Annual gala to raise funds for foster care programs; Love Fosters Hope dreams big

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- Love Fosters Hope is hosting its annual gala April 8 at The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center.

Funds raised support programs for children and teenagers in foster care, such as week-long summer camps, mentoring, assistance as teens age out of foster care, and residential treatment center outreach.

Love Fosters Hope Director Cindy Mericle said they will announce a new dream at the Night of Hope Gala.

"We don't have a facility to care for foster kids who have aged out of care and are homeless during transitions to other facilities," Mericle said. "We are a resource to connect them to other support organizations – they may need a transitional living home, rehab, a home for pregnant teenager, or someone who needs somewhere to stay through the summer before going to their college dorm, but it can take two weeks or longer to go through the application process.

"We have a dream of of opening our own rescue home so they have a safe place to live during that transition process. It's outside our budget, but we have hope."

Forming stronger bonds

One of the biggest challenges in the foster care system is the inability of foster kids and foster or adoptive families to create a long-term bond.

This can lead to re-homing or even re-adoption, a traumatic experience for children and caretakers alike.

But a new program at Texas Christian University is changing that.

The Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development has developed the Trust-Based Relational Intervention program, an "attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children."

"The program teaches everyone – adoptive parents, foster parents, CPS workers, school teachers – to understand what has happened to the child's brain and how trauma has impacted the child's brain," Mericle said. "And then they give you the tools to help. There's an entire process of attachment that needs to occur between the child and foster/adoptive parent before any correction of behaviors can occur. You can't start correcting people unless you have an attachment, and they can trust you."

Love Fosters Hope is hosting a two day simulcast TBRI training conference titled "Empowered to Connect" April 28-29 at Church Project in The Woodlands. For more information, click here.

Mericle hopes programs such as TBRI and the work of Love Fosters Hope continues to result in happy outcomes for children and caregivers in the foster care system.

"People in the community hear about the struggles and needs of foster kids and want to help," she said. "They want to be a part of a solution. We must have the tools to help them succeed."