Mother & Son Launch Mosaic “Extending Family” Foster Care Recruitment Campaign

I am so proud to join my mother Lolita Rogers here in Indianapolis this Wednesday September 21st at 7pm for a Birth and Foster Parent Panel Discussion. We will share details about our journey through 8 years of foster care and why we are so passionate about continuous education for parents and helping foster parents develop a deeper understanding of the children and families who find themselves in the child welfare and foster care systems.

When I was 7 years old my mom gave me the nickname “Mr. Fix It Man” because she noticed that whenever i saw something broken in our little house in North Philadelphia I was eager to fix it. Today I’m working on fixing a broken foster care system. From recruitment of foster parents to continuous education of foster and birth parents the system is broken.

Numerous studies have shown that the best way to reduce trauma for children in foster care is to co-parent with their birth families. Why? Because it shows the child that the adults in their life are willing to work as a team on their behalf. A sense of family, even extended families rather than broken families, is critical to every child’s development.

We believe the foster care and the larger child welfare system should center families and focus on the health and wellness of families rather than its current focus on abuse and neglect.

This strategic and operational shift will put us on a path to preventing large numbers of family separations while increasing the less than 50% national reunification rate by developing the infrastructure for family health and wellness and by strengthening families particularly those that are most vulnerable.

That’s why at Mosaic Foster ParentHub, we are dedicated to creating a caring community whereby birth parents and foster parents can work together for the benefit of children. Our goal is to get parents, foster and birth, access to critical skills, tools, and resources so that they can in turn provide safe homes for children before they are in crisis.

With this caring model in mind, Mosaic Foster ParentHub has pledged to help double the number of available foster homes in the state of Indiana over 3 years through our “Extending Family” foster care recruitment campaign. We will accomplish this ambitious goal by joining forces with birth parents and other public and private sector partners to make foster care recruitment personal. We will be hosting one-on-one meetings, five large-scale public discussions between foster and birth parents, and personally inviting people to support Indiana foster families. All of these on-the-ground efforts will be maximized by the creation of technology via Mosaic ParentHub to amplify and scale the impact of the foster care community. We at Mosaic Foster ParentHub believe birth parents with lived experiences in the foster care system are an asset and a critical resource for foster parent recruitment and retention, and we are invested in increasing the number of available foster homes in Indiana with their help.

Our five-part public discussion series aptly kicks off on September 21 at 7pm at Northview Church Binford Campus in Indianapolis, with my mother, Lolita Rogers, a woman who has overcome tremendous odds from surviving a childhood of both physical and emotional abuse to years of separation from her children to navigating the reunification process. Through this heart-wrenching experience, my mother learned first-hand how strengthening the relationships between birth and foster parents can improve the mental and emotional health of the whole family and everyone involved.

Come learn more about my mother’s story, and how growing up in foster care shaped much of who I am today, and why I am excited and determined to help shape the future of foster care and the child welfare system.

My mother and I will be joined by the following leaders in the child welfare system:

• Terry Spigdon, Director of the Indiana Department of Child Services
• Suzy Roth, Executive Director and Founder of Hands of Hope Adoption and Orphan Care Ministry in Indiana
• Shannon Schumacher, CEO of The Villages, Indiana’s largest not-for-profit child and family services agency

Finally, we believe the foster care system should strive to provide a space where extending family, creating bonds between birth and foster parent communities, is not only encouraged but also supported.

Learn more about the Extending Family Campaign at https://extendingfamily.us/. We hope to see you at one of our public discussions.