Category AKB-blog

Turning Cares into Prayers

Pray continually. Really? How? By Brian Mavis, AKB President   “A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.” – Phillips Brooks  ”Everything that one turns in the direction of God is a prayer.” – St. Ignatius…

5 Ways the Church Can Impact Foster Care Right Now

5 Ways the Church Can Impact Foster Care Right Now By Krista Petty of America’s Kids Belong & Kristin Miller of Tennessee Kids Belong The health and economic implications of the COVID-19 crisis are rightfully at center stage right now,…

10 Ways COVID19 Affects Foster Care

10 More Ways the Coronavirus Affects Foster Care: Government Edition  Background: You may have seen America’s Kids Belong post on “7 Ways COVID-19 Crisis Impacts Foster Kids/Care (and They’re All Bad).” That article focused on our number one priority: the…

School Teachers, Foster Care and COVID-19

A School Teacher Introduced Me to Foster Care By Krista Petty, Faith Sphere Manager, America’s Kids Belong Unless someone jogs my memory, I can’t name a single family or kid involved in foster care from my childhood…or even through college.…

Covid-19 Crisis Impact

7 Ways Covid-19 Crisis Impacts Foster Kids/Care – They’re All Bad By Brian Mavis, President, America’s Kids Belong, & Elle Flowers, AKB Social Media Manager Covid-19 most negatively impacts the vulnerable. The virus hurts our elderly loved ones the most.…

What Do You Need?

What Do You Need? There’s a harsh and heart-breaking reality in working with children and youth from foster care. Adverse childhood experiences harm the developing child and it often shows up through confusing or negative behaviors. According to the National…

Award Winning. Dream Making.

AKB & Dream Makers Project Receive 2019 Adoption Excellence Award The Adoption Excellence Awards were presented to 12 recipients at a ceremony November 12th in Washington, DC. The awards recognize the extraordinary contributions made supporting positive permanency outcomes for children…

Mom with a Phone Call

I Became a Mom with a Phone Call I became a mom with a phone call. ‘We have an emergency placement for a 3-week old baby boy. Can we drop him off in an hour?’ Foster care is weird like that.…

Language of Play

The Language of Kids is PLAY After filming over 1,000 children available for adoption, America’s Kids Belong has learned a thing or two about working with kids. One thing is for sure: the language of kids is PLAY! At all…

Change Who Waits

Change Who Waits By Brian Mavis, President, America’s Kids Belong When I was working at LifeBridge Christian Church, and I got a phone call from a recruiter in child welfare who said, “I’d like to meet with you about child…

Expanded Focus

The Most Foster Friendly Main Street in America In October, Mayor Ken Moore of Franklin, Tennessee declared that his town had the Most Foster Friendly Main Street in America.  This was after 40 Franklin businesses signed on to become Tennessee…

Bilingual Faith Resources

AKB Faith Resources Now in Spanish! By Krista Petty, Faith Sphere Manager, AKB On average, 20% of children in foster care are Hispanic. In an effort to better empower leaders, America’s Kids Belong has translated our top faith sphere resources…