The podcast crew at America’s Kid’s Belong recently celebrated its 100th episode and welcomed new cohost, Kristin Allender. Kristin is the new CEO at America’s Kids Belong and brings a lot of experience in the foster care and adoption space as a former social worker and longtime Executive Director at Tennessee Kids Belong.
After 100 podcast episodes and more than two years of conversations, one lesson keeps coming back: supporting children in foster care is not one person’s job. It takes families, businesses, faith communities, social workers, and neighbors finding meaningful ways to come alongside them.
In their milestone, celebratory episode of the Foster Friendly Podcast, hosts Travis, Courtney, and Kristin reflect on the conversations that have shaped the podcast, the importance of centering children, and how communities can provide practical support to foster families.
Listen to episode here or watch below:
Keeping children at the center
Over 100 episodes in, the podcast has featured foster parents, former foster youth, social workers, faith leaders, businesses, and many others. Their perspectives differ, but Courtney says an important theme keeps emerging: children need to come first. That means paying attention to children’s permanency, feelings, and voices—not just the logistics adults need to manage. It also means recognizing that everyone involved in the system may need reminders to return to that focus, especially during tiring or difficult seasons
Those conversations have helped make foster care easier to understand from many angles, while keeping children’s needs at the center. Courtney (who’s a longtime veteran foster parent herself) shared that the podcast has encouraged her through years of fostering, offering fresh perspectives, reminders, and tools she could share with others.
Travis highlighted the show’s commitment to elevating former foster youth voices and honoring what their experiences can teach us. Their crucial lived experiences can help foster parents, prospective parents, and professionals better understand what children may be going through. And they can offer valuable perspectives on areas for the system to change and grow.
Thought provoking quotes from the episode
“It’s irresponsible of us to just go recruit families without simultaneously recruiting that support for them.” -Kristin
Recruiting foster families matters, but families also need a community around them. Support can help make caregiving more sustainable and help children experience greater stability.
“I just encourage you to keep listening. And I believe that if you’re listening, you do believe that every child deserves a voice, deserves to be loved, to be seen.”-Courtney
Courtney’s closing words thank the podcast’s listeners and reaffirm the purpose behind these conversations.
“I’m really excited about supporting families better with foster-friendly communities.” Travis
Part of the goal of the podcast is to expand America’s Kids Belong’s reach and vision of Foster Friendly Communities across the country.
The conversations on the Foster Friendly Podcast have also aligned with one common goal: showing that support doesn’t come in just one form. Businesses, churches, neighbors, and community groups can all help meet practical needs and support foster families. A hundred episodes in, the message remains clear: when more people find a meaningful way to contribute, children and families are better supported.
