In 2013 Adopt Colorado Kids began. In 2015 the team embarked on a mission to scale its impact nationwide, founding America’s Kids Belong, and our flagship chapter became Colorado Kids Belong.
Our programs include:
Coalition for Change
Colorado Kids Belong collaborates with strategic partners, business, faith communities and Colorado’s child welfare and government leaders to promote sustainable change in foster care.
Foster Friendly Businesses
Through our innovative Foster Friendly App area businesses can lend valuable community support to kinship and foster parents by creating an offer or services to lend valuable support as they care for kids.
Foster Friendly Faith Communities
Our Foster Friendly App also helps families locate faith communities that are welcoming and supportive of kinship and foster families, not just in Colorado, but nationwide.
I Belong Project
Our flagship video storytelling project gives a face and voice to kids in foster care in Larimer County who are legally free to be adopted and helps connect them with prospective adoptive families and forever homes.
Our Team
Tracee Rudd
State Director
Tracee is passionate about connecting people to serve in their community. She has experience working for nonprofits around the world. After serving as foster family helpers for a few years she and her husband got foster certified in 2020 to adopt a teenager that came to one of our I Belong Project shoots. She worked as a Foster Care Recruiter in Larimer County and our I Belong Project manager and now leads the work in Colorado as our Executive Director.
Britt Kelley
Foster Friendly Manager & Community Engagement – Jefferson County
Britt has a heart for vulnerable kids in the community because of her shared experience of being in foster care. She became aware of how everyone in the community could become involved in foster care even if they didn’t become a foster parent. This incited direct call to action in her where she helped start foster and adoption ministry within her church. Britt has now expanded her reach by working as a Regional Community Engagement Manager helping the community become Foster Friendly.
Courtney Williams
Larimer County Recruiter/I Belong Project Manager
Courtney loves sharing with others how to become involved in foster care. She has a BS in Education and has experience teaching all ages, including many classes for parenting children with trauma. Once becoming aware of the need for foster and adoptive families in 2010, she and her husband became foster parents. Since then, they have fostered 41 children and adopted 6. Courtney now works as the Larimer County Foster Care Recruiter and manages the I Belong Project for children waiting for a forever home.
Ashley Cox
Community Engagement – Weld County
Ashley is a licensed social worker who has been serving the foster care community for 10 years. She has worked in the roles as case manager, supervisor, recruiter, home study writer and home licensing supervisor. In these roles she has witnessed the desperate need for more support for foster families. She is passionate about creating a foster friendly community to surround and support foster families with the hopes that every vulnerable child will be seen, protected and find a place of belonging.
Sheila Adkins
Community Engagement Assistant – Larimer County
Sheila started with Colorado Kids Belong as an intern while completing her degree in Family & Child Science. Following the completion of her internship, she was brought on staff to contribute to the work of CKB in Larimer county and to assist in spreading social media awareness of foster care that leads to action and involvement. Sheila has a passion for getting people involved in foster care based on their gifts, abilities, and resources.
Maddie Carlock
Operations Assistant
Maddie is a recent addition to the Colorado Kids Belong Team. As a recent graduate with a degree in Marketing, she is eager to use her creativity, management, and operations experience to further the mission of CKB.
Leah Cano
Foster Care Trainer
Leah became a part of the CKB team in January 2022. Leah facilitating training for prospective foster parents in Weld County. She and her husband became foster parents in 2013, fostering kids from ages 8 months – 17 years old. They recently adopted two girls from foster care. She has a heart and passion for the community, especially families and kids involved in foster care.