The Displaced Children of the Pandemic

This week's guest on The Impact Lounge is Brian Mavis, a Co-Founder and President of America’s Kids Belong. They unite government, business, nonprofits, faith-based, and creative communities to improve the outcomes and experiences of kids in foster care nationwide. Mavis also launched The Dream Maker's Project. Dream Makers is a program of America’s Kids Belong. Dream Makers serves youth who have aged out of foster care or are likely to age out in the near future. Every year 23,000 teens exit the foster care system without a family to help them transition into adulthood.  Dream Makers helps remove barriers that stand in the way of the empowered, connected lives these youth dream of having. The Dream Makers Project draws a community around youth who have no family to help them navigate the financial challenges of young adulthood like renting an apartment, getting their first car, clothes for a new job, or locating a reasonably priced laptop for school. Once a young person has a basic need met through Dream Makers, they are empowered to dream about their future careers and other steps of independence through our program. Prior to launching America’s Kids Belong, he helped launch Adopt Kids Colorado and served as Community Transformation Pastor at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, CO. Brian is an outspoken advocate for teenagers that are experiencing foster care and has dedicated his life to supporting those that need it most. Brian and his wife, Julie, reside and work in Colorado and are parents of two daughters who both serve as Foster Care/Adoption advocates as well. They got their start as foster parents caring for infants born addicted to substances and transitioned to foster parenting teens aging out of foster care. These days, they are thrilled to serve as foster grandparents. Learn more about America's Kids Belong and Dream Maker's Project. 

Continuing on our theme of Foster Care Awareness Month, Stacy Huston interviews Kimberly Raff, Founder of Foster Alumni Mentors (FAM) and a former youth that experienced foster care herself. 20,000+ youth emancipate from the foster care system each year. Many feel alone and struggle to find a place of belonging. FAM provides a community of young adults who have shared experience with the foster care system, giving them a safe space where they can connect and build relationships, creating a strong support system. Each month, FAM members get together for FAM Time, where they get to have fun and connect with each other, encouraging and cheering each other on. This brings value to their lives and they know they have a place of belonging where people genuinely care about them and want to see them succeed. 

At any given time, there are approximately 437,000 youth in foster care in the United States. An estimated 700 children enter the system each day, and most arrive with little more than the clothes on their backs. Those who do have belongings are often given a trash bag in which to pack up and carry their life’s treasures. Rob Scheer experienced this indignity firsthand. Over forty years ago, he entered foster care and walked up to his foster home carrying a tattered and torn trash bag. He aged out of foster care at the age of 18, became homeless, and again carried his possessions in a trash bag. Rob, along with his husband Reece, decided to grow their family by adopting from the foster care system. Eleven years ago, four of his children arrived on his doorstep with their belongings in trash bags. Rob was floored. How, after forty years, were children in the foster care system still carrying their things in a bag used for trash? Rob and his family decided it was time to change this practice and the idea for Comfort Cases was born. With the vision of assembling backpacks filled with comfort and personal care items to deliver to local DCFS, the Scheer family invited their community to pack some cases. The first Packing Party was held in December of 2013 and shortly thereafter Comfort Cases was established as an official 501(c)3. Comfort Cases has been featured on The Ellen Show, The Today Show, The View, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. In 2017, an Upworthy video featuring Comfort Cases received over 150 million views and in 2018 Rob Scheer was named one of CNN's Heroes. Rob and Reece Scheer most recently appeared in Bryce Dallas Howard’s documentary film Dads on AppleTV+.

In Episode 04 of The Impact Lounge, we are talking to two leaders at the Student Conservation Association (SCA). Jonathan Johnson is a Program Manager in Atlanta and Valeria De Jesus Casas is a Program Manager in Houston. We discuss cultural norms related to how different cultures experience and engage in the environment around them, how environmental justice is inextricably tied to marginalized communities, stereotypes connected to the outdoors, affinity programs, and SCA's current campaign #SaveOurSphere. To learn more and support their work, head to sixdegrees.org/saveoursphere. 

Episode 03 of The Impact Lounge features special guest Justin Michael Williams, an author, transformational speaker, and top-20 recording artist. From growing up with gunshot holes outside of his bedroom window, to sharing the stage with Marianne Williamson and Deepak Chopra, Justin knows well the power of healing to overcome. This dynamic millennial who grew up marginalized in almost every way teaches meditation as a means of self-empowerment to those who need it most. But he’s not your grandma’s guru. In breaking the meditation mold, he shows others how to break free from the past and take action to create a new future. He has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Grammy.com, Yoga Journal, Billboard.com, The Root, and South by Southwest®. With his groundbreaking new book Stay Woke, and over a decade of teaching experience, Justin has become a pioneering voice for diversity and inclusion in wellness.

In Episode 2 of The Impact Lounge, SixDegrees.Org's Executive Director, Stacy Huston and Sharon Gifford, Corporate Development Director of Little Free Library discuss new initiatives that came from glaring needs highlighted during the pandemic. Can we really have literary representation and access for all? Tune in to hear how one nonprofit has an innovative solution to address both free access to books and the lack of representation and diversity in books, especially in the children and young adult genre.

The Impact Lounge is presented by SixDegrees.Org. Episode 01 features Executive Director of SixDegrees.Org, Stacy Huston, and School on Wheels, Inc. Chief Development & Marketing Officer, Sinead Chilton. They discuss the children and teens that are facing homelessness. 1 in 20 children in Los Angeles do not have a home. Homelessness has a devastating impact on educational opportunities for children as they are 9 times more likely to repeat a grade and 4 times more likely to drop out. Learn how their lives have been affected during the pandemic and how can you help.