Foster Care

It’s National Adoption Month, and Youth Villages has more than 100 children that need a forever home in Tennessee. There is a need for more families to open their hearts and homes to adopting children so they can receive care and support.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. More than 8,000 children in the state of Tennessee need safe and loving temporary or permanent homes. Foster families have the opportunity to provide this and create a lasting impact on young people. When navigating their journey, foster parents provide guidance and support for youth to safely travel their path.

A diverse group of young adults with lived experience in child welfare systems came together to share their experiences and push for the services and support that all transition-age foster youth need in Washington, D.C., recently.

Brian and Michelle Armstrong already had an interest in becoming a foster home, but their desire was piqued when Brian reached out to do a Youth Villages story on Adoption Awareness Month in November 2021

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, and Youth Villages was invited to go on BottRadio…

Tim and Mary Molamphy have served as foster caregivers for nearly 30 years. Over that time, they have been on a journey…

Families who foster come in many shapes and sizes and enter foster care for different reasons. For George and Tracy Young, what began as a general interest in foster care turned into a way to become involved in their community.

May has long been recognized as Foster Care Month. Nationwide, more than 390,000 kids need a foster family, and in Tennessee, more than 8,000 kids need foster homes with approximately 4,000 foster homes available.

May has long been recognized as Foster Care Awareness Month. Nationwide, more than 390,000 kids need a foster family and in Tennessee, more than 8,000 kids need foster homes with approximately 4,000 homes available.

The state of foster care in Tennessee is in crisis. More children than ever need temporary, safe homes compared to the amount of open foster homes. Nationwide, a child is placed into foster care every two minutes, so the need is great. In Tennessee, more than 8,000 kids are in the foster care system with only around 4,000 certified foster homes available.

The transition from childhood to adulthood can be a lot to handle alone, but it’s very much a reality for people in the foster care system. Around 20,000 age out of the system every year,

Lawmakers recently passed legislation making extended foster care available to more youth in Tennessee. This means that more young adults who ‘age out’ of the foster care system, usually at the age of 18, are now eligible for an extension of foster care services until they turn 21.

Plans can change in a variety of ways. That was the case for Amy Abbott. Amy was looking for an opportunity to give back to the community, and she found that in fostering.

Several years ago, Mia Flowers felt moved to research fostering kids, but it wasn’t until she was reading the Bible with her husband, Ben, that the idea solidified for them both.

Youth Villages celebrates an adoption story on National Foster Care Day. Even the best laid plans don’t go as planned, and that also goes for foster care and adoption. However, for Chinishe Ray, her plans to adopt have gone as expected not only once but twice.

Dominique and Kevin Gill continue to change the lives of children in foster care—children like Andrew who was adopted by the Gills in 2020.

Remember, Jonathan and Jaywanna Neal adopting Christopher in 2019, well the family celebrated another adoption this past year adopting Maliki in May of 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. The family wasted no time adopting Maliki as soon as he became available for adoption.

Becoming a foster parent is a special opportunity to make a difference in the life of a child, both as a short-term commitment to their health, safety and well-being, but also with a lifelong impact

Richard and Alvin Lewis had been married for five years before Richard began looking into fostering and adopting.

The Mullins family was drawn to the idea of fostering and adopting in late 2019 after being married for 10 years.