We are soon approaching one year since the launch of The Foster Friendly Podcast. While that is something we’re proud of as a new platform to help inspire, resource, and equip folks nationwide–we’re celebrating something much bigger this month at America’s Kids Belong. We’re celebrating 10 years since the launch of our organization in May of 2015!
So we figured let’s do a special podcast episode highlighting our impact and share some stories, memories, and lessons learned since our inception as an org. The conversation really centers around insights and memories from co-founder and current Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships at AKB, Brian Mavis.
Brian shares some incredibly heartfelt and interesting stories around what led to AKB’s birth as a nationally focused nonprofit from a local nonprofit based in Colorado. The conversation also goes into strategic shifts in mission focus and the things AKB has had to adapt to and change as an organization through the years.
We share some leadership insights, the significance of National Foster Care Month, and ways individuals can get involved in supporting foster care initiatives. We also talk about the need to change perceptions about kids in foster care, families, and social workers to foster a more empathetic and supportive environment.
Watch the full episode below or listen on your favorite platform!
Some quotable highlights:
“When it’s all said and done, when I’m not a part of AKB, if I could look back and say, ‘what do I want AKB to be known for?’ I want it to be known as being the most trusted organization in the space because we were trustworthy. We really worked hard on dignity, really worked hard on saying what we were gonna do and doing what we said.”–Brian Mavis
“We were excellent in recruiting (foster families), but then we started seeing that retention of these families that we recruited was really suffering. And so that’s where the Foster Friendly side came in . . .let’s not just fill up this bucket that’s full of holes, let’s patch up the holes.” –Brian Mavis
“I really think that part of the genesis of this podcast as well is this idea to reinforce your vision to say, at America’s Kids Belong, we want to be a trusted source of also just information and guests and a leading source of thought content around this (issue of foster care).”–Travis Vangsnes
We’re diving into National Foster Care Month. And that really is the heartbeat behind AKB is people who are passionate about seeing kids placed in families, seeing kids thrive, be reunified, whatever’s best for their current situation to give them a voice, like our logo, like we spoke about the logo of giving kids a voice, those unseen kids a voice and helping them move forward.”–Courtney Williams
