years of floating around, you know, that's why Jazzlyn had so many placements because she can only stay in a shelter for 90 days.

Okay, so we go from that shelter to this shelter to that shelter. And it's just, we're just, we're not serving these kids well when they have to move all those times. I mean, I forget the number, what the number of needed beds is in the 26 counties. I think it's around 100 additional ⁓ beds is what we're needing right now.

in foster care. so, you know, I know that they're pushing to put them with kinship. And I think that that's, when it's beneficial, it's beneficial to have some sort of connection to your history and your family. But the reality is, there's a bunch of kids who can't go with a family member and they need someone, someone and somewhere to go, someone to say yes. And so...

And it's just so stinking important for us to try to help ⁓ these families that are foster or kinship can be able to continue to do the things that they're doing and then hopefully grow awareness and possibly, you know, get some families to start fostering and things like that. mean, the work that we're doing is critical. ⁓

And James 1.27 is our guiding verse, careful with us orphans, this is true religion. ⁓ we've just got to do a better job. So, anything else that you think we should talk about, anything you want to mention? Just one thing I like to always remind everyone, and again, my eyes weren't truly open until I stepped foot into the Amarillo Angels office. And everyone may not be called to foster or adopt

but everyone can do something. Yeah, for sure. that's the challenge that I give to everybody who's watching is what are you doing to help better our kiddos, our community, our foster care system in general? You may not be able to change everything, but you can change something. Yeah, whether it's time, whether it's money, whether it's buying something, just donating something to put.

put in the Moses closet, put in you guys' closet to give out to families, you know, Christmas gifts and all the things. I mean, there's so many ways that folks can get involved. And that's a lot of folks, and I was talking with ⁓ a foster dad last week, and he was saying how it felt like you either fostered or did nothing. And there's a whole continuum in there that just because you're not going to foster doesn't mean you can't do anything. Exactly. There are so many things.

that folks can get involved in. They can get involved with Amarillo Angels, POCN, Fostering Independence. There's so many great organizations around Panhandle that they can get involved with and do something to help ⁓ provide a safe and loving home for the kiddos that are coming into care. Goodness gracious, we've got to do better. So, how do they get in touch with you? So they can visit our

at Amarillo website, it's www.amarillangels.org. You can look us up on social media. We have a very active social media. So LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or they can just give us a call at any time, 806-410-1016. And that will be directly to my phone. So just be ready to hear from me. If you call me, I'll be answering. That's good. That's good. Anything else we need to talk about?

I just wanted to say thank you so very much for just allowing me to be here and just to be able to speak all the things, Amarillo Angels, and just to get, know, every time we do things like this, it just reminds us of all the work that still needs to be done. absolutely, absolutely. We here on this podcast, and our kind of tagline is, let's do this together, ⁓ because we all provide different pieces of the puzzle. And so we're not in competition, we're in collaboration. We need to work together.

And a lot of folks feel like there's this competition between these different organizations. can raise the most money? Who can do the most stuff? And the reality is we're all providing something different, and we all work together. mean, that's community wraparound ⁓ support for these foster families. Yeah, just like with a piece of a puzzle, if the corner piece is missing, the puzzle is not complete. So every single one of us is just a piece of that puzzle. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Well, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you to Shauna over at Classic Cleaning. She's a great, great lady. She's got some really good folks. Hi, Shauna. You know Shauna? I do. I love so awesome. She's amazing. thank you for your sponsorship. And I'm going to do a quick shout out. If you haven't seen it on socials, we got we were notified last week about a pretty significant funding cut. And so we are we are asking for folks to set up to do a become a

Placement Package Partner. It's $10 a month. You go to panhandleorphin.org / donate and you can set that up. That'll help us to be able to continue to do that. And listen, there are 30 nonprofits in Amarillo that had this funding cut and have lost about 50 staff AmeriCorps members that serve at all these different organizations. And so there's some great articles online. There's several news organizations that are doing stories.

If you're interested, go to our website, again, panhandleorphan.org / donate. ⁓ Or I know that Fostering Independence lost a couple of staff through that, and Square Mile, I mean, there are so many organizations that lost funding due to this AmeriCorps cut. So please, please, please consider ⁓ donating to us, donating to Amarillo Angels. We both provide some really unique, necessary

support mechanisms to these foster families. So please consider checking it out. Thanks and have a great day.