Hey guys, thanks so much for joining us today on Behind the Curtain. I'm your host, Rebecca Harvin, and this is where we have honest conversations about foster care and adoption. My guest on the show today is Aubrey Simpson Gotham. She is the founder and CEO of Fostering Connections in Jacksonville, Florida. Aubrey began her career as a preschool and kindergarten teacher in high poverty schools. With a strong passion for volunteer service and helping those in need, she wanted to do something more. She left her public teaching career to work in the nonprofit sector. She's enjoyed volunteering with many local nonprofit organizations and worked for a local nonprofit social service agency prior to founding Fostering Connections. Through her own family's experiences and experiences as an educator, Aubrey saw a need to provide education and support services for youth impacted by the foster care system, which gave her the inspiration to found fostering connections. Aubrey loves working with youth impacted by the foster care system and helping them achieve their goals. Aubrey has a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Flagler College and a Master of Science in Pre-K primary education from Nova Southeastern University. She is also a Karen Purvis Institute, trust-based relational intervention practitioner, which we know and love as TBRI. So, with that introduction, Aubrey, welcome to the show and thank you for seeing a need in the community and doing something to meet that need. How are you?
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much, Rebecca, for having me on the show today. I'm so excited to be here with you.
I am doing great. I just came back from our Florida Youth Shine Jacksonville chapter, attending the Florida Youth Shine statewide quarterly meeting in Tampa, Florida. We have three youth from our chapter currently serving on the Florida Youth Shine statewide board, the most out of the entire state of Florida. We're also actually chapter of the year currently. And with this conference, um, the focus was especially around the upcoming action cycle that Florida Youth Shine is doing. So every two years, the youth decide which top, um, which you know issues in child welfare they want to focus on for the next two years. So our youth in attendance, we had other youth in attendance with us that aren't statewide board members, um, got to work with other youth from across the state to select topics that, you know, and talk about topics that are relevant in child welfare that have affected them and their personal lived experiences, as well as those of their fellow peers. Um and what was really cool too is we had a mentor session as well where we talked as mentors about these issues. Um and I just love, you know, sitting around the table with folks from around the state. And while we have our unique challenges here in Jacksonville, we found that a lot of the challenges around the state were over overlapping. So it was really insightful weekend. We had a little bit of time for fun. We did a little outing in main event at the main event. The conference was in Tampa. So we had some travel overall was a great weekend. We had some bumps in our travels, some rental car troubles, and um, it was a little bit wild, but what made it so worth it was just seeing our youth shine and be leaders um throughout the state of Florida and connecting with our fellow uh mentors and peers throughout the state of Florida.
SPEAKER_00That is awesome. What a what a great way to spend a weekend. Um and how cool to see a room full of kids passionate about um shaping the future and shaping conversations. What kinds of things did they pick out as topics that impacted them with child welfare?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So there was uh quite an array of topics um that were discussed. They had broke the youth out into little groups based on you know the issues that they were most passionate about. A big one, of course, was mental health, um access to mental health services, um, sibling relationships, especially evolving sibling separation. A young man um shared his story uh briefly about you know some sibling separation things that he encountered. Um it was it was a it was a tough moment for him and for everyone in the in the room, but you know, hearing those lived experiences stories is so important. Other issues were especially around group homes and issues um and group home placements, especially they affect teens a lot. The age range for Florida U Shine is the ages 13 to 26. So we got a wide range of ages um in the room. Um, but those were some some of the most prevalent topics, um, as well as you know, community collaborations and um those types of things. Um, but yes, it was quite a variety of topics. And at this time, the youth are going to be selecting which ones are going to they want to focus on for the next two years. And then pretty soon a community survey is going to come out, and our Jacksonville chapter is going to be distributing it to um youth around Jacksonville who are impacted by foster care or homelessness. Um, the organization traditionally has focused on youth foster care experience, but there's been such a prevalence now of unaccompanied homeless youth that they're also including them in the organization as well, because many should have child welfare involvement, but they've just fallen through the cracks. Um, so we're really excited to distribute that survey to area youth um who've been experienced foster care or homelessness and get their views, and that will be shared at the state level. And if our chapter has the most surveys collected in the state, um we get a little bit of prize. So um that's something we'll definitely be pushing out then as soon as those surveys come out.
SPEAKER_00Um that would be fun to win a prize. I love winning prizes.
Um, the kid who talked about his experience being separated from his siblings. Um, I know that you probably can't share details of his story, but it's this is like a thing that's in my brain. It's at the forefront of my brain right now because I was doing some research for foster care awareness month that's coming up. And um, I was looking at like, what's the statistics around kids who change placements? Right. And it's like um the likelihood that they change within at least one time in a thousand days in care is 50%, right? Um what is this statistic around children being placed together with their siblings? And there is, and I want to make sure that I get this right, but it's either a 55% chance that they are split up or it's a 45% chance that they're split up and a 55, but I think that it's a 55% chance that they're split up, right? And that is if they have two siblings, if it's just them and a sibling. If that number moves to three, like if it's them and two other siblings, it's like an 84% chance or something like that that they are going to be split up. If there are four children, there is a six percent likelihood that they are going to be placed together with their siblings. I saw that number and literally fought back tears immediately because in our home is a sibling set of four in foster care, and just realizing that they they had a six percent chance. And that's not like I'm not saying anything about Brad and I saying yes to a sibling set of four. Like, I'm I'm I'll deal with that in therapy. But but I just I'm like looking at that number and I'm like, that number is a single-digit chance of being raised with your siblings. That's insane.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's it's it's a tough thing. And and for many of these youth who've experienced siblings separation, sometimes they may have had six, eight siblings, like these very large families. I mean, this particular youth um was separated from siblings, um, you know, had been adopted, then had a failed adoption. And then the youth found out later that one of the siblings had died, and so um, and he was with a sibling at one point, and then they got separated, I guess, during you know, the adoption process. So um, there was just a lot of layers of trauma um and just um really difficult things. Um, and this it's just it's a really challenging, it's just it's a really hard thing, especially if there's you know so many siblings. Um, I get it.
SPEAKER_00It's hard. It's challenging no matter which direction you look at it from, right? Absolutely. It's extremely difficult for the kids. It's extremely difficult for caseworkers or licensing specialists to find homes that have more than two beds available at any time, right? It's hard on the casework, on the caregiver because multiple siblings is difficult. Having one child in your home that has experienced traumatic events is difficult as a as a parent. And so it's like the compounded effect. I mean, there's not an easy way to look at it. It's just it, I didn't know the number, you know, like you know, every so often when a new statistic just kind of takes you sideways and you're like, I didn't know this number. Um but man, what a gift to for you to be able to be in the room with with children who have been affected by the foster care system across the state of Florida, going, Hey, how can we add our voices and make this a better place? That is, I mean, it's a testament. It's a testament to the work that you're doing at fostering connections.
Tell tell us a little bit about fostering connections and the work that you do there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So fostering connections, what we do is we empower youth and families who've been impacted by the foster care system. They're providing opportunities, tools, and resources to thrive. We focus on career and college readiness, life skills, youth leadership, and family empowerment. And really what we do is we come alongside families and really provide those things that, you know, DCF just doesn't have the funding or resources for. Um, because there's a lot of, you know, as you know, um, having had your own lived experience, you know, there's just a lot of, you know, things that just aren't, you know, covered by, you know, you know, what they give you as a stipend as a foster or adoptive parent. And a lot of folks, you know, come to us and they're like, oh, do you foster, you know, do you provide foster care services or adoption? And we say, no, we don't provide those services, but we come alongside and provide those support services for the families. And so some of our flagship programs that we focus on are our career readiness, is our career readiness academy. It's a job and life skills training program for youth ages 14 to 18. Um, and we have it every summer. We do cohorts throughout the region. So we serve a five county region. Um, so we most primarily serve clients in Jacksonville because there's a larger need for our services here. Um, but we have our satellite counties, which are St. John's, Putnam, Flagler, and Volusia to the south of us. Um, and so, you know, in some of our smaller counties, you know, we have smaller cohorts, smaller program size, but we do our full-week cohort with our larger um population areas. The youth come to us for a whole week. They learn job skills, life skills. We cover things like job applications, resume writing, customer service, working with team members, budgeting, uh, post-secondary education planning. And we really help the youth, you know, start making a plan, whether it's, and it's gonna look different for other every youth, whether it's uh, you know, getting a part-time job or you know, improving their school performance so they can go to their dream college, um, or you know, looking at trades, looking at, you know, just opening those doors for them. And so that is our flagship education program. We have we have expanded in the last couple of years to include life skills classes that have been quarterly. Now we're shifting towards monthly, where it's a continuation of our career readiness program and continuing for them to grow in those valuable life skills. Um, and on the youth leadership side, we have our Florida Youth Shine chapter that we sponsor. So Florida Youth Shine is a statewide organization, and we sponsor the chapter at the local level to give our youth who've you know been through our programs the opportunity to continue to develop their leadership skills and advocacy skills and really give them a platform to go even beyond fostering connections. Um, and then of course, um we have our um family empowerment nights that we do um during the school year. Um, those are open to fostering adoptive families with kids of a variety of ages. We have anywhere from infants and toddlers to teens in attendance. Um, and we that's a time where families can connect, build relationships, um, and have uh enrichment activities for the youth and then um caregiver training um for the parents. So that is just a little bit about what we do at fostering connections. We have many programs, but they all have a thing in common to empower the youth and families.
SPEAKER_00That is amazing. I love it so much. And I'm thinking about this from the years that I spent in as a foster mom, right? So the years that I spent with children in my home who um come with a variety of needs that as the foster parent, it's you have to pick and choose like what is most important, right? Like you can't it can't all be important, it can't all be a level 10 for us to have to figure out. And so things go by the wayside. And so I love that you're like, hey, you don't have to figure this out. I have figured it out. Actually, all I need you to do is drop your kid off here at camp every day for five days in the summertime, and I'm gonna teach them career readiness stuff. I'm gonna teach them how to budget because gosh, wouldn't it be wonderful if budgeting was like a thing that all kids had to learn, and even more so, kids who don't have somebody teaching them how to budget.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. It's such an important skill. We actually partner with Vijestar Credit Union for that portion of our art class. So we have reps from Vijestar come in and, you know, teach the youth about budgeting, how to shop, be a savvy shopper for groceries, um, what to look for when they're buying their first car. Um, and of course, you know, there's connections. If you know they're they're looking, they need to open a bank account. Um, Vistar really um provides that comprehensive support. So we're so fortunate to be able to partner with them on that, um, you know, to be able to provide that solid financial literacy training to our youth.
SPEAKER_00I mean, my goodness, I wish that I could say that no, ViceTar is a local um credit union here in Jacksonville, Florida that that does a lot to give back to the community. And um, I'm thinking about life skills and I'm thinking about teens that we fostered and how I wonder if what you've seen is that coming in as kind of a buffer, like a third party talking about it, helps them um be more receptive of learning the life skill than like a nagging parent, if you will, saying 100%.
SPEAKER_01And what we're hearing, you know, in our focus groups with our our youth in care is that they're wanting to learn these life skills and they want to learn them earlier. We're seeing a lot of youth coming to us and saying um that, you know, case management and such didn't really start life skills training to like 18 or even you know, 16 or 15. And they're wanting, you know, life skills to start, you know, in middle school, 11, age 11 or 12. Um, and youth are just feeling the pressure like they're they're not feeling prepared. And we know, you know, like through our experiences talking with youth, there's some you know, homes
where they're getting a lot of life skills training and support. Um, and then other, you know, homes, like maybe, you know, they just don't have capacity or you know, just it just, you know, they don't know it's a priority and and things. And so um that's why we're really trying to expand um our life skills class class offerings because we're seeing that feedback from our youth that they're really, you know, eager to have these life skills classes. And I think being with peers and learning together, it really provides that, you know, extra incentive because we found working with teens over the years, they they do better when there's a you know at least a group of five or six um because they really thrive on that peer engagement. Um, and that's something we else we do, you know, throughout the year, our teen talk socials. We've been doing them bi-monthly for the last um couple of years. And now going into next year, we're gonna be doing them 10 times a year because especially for our teens, you know, being in foster care can be a very isolating experience because they may not have a lot of peers at school that know, you know, like what you know, their experiences are like. They may not feel comfortable sharing. We've had youth come to us and say they're being bullied at school because they're in foster care. And so the teens really enjoy those social times because it's not we're not learning life skills, we're not, you know, doing career things. It's just them their time to build relationships and you know, meet new friends. Um, and so we found that our teens do better when they're in groups um and are, you know, learning with other peers. And so um that's why we're you know really excited about continuing to expand our life skills classes.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. That is, um, I think a lot about going upstream. And I know that you do too. I mean, that's that is kind of how fostering connections comes about, right? Here's this need. How do I solve this? But how do I solve this need in a way that actually impacts the solution? And all the time it's going upstream. And and this is true, this is true across the board. I am finding like this is true in in our kids, in our home, when we're looking at behaviors. This is true in our communities when we're looking at like how do we solve this problem? There, you know, there are people falling off the edge of a waterfall or whatever. And it's like, okay, we need to stop the falling off of the edge of the waterfall, but also we need to go upstream and figure out where they're getting in the river. Like, stop, stop. Absolutely, right? And so the more that we can go upstream, the more positive solutions we can have, the more positive outcomes we can have, the more that we can actually physically change the numbers that we look at all of the time, like what we were talking about, right? Like the the number of children who are changed uh in placements in care. We can actually affect that number if we go, if we go upstream. And so that's a huge lead-in for this next thought, which is I was I was reading this book, and it so happened that I read this book at the exact time that I was parenting a teenager. Specifically, I was parenting somebody who was 17, about to turn 18 in the system. And so there was all of this talk of um extended foster care and independent living and the resources that were available. I mean, we did not see a caseworker who didn't come into the home every three weeks and have a conversation about extended foster care placement and independent living, right? And at the same time, I'm reading this book by a former foster youth that um well I'm not gonna I I am not gonna actually give my opinions of the book, but she tells her story. And in the telling of the story is this moment where she can choose independent independent living, extended foster care, or not, and she chooses not. And at the same time in my house was a kid that we were saying we are here. We said yes to you at 17. We know that that yes comes um with a long commitment. We you are not gonna turn 18 and be put out on the streets. Every kid deserves a family, like we're saying all of the right things, we're doing all of the right things to the best of our ability. And um we experience in our home a 17-year-old in foster care turning 18 who is so tired of people telling her what to do, who is so exhausted by a system that has failed her across the board, like all
of the things, right? And and what happens is a wild story that this is not the time or the place for, but but effectively she chooses no. And in that, those two things lining up simultaneously. My brain, which goes upstream, because 17 is not the time to start talking about this. 17 is so late. You're late, you've already missed the ball. The ball is The ball is behind home plate. We have to start talking about this at 11 and 12 kid teenagers and foster care. And so to hear you talk about it, Aubrey, to hear your program and to know what you do, I am like, yes, somebody is going upstream. And coming at this from a way of I'm coming alongside you. I'm not in front of you. I'm not behind you. I'm just alongside of you. I'm putting supports in your life, take them or leave them. But hey, it might be a good idea to know how to shop at a grocery store because you probably don't have any concept of money whatsoever. Right. And like to just hear your heart behind it, I wonder, um, I wonder if you have any examples of that. Like over the years, you've been fostering connections has been around for a handful of years now. You've worked with tons of kids. Do you have any examples of like a kid who came in where you were like, I got to this child at exactly the right moment in their life? And because of fostering connections, and because we were able to give them life skills and career readiness training, we saw them take advantage of it and move in the direction of health.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So, you know, we've had a uh several over the years. I mean, even just the life skills alone, the classes, um, you know, you saying, like, wow, I didn't realize how expensive meat was. I mean, it sounds, you know, pretty, you know, basic, but you know, like seeing like, you know, those real life things is really important for them. Um, but we, yeah, we have a few. Um, we recently did a um a video um uh you know that we have on our website that shows a few um youth testimonials. Um but going back to our early years, um one of our very first cohorts in 2021, we had a student um that was in care um with a relative, um, you know, really wasn't sure of his next steps. Um, and so he went through our program. Um, and at that time it was only three Saturdays. It wasn't the full week cohort yet because we were still in the very early pilot phase of it. Um, but you know, he was showing interest in law enforcement. So I was able to connect him with JSO. Um, and he ended up being in the JSO Explorers program the remainder of high school. And then he um became a community service officer with JSO Falling High School. And I know he's continuing to pursue, you know, um being a sheriff with JSO. So, you know, he really, you know, found his passion and purpose through our career readiness program. Um then we have a couple youth that are on our video um currently on our website. Um one youth um who was able to get her first job after um our career readiness academy uh program going through the program. And then another youth who, you know, started it with us um, you know, at a teen talk event. Um, and then you know, she's come to, you know, gotten through career readiness. And then, you know, she's you know, um then got involved with Florida Ushine.
Now she's a statewide board member and just doing amazing things. She um is an honor student graduating from high school in a few weeks. Um, so yes, those are just a few students that come to mind. But you know, we get you know throughout the year many, you know, testimonials about, you know, how, you know, you know, the changes, you know, the impact that our program has had on our our youth. Um and even we started doing post, you know, three-month surveys, you know, collecting more data to see the long-term impacts. And what we noticed from last year's cohort, that was the first year we'd done the longer-term impact surveys. We saw a lot of comments from caregivers about improved grades in school. Um, that was a big one. Um, just being better with their communication skills and, you know, taking more personal responsibility for themselves, you starting to, you know, apply for jobs, explore employment, get employment. Um, and so it's just really exciting to see, you know, the impact and especially peer engagement too, just you know, connecting with other peers, building relationships. We got, you know, feedback from caregivers. Wow, my youth doesn't feel you know alone. They're finding community and with other youth that have had similar lived experiences. So it's it's you know, about the skills, of course, but that relationship building piece is so huge too.
SPEAKER_00I um am fighting back tears right now because again, I've I because I've been researching so much right now about foster care awareness month, right? And I've been knee deep in the statistics and also trying to articulate like um it's so easy to get lost in the statistics, b to get lost in the overwhelm of what is out there, of of the um the system and the brokenness of the system, you know, like you were talking about like getting supports more than just like what a stipend covers, right? And uh stipends for the record are dismal. Like it's I mean, not they're not um, you know, when people talk about like, oh, they're uh foster parent for the money. I'm like, I you know, I'm sure that that exists. I have not met people like that in 100% in I guess since 2017. I've not met people like that in nine years, right? Like it's I'm sure that they exist. Um but the overwhelm wholesale of of everybody in the system experiences. Like you can't look at a section of it. Caseworkers massively overwhelmed, children in foster care massively overwhelmed with what their bodies are having to carry, right? The the caregivers in the home, foster parents massively overwhelmed. I mean, lawyers guarding that line, everybody is the overwhelm is across the board. And it can get really easy to get caught up in that and and in in parenting kids to get really caught up in the the day-to-day, the day to the the daily annoyances of dealing parenting children who have extreme behaviors because they have experienced so much adversity in their early years, right? But in all of this, it's like in in all of the research that I'm doing and this and the sitting and the writing and trying to articulate around it, I keep coming back to who these kids are. And I like I'm gonna I'm literally gonna cry because it's so good to take a break and to take a breath and to go, these kids are some of the best kids I've ever met in my entire life. These kids have taught me more than I have learned in any other area. Like these they have such determination and such a will to survive and and to be given an opportunity. Like, will everybody take it? No. But the ones who do take it, man, they go places. Like the ones who look at it and they say, like, hey, Aubrey is offering me a shot to break a cycle here, they take that and they run with it perfectly. No, I'm sure that there's bumps and there's all kinds of roller coasters of emotions and they're kids, they're kids being kids, right? Absolutely. But like when I think about who these kids are, I my heart just like swells with pride. And I'm in such a place of like, oh, I need to remember this for when I go home. And I'm frustrated with the behavior that's happening again when I'm losing hope. For like, is this ever going to go away? Like, it's like, no, these they're waking up and they're trying harder than any kid around them. They're going to those schools that you're talking about. And some of them, I would bet that none of their peers at school know that they're in foster care because they hide it.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And I I I share, I share those feelings, Rebecca. I mean, some days, you know, it can just feel like you know, you're up against you know, the system and all of those things, and just spending time with our youth and talking with them and hearing, you know, their stories and hopes and dreams. That just that keeps me going. Um, like our listening sessions this week and just hearing the youth talk about, you know, you know, their experiences and stories. It it's it's what keeps us going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I bet it is because it's like the other thing dealing with dealing with working with teenagers is teenagers don't play.
SPEAKER_01They don't. They were very honest with you. They're not, they do not like something.
SPEAKER_00You bet you better come correct if you're working with teenagers and they're gonna call you on your crap in a second and be really funny about it or really inappropriate and disrespectful. Either way, it's like um it's such a privilege to work with them. So, what is that like? Like, I mean, we read your bio at the beginning, and you go to school, you're you're an elementary school teacher, and you're like, wait a second, we have all of these needs for teenagers, and you switched developmental timelines completely. Although I will say, I will say that I had a 12-year-old and a two-year-old in my house at the same time. My my bookends are exactly 10 years apart. And when they were 12 and two, I was like, Oh, you guys are the same. 12, like puberty is like toddlers with bigger, um, bigger boundaries and bigger behaviors and bit like big it's bigger everything, but 12 and like developmentally they they track, right? And so what was that like for you switching?
SPEAKER_01So yeah, so it was definitely something I never expected to do. My background was in early childhood education. I taught kindergarten most of the years. I was a teacher. Um, and you know, I wanted to live in that that space. I had a goal at one time of being a professor of early childhood education. I thought I would, you know, work with young kids like my whole life. Um, and then of course, you know, I did a career pivot and you know, with fostering connections, I saw, you know, all the needs for the teens. Um, and so I, you know, just dived in. Um, it definitely was a learning curve for me. But what I learned is that the tantrums that my five-year-old students used to uh throw there was there was they're just teenagers are just like little kids, but they're in bigger bodies.
SPEAKER_00It's the same as just bigger behaviors.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So honestly, like, you know, it was just a gradual, you know, transition for me. It was a little bit of a learning curve at the beginning to, you know, obviously there's, you know, some developmental differences between, you know, the teens and the littles. Um, but actually I prefer to work with the teens now. Um, I'm, you know, I have no
desire to be a kindergarten teacher ever again in my life. I don't know how I did that. But um, yeah, I mean, I was in my 20s and now I'm in my mid-30s. I'm like, yeah, I couldn't imagine being a kindergarten teacher ever again. Like, no. Um, but um what I that, you know, early childhood education really provided me a solid foundation with working with teenagers because I know how things started and you know, those, you know, that early years. And those early years are a big, you know, foundation. Of course, many of our youth who've, you know, experienced foster care, you know, they they didn't always get that early foundation. Um, and so, you know, that those teen years, that's like their second time, you know, their their second, you know, second go-around of like, this is how we can build, you know, maybe we didn't get those early building blocks, but we can still, you know, build, you know, this is a growth phase for you, the next big, you know, brain growth wave. So um it really, you know, that really did provide, you know, a solid foundation for me to, you know, continue to build, you know, what youth need. And especially as you know, working with youth who've experienced foster care, you know, many times they're developmentally, you know, half their chronological age because of the trauma. And so, you know, understanding that and having that early ed background, I find it has I found has been an asset for me in this work.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome. That's fantastic. What was it like for you? I I know fostering connections came kind of out of the blue, and when we talk to a lot of founders, it's a common thing, right? It's like I saw a need, I didn't see it being taken care of in society, and so I just started this thing. And it's boots on the ground, it's it is um kind of all hands on deck. You're throwing spaghetti at a wall, really. What was that like for you? Uh what were um, what were some of the things that surprised you? What were some of the things that you anticipated? Like that the role of jumping in here specifically, and this is unique, this is not unique, but I want to highlight it. Um you saw the need for foster kids without being a foster mom. Absolutely huge. Like Aubrey, do you realize how huge that is that um that you saw this need and you were willing to do something about it and jumped in and you were like, what is my role? What is my part? And I'm obsessed right now with people who um see their role and and do it. What was that like for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I mean, it was just it was definitely quite the journey. You know, I started out my career as an educator. I thought that was gonna be my lifelong career. My mom was a career educator. She retired a few years ago after 30 years of teaching. And I thought that my grandpa was, you know, taught 30 some years. So I thought that was gonna be my path in life, but I got into education. It wasn't what I thought it would be. Um, you know, I went in at a really bad time, a lot of testing and
data. And it just, it wasn't about a human, it wasn't a relationship-centered role anymore. It was like a data collector, a behavior, you know, checkboxer. And it just wasn't what I wanted my career to be. I was like, I cannot spend 30 years doing this. So, you know, I stepped away from my career. I was teaching online, you know, just kind of as a filler to find my next step. I had been doing a lot of volunteering in the community. I served with a women's service organization. I was planning galas and doing all the things. And then I thought, oh, well, you know, I could work at a nonprofit. I love nonprofit work, I'll make this my career. Um, and at that time, just the job market for, you know, working at a nonprofit was not that great. There weren't that many openings and things. Um, so I'm like, well, what am I going to do? And I just kept volunteering at different orgs. And then what I saw was that what I wanted to do, nobody else was doing. So um I actually, you know, was inspired to start fostering connections through my dad. And my dad has lived experience, you know, having been in relative foster care for a few years after his own father passed away when he was a four-month-old baby. Um, and then later he reunited with his mom. He was adopted by his stepdad. And he was the one who said, Well, why don't you start your own nonprofit? I'm like, Dad, that's crazy. Why would I do that? And then more I thought about it, I was like, yeah, this is what, you know, what I'm going to do. And I saw especially the gaps in foster care, um, not just through my dad's own lived experiences, but through my time as a teacher. When I taught, I taught it mostly Title I schools. Um, I had a lot of kids who are living with like in basically in foster care, living with their grandparents, or they had been in foster care, or it's just a lot of really like at-risk, you know, families and and youth currently in care. Um, youth that years after they were in my class, you know, they, you know, parents had rights turn terminated. I mean, they were in transitional shelters. I mean, there there was a lot of youth that, you know, had a lot of trauma and things. And back then, you know, there was no TBRI, you know, it, you know, and I would have handled those things differently had I known what I known today. And so I saw that, you know, there was this need in foster care. I saw through my work and then through my dad's lived experiences. So back in 2019, I started fostering connections and it was just, you know, a gradual start. I would worked, I started it just in my home area. I live in St. Augustine. So I just started in my immediate area. I worked with a local CBC, you know, to identify needs. So we were doing like back to school bash, school supply drives, and just kind of building relationships with the foster adoptive community, you know, getting car seats, you know, just you know, focusing a lot of basic needs and just building relationships. And then of course, 2020 COVID hit, and yeah, that was wild. Um, and so we just before COVID, we had started planning because we are hearing about, hey, there's needs for education programs. So we are partnering with a local coffee chain to do a career readiness academy. It was like going to be our first one. It was supposed to be March 2020, and then of course, you know, pandemic that that ruined everything. Um, so we ended up, you know, pivoting. We were able to have the first career readiness academy cohort in August of 2020, seven youth face masks. We we made it work. Um, and so um really from you know, once we started having that first cohort, you know, it took a couple of years to get programs going because of the pandemic, you know, there was it was just really hard at that time to, you know, run foster family meetups or support groups or you know, do life skills classes. We we did a couple little life skills classes, like cooking classes and things like that. But at that time, it was just really hard to have a strong cadence of programs because of the pandemic. And really, our programs didn't get full swing until like 2023, 2024. It took a few years because of the pandemic. There was just so much disruption with that. So that was a huge challenge for us. We're like, got this young nonprofit, we got all these ideas, we got all these things that we want to do. And then there was just so much disruption with the pandemic, um, which had affected all organizations. But I think it was especially hard for us because we were so new and trying to get our name out there and get, you know, find, you know, families to, you know, come to our programs. And there was just so many obstacles with the pandemic. And during that time, you know, we started adding on other counties because there's some area nonprofits that dissolved during the pandemic. And you know, all these folks, there was so much need. People wanted the help and the support. So we started expanding to a few counties south of us, Putnam, Flagler, Volusha. And then, you know, we just saw, you know, Duval County was just having significant need, and we're like, we're missing out on a huge, you know, population that could really benefit from our services because the counties that we work with, while there were there was need, and there still is need, is smaller populations. So back in 2023, we decided to move our office to Jacksonville so we could build those relationships. We actually had our first Career Readiness Academy cohort in Jacksonville back in 2022. And what was a challenge for us? We thought, oh, going to Jacksonville, we'll just get students so quickly. There's so many youth that need the help. And the first year, I don't know, we had like two, three students. It was so sad. The youth were very disappointed with me for not having more youth attending the cohort. Uh, I mean, they still got things out of the cohort, but um that was really hard at the beginning when with our Jacksonville expansion. Like, you know, donors were upset because there weren't enough kids there. And I was just like, what are we doing? Why do we do this expansion? Why do we do this to ourselves? This is not good. Um, but we just spent a lot of time boots on the ground, like, you know, building relationships in Jacksonville because there was no one place to go and then everybody knows about you. It's like it's so spread out. So we had to, you know, really, you know, spend a lot of time building relationships. It was basically like starting all over again. Because I mean, people in St. Augustine knew us and, you know, in some of our other satellite counties, but like no one knew who we were in Jacksonville. So it was like basically starting all over again. Um, and so it definitely took a few years um to get our programs going. But our programs since like 2022 have grown over 200%. So um once people found out about us, like then, you know, we were, we were getting, we were getting very busy. So that was uh, I would say the biggest challenges at the beginning um were just, you know, with all the pandemic disruptions, you know, getting clients um and you know, connecting with families, um, you know, because you know, there's no uh no directory of foster parents, you know, it's kind of it's very much a closed system. So, and what we found is, you know, other families telling about us to other families was really helpful in building. And building our network of families and things. So just over time, we started adding, you know, more programs. We started with the career readiness, then we started in 2023, bringing on the teen talk events. We started foster adoptive family meetups in 2021, and those have evolved into a more, you know, um structured family empowerment night. We had dabbled into the life skills classes a little bit in 2021. But like I said, just with the pandemic, you know, it was just too hard to, you know, do programs regularly. So we once we got the other programs going, um, last year we started bringing back the life skills classes and we added on at Florida Youth Shine in 2024 because we saw this need for youth leadership. And, you know, we found FYS online. There had been an act really active chapter in Jacksonville at the beginning, and then the funding was cut and they hadn't been around in a number of years. They wanted to bring the statewide organization, they wanted to bring back the chapter, so it was just perfect timing. Um, and so yeah, so it I would say, you know, throughout this journey, the challenges had was like, you know, all the pandemic-related challenges to get our word out there and fulfilling our programs. Um, and then just, you know, as a founder, like as an educator, I did not know about fundraising, marketing. So it was like a lot of on-the-job training. Um, and just especially in those years when we're trying to grow programs, you know, fundraising kind of fell off at some point. So now we're really, you know, trying to optimize our fundraising and really focusing on that because we have all the youth now. And now we need to continue to grow our organization to ensure um sustainability and um that we can serve more youth. We have a goal to expand, you know, over the years to be able to serve youth throughout the state of Florida because we have youth, you know, from Cape Coral trying to come to our career readiness program and even Brunswick, Georgia. So the demand is huge, but we're working to to grow our network of supporters so we can continue to serve more youth.
SPEAKER_00Would you do it again?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, a hundred percent. I mean, it has been an amazing journey. I love what I do. I'm just so passionate about my work every day. I just wake up and I'm so excited. I just like, what am I gonna do today? And what I love about being a founder and CEO is the variety. You know, some days I'm working with youth, some days I'm, you know, meeting with community partners, other times I'm having, you know, coffee with donors. I'm working with our amazing board of directors and um, you know, doing strategic planning. There's just, I love the variety of it and um just being able to make a difference in in so many lives. So absolutely 100%.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. I'm so thankful for the work that you do and the work that you're doing in Jacksonville and the way that you are um caring for children in foster care. Um, quick question the for the career readiness and the life skills, do they need to be currently in foster care or do they need to have just been in foster care at some point? Like, can somebody that's been adopted from foster care go to one of those things?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So they do not have to be currently in foster care. We have many adoptees in our program. We have youth that were adopted from foster care or, you know, perhaps adopted by a relative or even international adoptions. We have some youth that were, you know, adopted through international adoption. So yes, we always welcome, you know, adoptive families into our programs because we know even, you know, after the joyful adoption day, you know, um, you know, there's still, you know, challenges and bumps in the road. And, you know, youth, you know, want to connect with other youth, have had, you know, adoption and things because again, you know, that can be a challenge at at school as well. Um, you know, we've had youth say they were being bullied because they were adopted. And so, you know, building that foster adoptive community is really important for us.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Isolation is like one of the number one things that people struggle with in foster care, adoption, caregivers, kids, just the feeling of being all alone and having to hold the weight all alone. And so I really love that you are coming in and saying you're not alone. Like you're not, we're here, we're here alongside you, we're here beside you, and and we're gonna help set your feet on firm ground as you move forward. Um at the end of most of our podcasts, we do a little lightning round question. Are you game for little fun questions? Okay.
Uh the first question is what is on your nightstand?
SPEAKER_01What is on my name nightstand? Okay, I have books on my nightstand because I'm an avid reader. I was actually voted bookworm when I was in seventh grade. So I have books. I have my journal and my pen and my my lamp.
SPEAKER_00When you were reading in seventh grade, would you like walk down the sidewalk with your book, like reading it and walking?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, same, same. And people be like, How do you do that? I'm like, how do you not do this? I'm in the middle of a really good part of the book. Like, I can't, I can't put this down.
SPEAKER_01I was even in book club in seventh grade. I was in book club. Uh yeah, I did all the things.
SPEAKER_00That's fantastic. Okay, so then the second question is um, what books or podcasts are you loving right now? And this does not have to be academic or foster care related or anything like that. It can just be like really excited for the next fourth wing novel that's about to come out in October.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So I've been currently catching up on my reading because as a founder and CEO, I just have gotten behind on my reading. And so I've been currently reading uh breaking cover um by uh my secret life in the CIA and what it taught me about what's worth fighting for by Michelle Rigby Asad. Stop it.
SPEAKER_00I Aubrey, did we talk about this when we met? I am like recently obsessed with former CIA agents.
SPEAKER_01Oh did we talk about that at all? Maybe we didn't chat about this.
SPEAKER_00I'm recently obsessed with former CIA agents. Like I'm like listening to all the podcasts that I can listen to that that um that they're
anyhow. I find it fascinating. I find their life absolutely fascinating and the parts that they're able to tell fascinating. Absolutely. What's breaking cover? Like, what is that?
SPEAKER_01So um, yeah, so Michelle Rick Biasad, she's a former CIA agent. I actually met her at Life Work Leadership First Coast. She's been a guest speaker the last few years. Um, I'm a graduate of Life Work Leadership First Coast as a Christian-based leadership development program. I was um uh class of 2023. Yeah, it was a little while ago. Um, and so as part of, you know, she came and talked to the cohort, and then they gave us a copy of her book. And embarrassingly, because I'm just a busy founder and CEO, it's been sitting on my little little nightstand to read for the last year. And my husband's like, why do you have these books? You're never gonna read them. And so I made a promise to myself, I'm gonna read at least 10 pages a night of a book. And so I started reading her story. And her story basically, you know, she was a cheerleader who grew up in a small southern town, Mount Plymouth in Florida. And um, she met a um Egyptian uh student that had come, you know, uh was a missionary's like family brought him to Florida. And so they met and you know, dated throughout like college, got married, and then he joined, like they both joined the CIA as a couple um during like just like before 9-11. So they were like in Iraq and things. So it just talks about you know her journey, like you know, being you know, a female going into the CIA and you know, just some of her experiences.
SPEAKER_00So the CIA loves to hire, the CIA loves to hire couples. Um, random. That's like a random fact that I've learned from like there's another couple that talk about um anyhow. I could talk about this for a long time. I will they love to hire couples because then you don't have to lie to your partner or you like the things that you can't answer, the the spouse understands that you can't answer, and so it's a much less um risk of divorce for their oper operators.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. She actually she's retired now, she lives in Florida, like in the Orlando area. I'm guess that's where she's from. Um, she actually is a partner in a restaurant in Viera, Florida now, which is crazy. But yeah, she goes and speaks to different, you know, groups and things. Um, and so yeah, she's a really cool person. You you'll really you would really love the book.
SPEAKER_00That's wild. Okay, last question. What is bringing you joy right now?
SPEAKER_01What is bringing me joy? Oh, um let's see here. Well, so many things bring me joy, so it can be hard. Um, hard for me, hard, hard to say because just so many things bring me joy. Um, but I um recently I got a gift um from our board chair um at Argela just as a thank you gift. And I was able to go to Lily Pulitzer and get a new little romper outfit. And that just brought me just so much joy. I'm a big Lily Pulitzer fan. Um, I have like a bunch of the different dresses. There's actually a Friends That Lily group on Facebook that I've been part of for like four years. They have events like throughout the state. There's like a Lily Con now, like in the summers. But honestly, the last few years I've missed all the events because I've just been so busy with fostering connections. So I was actually talking with my husband this morning. I'm like, oh, I just I need to make it a goal to go to the Lily events because they're just so much fun and the ladies are so sweet. And you know, we just have like so much fun. Like they had um a friends at Lily event um back in December 22 in Saint 2022 in St. Augustine. And so I was like, oh, I'll go to that one because it's super convenient right near my house. Um and I got to meet Lily fans from like mostly around Florida, but you know, around the United States too. Um, and we were like decorating little like Lily like inspired Christmas ornaments, and we did like some dinner and lunch, like dinner outings and things. Um, they did like the trolley ride and stuff, but I was like, No, I've done that before. Um, but yeah, it was so much fun meeting just people like we had so many, so many things in common with one another, um, and just had so much fun. And you know, we did like a little white elephant exchange, you know. Of course, a lot of us brought Lily things. Oh my gosh. I it was just so much fun.
SPEAKER_00I am forever obsessed with people who are obsessed about something. Like I am obsessed with this so much, and I've never owned a Lily thing in my entire life, but I'm telling you right now, I would buy something to go and people watch because the people watching there is probably 10 out of 10 amazing. I feel the same way about Comic Cons and like all kinds, like I just am like when people are somewhere because they're passionate about this one thing, I I could devour that as like people content for days on end. Like I would, I'm endlessly fascinated by this. Um, Aubrey, thank you so, so, so much for coming on the show and for doing the work that you're doing. I love it. I love the work that you're doing, and I love that we finally connected.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much, Rebecca. I love being on the show today and excited to continue to stay connected.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00All right. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.