Fostering Futures℠
The California Association of Health and Education Linked Professions is excited to introduce you to Fostering Futures℠ a podcast that brings you high-quality, research-based content designed to inspire and educate. Each episode is crafted with care, drawing on the knowledge of credible experts, parents, and community members to ensure both trustworthiness and depth.
Our mission is to engage and expand our audience by delivering thought-provoking material that focuses on key areas crucial to the development and well-being of all youth. Through our discussions, we aim to provide insights that are not only relevant but also transformative.
Join us as we explore innovative approaches in special education, Social Emotional Well-Being, and Community. Be ready to be apart of a community committed to making a positive impact.
Visit us at www.cahelp.org
Fostering Futures℠
Foster Youth EP 6 - Supporting Foster Families Beyond Placement with Tawnie Rice From On the Rise
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of Fostering Futures with CAHELP, Athena Cordero speaks with Tawnie Rice, Administrator at On the Rise Foster Agency in Barstow, California. Tawnie shares her unique perspective as both a former foster youth and a social work professional who has worked her way up through nearly every role within the agency.
Tawnie walks listeners through what foster family agencies do, how they differ from county placements, and why additional layers of support, such as trained visitation monitoring, advocacy, and trauma‑informed services can make a critical difference for foster children and families. She explains intensive services foster care, extended foster care for young adults, and the realities of supporting children who have experienced trauma.
Throughout the conversation, Tawnie emphasizes the importance of patience, hope, consistency, and presence. She offers honest insight into common misconceptions about foster youth, what it truly takes to become a foster parent, and why attachment is not something to fear, but something children deeply need. This episode highlights how lived experience, compassion, and community‑based support can change outcomes for foster youth and the families who care for them.
Highlights
- Tawnie shares her lived experience as a former foster youth and her journey to becoming an agency administrator.
- Insight into how foster family agencies differ from county placements in support and advocacy.
- Explanation of visitation monitoring and why trained supervision matters for children.
- Walkthrough of what it takes to become a foster parent and the importance of “checking your heart.”
- Discussion of trauma‑informed care, hope, and consistency in supporting foster youth.
- Real‑world examples of how agencies advocate for children’s mental health and behavioral needs.
Key Takeaways
- There are no bad kids, only children responding to trauma.
- Foster parents must be open to learning new skills and disciplinarian approaches.
- Attachment is not a risk; it is essential to healing and development.
- Hope is built through consistency, follow‑through, and showing up.
- Foster youth often deeply miss and love their biological families.
- Agencies provide critical guidance that helps foster parents navigate complex situations.
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram | www.cahelp.org | podcast@cahelp.org
00:00:09 Intro
The relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
00:00:18 Intro
Welcome to Fostering Futures with CA Help, a podcast dedicated to our relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
00:00:26 Intro
I'm your host, Athena Cordero, inviting you to join me and countless others as we share our unique perspectives and expertise in the world of special education, behavioral health, social-emotional well-being, and community.
00:00:39 Intro
Follow us on Buzzsprout, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
00:00:45 Athena Cordero
Welcome to Fostering Futures, everyone.
00:00:47 Athena Cordero
I'm Athena Cordero, and today I get to talk to Tawny Rice.
00:00:51 Athena Cordero
She is the administrator at On the Rise Foster Agency in Barstow, California.
00:00:58 Athena Cordero
Tawny, welcome.
00:00:59 Tawnie Rice
Thank you so much.
00:01:00 Tawnie Rice
It's great to be here with you guys.
00:01:01 Athena Cordero
We're really excited to talk to you too.
00:01:04 Athena Cordero
We have been doing a series on foster youth, and so to get your perspective today as an administrator for an agency is really helpful.
00:01:15 Athena Cordero
Can you talk to me a little bit about your background, any licensure or anything that was needed for the role that you have right now on the rise or just what your education is in general?
00:01:25 Tawnie Rice
Yeah, so I currently hold a master's degree in social work, and after I finished my master's degree, I went ahead and started my licensure process, which takes approximately 2 years, but that's not required for the position itself.
00:01:39 Tawnie Rice
All that's required really is a master's degree for that position, but I think it's helpful if you do have some
00:01:45 Tawnie Rice
experience in that regard.
00:01:46 Tawnie Rice
And I've been working with the agency, it'll be 10 years next month.
00:01:49 Tawnie Rice
So I've been with them since they started, a few months after they started actually.
00:01:53 Tawnie Rice
So been with them since they started.
00:01:56 Tawnie Rice
I have this strong passion for social work, especially with being former foster youth myself.
00:02:01 Tawnie Rice
I think that really brings on a unique perspective.
00:02:03 Tawnie Rice
So that's kind of my background as far as education and experience goes.
00:02:08 Tawnie Rice
But I think it goes without saying that when you're a social worker, your experience is very broad because you're, you have a
00:02:15 Tawnie Rice
on all the time of something else than what's in your job description.
00:02:18 Athena Cordero
Yeah, definitely.
00:02:20 Athena Cordero
Thank you for the background.
00:02:21 Athena Cordero
I didn't realize that you have seen the foster care system as both a child in the system and now helping a foster agency.
00:02:29 Athena Cordero
Okay, so we'll get into that just a little bit.
00:02:31 Tawnie Rice
Okay, for sure.
00:02:32 Athena Cordero
So as administrator at On the Rise, what does a day look like?
00:02:37 Athena Cordero
for you.
00:02:37 Athena Cordero
And you've been you've been with them for 10 years.
00:02:39 Athena Cordero
Have you been an administrator for that entire 10 years?
00:02:42 Tawnie Rice
No.
00:02:42 Tawnie Rice
So I actually started at the very bottom.
00:02:44 Tawnie Rice
I started out as like an office manager and then a social worker aide and then a visitation monitor and then a recruiter, then the director of recruitment, then an agency social worker, and that eventually worked my way up to becoming the administrator.
00:02:57 Tawnie Rice
So I've been the administrator since August of 2025.
00:03:01 Tawnie Rice
Congratulations.
00:03:02 Tawnie Rice
Thank you so much.
00:03:03 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:03:03 Tawnie Rice
And when you ask what a day looks like at my job,
00:03:07 Tawnie Rice
I wish I could give you like something clear cut, but the truth is, and it's funny because I was just talking about this with my director and we were talking about, I said, the most difficult part sometimes of just making it through the day is you go into the day thinking you have this plan, this idea, right?
00:03:23 Tawnie Rice
And I'm a very scheduled person and I have a lot of things going on.
00:03:26 Tawnie Rice
So I try and schedule it out as well as I can.
00:03:28 Tawnie Rice
And then boom, something pops up.
00:03:30 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:03:30 Tawnie Rice
For example, like I placed a kid last week and it took all day to get that home cleared, to get the kid placed,
00:03:37 Tawnie Rice
to get the kid picked up.
00:03:38 Tawnie Rice
But I am very grateful for my team because I think that really makes the job a lot better.
00:03:43 Tawnie Rice
Because when you have this team where everybody's looking out for each other, everybody's trying to do the best they can for children and families, it really makes your job a lot easier no matter what position you have.
00:03:53 Tawnie Rice
So definitely shout out to my team because really couldn't do it without them sometimes.
00:03:58 Tawnie Rice
So that's pretty much like what a day in the life of the administrator looks like.
00:04:01 Tawnie Rice
And there's really so much that happens every day, but I think
00:04:06 Tawnie Rice
primarily, the main thing that I do is just to do my best to ensure that, the safety of children is being met, that the homes are getting the support that they need, the social workers are getting the support that they need, and everybody is just able to kind of work cohesively together as a whole.
00:04:22 Tawnie Rice
So that's pretty much it for day in life.
00:04:24 Athena Cordero
Pretty much it.
00:04:25 Athena Cordero
That sounds like everything.
00:04:27 Athena Cordero
Okay, so let me back up just a little bit.
00:04:29 Athena Cordero
You've got a team.
00:04:30 Athena Cordero
What size team?
00:04:31 Athena Cordero
How many folks?
00:04:32 Tawnie Rice
Oh, we have, let me count.
00:04:34 Tawnie Rice
So we have
00:04:36 Tawnie Rice
I would say about between 7:00 to 10:00 social workers.
00:04:40 Tawnie Rice
We have a couple supervisors.
00:04:42 Tawnie Rice
We have several visitation monitors, which also shout out to them because we supervise all of our visits for the agency.
00:04:49 Tawnie Rice
And that can be a really big job in itself.
00:04:52 Tawnie Rice
So to have those visitation monitors showing up the way they do, it's honestly amazing.
00:04:56 Tawnie Rice
And we could not do our job without them.
00:04:59 Tawnie Rice
When you hear visitation monitor, sometimes in comparison to social worker, you think, oh, it's not really a big deal, but it's a huge deal.
00:05:05 Tawnie Rice
It's a really big deal.
00:05:07 Tawnie Rice
So can you, okay, so tell me about that.
00:05:09 Athena Cordero
What's the difference between social worker and what was this other role you said?
00:05:13 Tawnie Rice
Visitation monitor.
00:05:14 Athena Cordero
What's the difference?
00:05:15 Tawnie Rice
So a social worker has to have a master's degree or at least be pursuing their master's.
00:05:20 Tawnie Rice
They have to have so many credits in order to be an agency social worker.
00:05:23 Tawnie Rice
A visitation monitor does not have to have any experience.
00:05:26 Tawnie Rice
They don't have to have any degree.
00:05:28 Tawnie Rice
But what they're
00:05:29 Tawnie Rice
their job is, is basically monitoring and transporting to and from the visits, which, like I said, is a lot.
00:05:35 Athena Cordero
Wow, okay.
00:05:36 Tawnie Rice
So there's a difference of job there for sure, but they really do help out with our jobs because if we didn't have them, we would be required to supervise all of our own visits because we don't require foster parents to supervise any visits.
00:05:49 Tawnie Rice
So that really takes a huge chunk of time.
00:05:53 Tawnie Rice
So very, very grateful for them.
00:05:56 Tawnie Rice
Going back to the staff, so we do have supervisors.
00:05:59 Tawnie Rice
have our director, we have HR, we have our RFA specialists.
00:06:03 Tawnie Rice
We have just a really great team.
00:06:05 Tawnie Rice
It's not huge.
00:06:06 Tawnie Rice
We did downsize during 2025.
00:06:09 Tawnie Rice
We kind of, you know, made everybody like kind of chunked together in one office, but it's working out really, really well.
00:06:15 Tawnie Rice
So good.
00:06:16 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:06:17 Athena Cordero
You did give your team shout out, but I'll say it again.
00:06:19 Athena Cordero
Shout out to them.
00:06:20 Athena Cordero
It sounds like there's a lot of moving parts throughout the day.
00:06:23 Athena Cordero
And your role sounds like it can change based on the
00:06:27 Athena Cordero
circumstances at any given moment, and your focus has to change very quickly.
00:06:32 Athena Cordero
Yes, that's understandable, especially when you're an administrator.
00:06:36 Athena Cordero
Okay, so busy work, awesome team.
00:06:40 Athena Cordero
Tell us about On the Rise.
00:06:42 Athena Cordero
What services, programs does On the Rise offer?
00:06:46 Tawnie Rice
So obviously, when we're talking about a foster family agency,
00:06:50 Tawnie Rice
We obviously service foster children and foster families.
00:06:53 Tawnie Rice
So what that means is we train, we certify, and we support all of our foster families, and then we place children in those certified homes.
00:07:03 Tawnie Rice
So that's primarily our main job.
00:07:05 Tawnie Rice
We do something called intensive services foster care, which is for children who need like a higher level of care.
00:07:11 Tawnie Rice
It's not quite med fragile foster care, which is also another term, but it is basically for those children who require a higher level of care that some agencies might not
00:07:20 Tawnie Rice
be willing to provide.
00:07:21 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:07:22 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:07:22 Tawnie Rice
So, and these can be kids who have like, a lot of medical appointments, who have a lot of behavioral issues, who have a lot of just stuff going on in general outside what a normal quote quote placement looks like.
00:07:33 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:07:34 Tawnie Rice
So we do offer that.
00:07:35 Tawnie Rice
We do our own live scanning and fingerprinting.
00:07:38 Tawnie Rice
We do our own CPR certifications.
00:07:40 Tawnie Rice
We really do, honestly, like when my director created On the Rise, she really created it as almost like an umbrella company.
00:07:48 Tawnie Rice
So that way it's like a one-stop shop.
00:07:50 Tawnie Rice
You don't
00:07:50 Tawnie Rice
go in there and you get everything done.
00:07:51 Tawnie Rice
You don't have to go, to Timbuktu to get your fingerprints.
00:07:55 Tawnie Rice
And we do service all of San Bernardino County and Riverside County as well.
00:07:58 Athena Cordero
I'm going to make a comparison and I don't want anybody to take offense, but it kind of sounds like the Kaiser of Gouster.
00:08:04 Athena Cordero
Yes, you get everything done under one roof, right?
00:08:07 Tawnie Rice
Yes.
00:08:08 Athena Cordero
Okay, so you said that some other agencies, maybe they can't service or support certain placements because of, what did you say, a med?
00:08:17 Tawnie Rice
Intensive services, foster care.
00:08:19 Athena Cordero
Okay, so that's interesting because I know in learning about some of this, there is a difference between kids that are placed, I think in county, with county services versus like a nonprofit or a public, I'm sorry, a private agency.
00:08:35 Athena Cordero
What's the difference there?
00:08:36 Athena Cordero
How does that work?
00:08:37 Tawnie Rice
So the major difference there is the level of support.
00:08:41 Tawnie Rice
So not that the county doesn't provide support.
00:08:44 Tawnie Rice
I don't want to go out and say that, but
00:08:46 Tawnie Rice
when you're working with an agency, it is a way higher level of support.
00:08:50 Tawnie Rice
So for example, with a county foster home, they're going to require you to supervise your own visits.
00:08:55 Tawnie Rice
They're going to require you to get all the appointments and things set up.
00:08:58 Tawnie Rice
Like we can assist with that as with when you're with the county foster homes, it's kind of like, you know, you're on your own to figure this out.
00:09:05 Tawnie Rice
And some people are totally comfortable with that, but then there's other times where people are like, I'm not really 100% confident in monitoring a visit, or I'm not 100% comfortable in going through this process because it's a
00:09:16 Tawnie Rice
process.
00:09:16 Tawnie Rice
It's not just you get your certification and you're in and out and that's it.
00:09:21 Tawnie Rice
It's a process the whole way through.
00:09:22 Tawnie Rice
So some people want that support throughout the process of fostering in general.
00:09:26 Tawnie Rice
So that's really the big primary difference to me and also the level of advocacy.
00:09:32 Athena Cordero
Okay, talk to me about that.
00:09:33 Tawnie Rice
So when we're talking about advocating for foster youth or foster parents or foster children or bio families, you really want somebody who works with these people every day.
00:09:42 Tawnie Rice
And what better person to utilize than like an agency social worker or supervisor or somebody who has that direct contact with the children and families.
00:09:50 Tawnie Rice
So in that aspect, I think it is a lot different.
00:09:53 Tawnie Rice
Like I said, not that the county doesn't do that, but their plates are so full trying to do other things that that's probably not primary at the top of their list, whereas we can
00:10:02 Tawnie Rice
work collaboratively with them and say, hey, we noticed X, Y, and Z is going on.
00:10:07 Tawnie Rice
We think we need to have so-and-so do whatever it may be.
00:10:11 Tawnie Rice
Really just try and find that solution in order to find out what is best for the child and for the family.
00:10:18 Tawnie Rice
Because I think that's something else that really isn't talked about very often is how can we provide that level of support, not just to the foster family, not just to the child, but also to the biological family, because they come into play in this whole picture.
00:10:31 Tawnie Rice
So that's pretty much, I would say, the major differences with the county.
00:10:35 Athena Cordero
So it would sound like if I'm very open to supporting foster kids, I want to get into this, but I don't know where to start.
00:10:45 Athena Cordero
I'm not sure all of what's entailed.
00:10:48 Athena Cordero
and I want maybe more access to somebody that can give me some answers, it would probably benefit me to come to an agency like yours, where of course I can get started maybe with the county, but if I need a little bit more, then it would probably be helpful for me to come to someplace like On the Rise.
00:11:06 Athena Cordero
So you said that the parents, if they're going to the county, that the parents have to supervise their own visits?
00:11:14 Tawnie Rice
Yes, a lot of the time.
00:11:15 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:11:15 Athena Cordero
So what is that?
00:11:16 Athena Cordero
What's how does that work?
00:11:18 Tawnie Rice
It just varies.
00:11:19 Tawnie Rice
Honestly, it depends on where they have the visits at.
00:11:21 Tawnie Rice
It depends on what their specific visitation schedule is from the court, because every person has to go to court, you know, every family has to go to court and then they designate the visits and basically the county and on the rise or other affiliate agencies, they carry them out, they assist them.
00:11:37 Tawnie Rice
So it just looks different.
00:11:39 Tawnie Rice
Like, for example, like
00:11:41 Tawnie Rice
You might have a county foster parent have to monitor a visit with the biological family and the children at a park.
00:11:47 Tawnie Rice
As with On the Rise, we would go and pick up the child and then we would take them to their visit.
00:11:52 Tawnie Rice
We're writing notes at every single visit.
00:11:54 Tawnie Rice
So we're getting that really great documentation aspect that is required.
00:11:58 Tawnie Rice
And we can submit that to the county, which then will go to like the court reports.
00:12:03 Tawnie Rice
So you're really getting this accurate picture of what's going on when you're having trained individuals monitor your visits as with somebody who's not trained in that
00:12:11 Tawnie Rice
aspect, doesn't really know what to look out for or what if there's an issue, then what, and some people do not feel comfortable handling that and rightfully so, it can be definitely challenging to navigate that.
00:12:23 Tawnie Rice
So definitely in that aspect, that's kind of the big difference between like the visitation between like an agency and the county.
00:12:29 Tawnie Rice
But overall, I would say if you want more support, definitely go with an agency.
00:12:33 Athena Cordero
So that's great information, Tanya.
00:12:35 Athena Cordero
Thank you so much for explaining that.
00:12:38 Athena Cordero
It sounds like
00:12:40 Athena Cordero
Because I'm trying to put myself, as you're explaining this, I'm trying to put myself in the situation.
00:12:45 Athena Cordero
As a foster mom, foster parent, if I'm trying to supervise visits and I don't know what to look for, but I know something's not quite right, I could be a good mom, but that doesn't mean I know the process of what to do, who to call, what steps to take in the right order.
00:13:00 Athena Cordero
And of course, I don't want to do anything to jeopardize
00:13:04 Athena Cordero
my child my foster child's placement or just what they have going on So that's helpful for me to know I think and for listeners to understand what's in what kind of kind of comes with the territory The so when you do have somebody who's coming in maybe from you know on the rise doing the observation for you does the foster parent get to see the notes that the That person creates or does or do those notes go straight to
00:13:33 Athena Cordero
the social worker.
00:13:35 Tawnie Rice
So the way that it works when we're documenting what's going on during the visits, that goes strictly into the child's file.
00:13:41 Tawnie Rice
Nobody will ever see that unless it's on the rise staff who needs to see it, for example, like maybe a supervisor or the agency social worker when they utilize that to go back and do like their quarterly reports or their needs and services plans, or if they need to send the county worker an e-mail and say, hey, some things aren't going so great during the visits.
00:13:58 Tawnie Rice
This is what's going on.
00:13:59 Tawnie Rice
But the foster parent never gets a copy of that.
00:14:01 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:14:02 Athena Cordero
The only reason I ask is
00:14:03 Athena Cordero
because I'm trying to imagine the child being in a situation where the foster parent is the one observing, but maybe not knowing exactly what to do, and then they have to leave and go home with foster mom, or foster dad, whoever it is.
00:14:18 Athena Cordero
I don't know.
00:14:19 Athena Cordero
It seems like it'll be easier for the kid to walk away from that situation and go home if the parent wasn't there.
00:14:23 Athena Cordero
And that's just my bias in the moment listening to it right now.
00:14:27 Athena Cordero
It seems like that would be a good buffer, you know, for little Athena or whoever, to be able to walk away from that and just go home, you know, like, oh, come away.
00:14:36 Athena Cordero
But I don't know.
00:14:36 Athena Cordero
I mean, that's, I guess that's the way I'm thinking of it in an environment that I would want to create for a child.
00:14:42 Tawnie Rice
Yeah, and I would definitely agree with that because you're right.
00:14:44 Tawnie Rice
It does create this tension sometimes.
00:14:46 Tawnie Rice
And unfortunately, there's not really always the best relationship between the bio parents and the foster parents.
00:14:52 Tawnie Rice
So when you put a kid in the middle of that, it really creates this like complex situation and their needs aren't being supported.
00:14:58 Tawnie Rice
The confusion starts to settle in.
00:15:00 Tawnie Rice
So it can create a really, really large amount of problems.
00:15:03 Tawnie Rice
There are problems sometimes even when we're monitoring with
00:15:06 Tawnie Rice
confusion.
00:15:06 Tawnie Rice
So then kind of like what you were saying, you put them in that, aspect of things.
00:15:11 Tawnie Rice
It really does create some confusion and a lot of the times a lot of problems.
00:15:15 Athena Cordero
Yeah, and it to me, this is what I was thinking as you were kind of walking me through that.
00:15:21 Athena Cordero
The same way a kid can feel torn.
00:15:25 Athena Cordero
that's not in foster placement between two parents.
00:15:28 Athena Cordero
Maybe they're in the middle of a divorce or whatever.
00:15:30 Athena Cordero
I can see it being kind of similar.
00:15:33 Athena Cordero
But in this case, the child is going into it thinking they're supposed to be removed from the conflict, you know?
00:15:39 Athena Cordero
So if it's continuing, I could see how that continues to be confusing, you know, for the child too.
00:15:45 Athena Cordero
And then how do you get a break?
00:15:46 Athena Cordero
You know, where do you get a break from it?
00:15:48 Athena Cordero
Okay, so speaking of all of what foster parents,
00:15:53 Athena Cordero
need to do sometimes by themselves or get support.
00:15:56 Athena Cordero
Talk to me about what it takes to become a foster parent.
00:16:00 Athena Cordero
Like if I wanted to start right now, what would I do and how could On the Rise help me?
00:16:05 Tawnie Rice
So the first thing I would always recommend is to check and make sure your heart's in the right place.
00:16:09 Tawnie Rice
Because that's like the number one ingredient to success, right?
00:16:12 Tawnie Rice
There is checking your motives behind it, making sure that your heart's in the right place and that you know what you're getting into.
00:16:18 Tawnie Rice
Because it's not as simple as a child comes into your home, they're great, everything goes well.
00:16:23 Tawnie Rice
And I want to highlight that there is no such thing as bad kids, right?
00:16:26 Tawnie Rice
There is a such thing as kids who have been through trauma, neglect and abuse and they need additional support.
00:16:32 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:16:32 Tawnie Rice
So first of all, check and make sure your heart's in the right place.
00:16:35 Athena Cordero
Okay, Tanya, so let me just stop you right there, okay?
00:16:39 Athena Cordero
Say, I don't even know what that means, right?
00:16:41 Athena Cordero
I think I'm a good person.
00:16:42 Athena Cordero
Like, I think I have a lot to give, but I don't know some of the situations that kids have, you know, been through.
00:16:49 Athena Cordero
Maybe I didn't grow up having to experience any of that.
00:16:52 Athena Cordero
What's one or two things I could really contemplate, sit down, ask myself if I'm trying to check my own heart?
00:17:00 Tawnie Rice
So one of the things I would recommend is, are you ready to really fulfill these children's needs?
00:17:06 Tawnie Rice
Maybe you don't even know what that looks like, right?
00:17:08 Tawnie Rice
Maybe you have to research it, or maybe you have to wait for us to come out and do orientation with you to figure out what exactly it looks like to support a foster child.
00:17:16 Tawnie Rice
So many people know they want to foster, but they don't really know what that process entails.
00:17:20 Tawnie Rice
And I think that's kind of great where we can step in.
00:17:23 Tawnie Rice
And we would, so basically you'd call us and you'd say, hey, I'm thinking about fostering.
00:17:27 Tawnie Rice
Can we meet?
00:17:28 Tawnie Rice
can we set up an appointment?
00:17:29 Tawnie Rice
And we say, sure, yeah, let's go do an orientation.
00:17:31 Tawnie Rice
So then we come to you, we do your orientation, we take a look at your home, which is also like another question.
00:17:37 Tawnie Rice
Like, is my home ready?
00:17:38 Tawnie Rice
Like, what does that look like?
00:17:39 Tawnie Rice
Where am I going to place a child, you know?
00:17:40 Athena Cordero
Right, because I think my home is great, but that.
00:17:42 Tawnie Rice
Doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for the circumstances, right?
00:17:46 Tawnie Rice
Yeah, so and then we would come out and do like a home check, let you know, hey, this is or isn't going to work.
00:17:51 Tawnie Rice
And then we start your paperwork process, which is the longest part of the whole process.
00:17:55 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:17:55 Tawnie Rice
So definitely have to run your background.
00:17:59 Tawnie Rice
We ask for so much paperwork.
00:18:01 Tawnie Rice
And I just tell everybody, if you can make it through the paperwork process, you're golden, because that's the hard part right there.
00:18:06 Athena Cordero
Gotcha.
00:18:07 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:18:07 Athena Cordero
And what ages do you all support at On the Rise?
00:18:12 Tawnie Rice
So right now we do pretty much 0 to 18, but we do have some children who are in extended foster care, which is 18 to 21 years old, which is great.
00:18:20 Tawnie Rice
We love extended foster care at On the Rise.
00:18:22 Tawnie Rice
So if we can get more kids to, you know,
00:18:25 Tawnie Rice
transition into that system, we love it.
00:18:28 Tawnie Rice
But primarily right now, 0 to 18 and then the 18 to 21.
00:18:32 Athena Cordero
What is the 18 to 21 support look like?
00:18:36 Athena Cordero
Because you're transitioning these kids into adults, right?
00:18:40 Athena Cordero
So what does that support look like for them?
00:18:42 Tawnie Rice
So it's a little bit different than the support that like maybe even a 14 year old child would get.
00:18:46 Tawnie Rice
It's more life skills and planning and having that support because as you as you know, and you you have children, so you get it when a child turns 18,
00:18:55 Tawnie Rice
Yes, they're on paper an adult, but they still are a child.
00:18:59 Tawnie Rice
They still have a lot of things they got to figure out.
00:19:02 Tawnie Rice
Yes, yes, they need that support.
00:19:04 Tawnie Rice
And what better person to get that from if you can't get it from your own biological family than to get it from your foster parent who you have this great relationship with and who is willing to support you.
00:19:13 Tawnie Rice
So it really looks like that life planning, making sure that they get into college and that they have a job because that's part of the requirements of being in extended foster care is being able to maintain either going to school
00:19:25 Tawnie Rice
or having a job, something.
00:19:27 Tawnie Rice
They want you to have something.
00:19:28 Tawnie Rice
And then I've seen kids in extended foster care who have transitioned out and literally transitioned to their own apartment that's fully furnished.
00:19:35 Tawnie Rice
They're in school.
00:19:36 Tawnie Rice
Like really, it's a really great setup.
00:19:39 Tawnie Rice
But a lot of kids, unfortunately, don't choose to take advantage of that because when they see 18 years old, let's say a child's been in the system since they were 10 years old, right?
00:19:48 Tawnie Rice
When they see 18, they're like, I'm out of here.
00:19:50 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:19:50 Tawnie Rice
I don't want to be here no more.
00:19:51 Tawnie Rice
I don't want to be a part of the system.
00:19:53 Tawnie Rice
And it's maybe not even that they had a bad experience,
00:19:55 Tawnie Rice
It's just they're tired of that label that comes associated with being in foster care.
00:20:00 Tawnie Rice
Yeah, they want to start their own life, but unfortunately, that's where we see a lot of problems as well, because they don't have that support, and maybe they go back to their biological families and there's some things that go wrong there.
00:20:12 Tawnie Rice
So it just leads to a whole new set of problems.
00:20:15 Tawnie Rice
But
00:20:16 Tawnie Rice
Definitely when you're thinking of extended foster care, it's, and I highly encourage everybody to really like research it and check it out.
00:20:23 Tawnie Rice
They have so many great classes that they'll host for them and things like that.
00:20:27 Athena Cordero
So I saw, so I did look on the website.
00:20:30 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:20:30 Athena Cordero
There are a lot of resources on there, you know, for people who would like to become a foster parent.
00:20:36 Athena Cordero
There were so many different, there were classes, modules, things like that.
00:20:41 Athena Cordero
So if I did have questions, I honestly could figure out what I need.
00:20:46 Tawnie Rice
Yes.
00:20:47 Athena Cordero
Just from looking on there.
00:20:48 Athena Cordero
You guys are great.
00:20:49 Athena Cordero
There's a whole wealth of information.
00:20:51 Athena Cordero
Yes.
00:20:52 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:20:52 Athena Cordero
So how do you determine.
00:20:55 Athena Cordero
what need because okay, we talked about the kids that are 18 to 21.
00:20:59 Athena Cordero
They're, you know, they're transitioning out.
00:21:01 Athena Cordero
But for the kids under 18, how do you determine what's needed?
00:21:06 Athena Cordero
I guess, you know, once they get placed with you guys, because I did look, there's a trauma informed lens that it looks like you guys use to support.
00:21:15 Athena Cordero
So walk me through what that looks like at On the Rise.
00:21:18 Tawnie Rice
Oh, I wish I could give you like a clear cut picture.
00:21:21 Tawnie Rice
But the truth is, every child is different.
00:21:23 Tawnie Rice
There's not like there's not one
00:21:26 Tawnie Rice
way to approach these things.
00:21:28 Tawnie Rice
Of course, you're always using a trauma-informed lens to look at what these children have experienced and also a systems perspective.
00:21:34 Tawnie Rice
So what have they experienced as a whole and how might that impact them later on?
00:21:40 Tawnie Rice
And the good news is, is that children are very resilient.
00:21:43 Tawnie Rice
And when we look at what resilience is,
00:21:45 Tawnie Rice
we can pretty much equate it back to support and having hope.
00:21:49 Tawnie Rice
And how can we foster hope?
00:21:51 Tawnie Rice
How can we do that with these children, especially when we're talking about like older children?
00:21:57 Tawnie Rice
I would say maybe seven years old and up.
00:21:58 Tawnie Rice
What can we do to support them and let them know that they're loved, that they're cared for?
00:22:02 Tawnie Rice
And how can we support the foster parent in making sure that those needs are met?
00:22:06 Tawnie Rice
If there's behavioral issues or if, you know, maybe there's medical
00:22:10 Tawnie Rice
issues, how can we advocate for them to get the care that they need?
00:22:13 Tawnie Rice
And the great news is that at On the Rise, we have this amazing team of social workers who really does go above and beyond.
00:22:19 Tawnie Rice
And I can speak from experience as a social worker that I have really, really went above and beyond because I knew that these children needed more than what they were being given.
00:22:29 Tawnie Rice
And unfortunately, caseloads at the county are way like jam-packed.
00:22:33 Tawnie Rice
So it's
00:22:35 Tawnie Rice
the numbers are high, which means the support is probably lower.
00:22:39 Tawnie Rice
And I think that's another great thing about On the Rise is our numbers aren't like extremely high, but they're at like kind of a sweet spot, which means that we can ensure that we're giving every child the attention that they deserve and the things that they need.
00:22:52 Tawnie Rice
And we can support the foster parent in doing that.
00:22:54 Tawnie Rice
But I would say we use a lot of outside resources, which can be hard sometimes because we have to wait for the county to do their referral process.
00:23:02 Tawnie Rice
And
00:23:03 Tawnie Rice
We've seen kind of a trend even with local agencies where they're backed up, like there's a waiting list, so we have to wait.
00:23:10 Tawnie Rice
And that's the hard part is really waiting on services to start.
00:23:14 Tawnie Rice
We do contract with, we have like an MOU with High Desert Psychological Services.
00:23:20 Tawnie Rice
So we are able to utilize that, but that's here in the Victorville area.
00:23:24 Tawnie Rice
So what about the Barstow area?
00:23:26 Tawnie Rice
You know, so we have to really like look for our resources and you have to be knowledgeable about how to get those resources.
00:23:33 Tawnie Rice
For example, like I had a child on my caseload who really, really needed ABA services and we couldn't, they couldn't figure out how to get it done.
00:23:41 Tawnie Rice
So I was like, maybe go to the primary doctor, request the referral, and then look, there's an agency in our town that can provide those services.
00:23:49 Tawnie Rice
So maybe request that they do the referral to this agency to ensure you're not getting an agency.
00:23:54 Tawnie Rice
Like I had a lady up at Fort Irwin get something from Big Bear.
00:23:57 Tawnie Rice
Like that's not cohesive, you know, that's not going to work.
00:24:00 Tawnie Rice
So, and I think also like
00:24:02 Tawnie Rice
really being mindful of just making sure you're keeping an eye on things as time goes on, like have the child's needs change, you know, do they need more?
00:24:11 Tawnie Rice
Do they need less?
00:24:12 Tawnie Rice
What exactly do they need?
00:24:13 Tawnie Rice
And did you ask the child if they can speak?
00:24:15 Tawnie Rice
What do they need?
00:24:16 Athena Cordero
You know, so I'm glad you said that because I was just going to ask you, when you say, you know, a child needs ABA services, give me give me an example.
00:24:24 Athena Cordero
Like, what was that?
00:24:25 Athena Cordero
What would that kind of consist of?
00:24:27 Tawnie Rice
So
00:24:28 Tawnie Rice
For example, like this child had some issues with daily functioning in the home, a lot of issues with daily functioning in the home.
00:24:34 Tawnie Rice
And it was outside of the scope of what the foster parent could provide.
00:24:39 Tawnie Rice
It was outside the scope of what I could provide.
00:24:41 Tawnie Rice
So when that happens, for example, just like when we know a child needs therapeutic services, we go and get them those therapeutic services because maybe that person isn't qualified to provide them, right?
00:24:50 Tawnie Rice
Okay.
00:24:51 Tawnie Rice
So the same goes with the ABA services.
00:24:54 Tawnie Rice
We knew, and I researched it and I checked it out.
00:24:57 Tawnie Rice
It takes like time to figure
00:24:58 Tawnie Rice
these things out sometimes.
00:24:59 Tawnie Rice
And you have to, maybe it's trial and error.
00:25:01 Tawnie Rice
Like this kid had a lot of services up until that point.
00:25:04 Tawnie Rice
So when they finally did get the ABA services, it was great.
00:25:07 Tawnie Rice
But I would say with that child in particular, it was a lot of daily functioning issues and behavioral issues that needed somebody to kind of redirect them in the moment.
00:25:17 Athena Cordero
Okay, so, and I'm sorry to cut you off.
00:25:19 Athena Cordero
I just want to make sure that we give like a really clear picture because what you're saying is absolutely
00:25:26 Athena Cordero
important, the ABA piece, applied behavioral analysis, you're trying to make sure that whatever Athena's struggling with in the home, and you said day-to-day functioning, like give me an example of what that might be.
00:25:39 Athena Cordero
Maybe it's not, and I don't know, I'm trying to look for an example.
00:25:44 Athena Cordero
What would that be?
00:25:45 Tawnie Rice
Maybe it's
00:25:47 Tawnie Rice
hitting your younger foster sibling in the face every time they take one of your toys.
00:25:50 Tawnie Rice
And you weren't even playing with it, maybe, but because you're possessive over it, and that happens sometimes with kids, and it keeps happening.
00:25:57 Tawnie Rice
It's not something that can be redirected or maybe anything that can be solved through discipline.
00:26:02 Tawnie Rice
It's more like they need that outside extra level of support.
00:26:06 Tawnie Rice
Or maybe it's that they will mess around too much at school, so they need their therapist to be there with them or their aid throughout the day, so that way they can redirect their behavior.
00:26:15 Tawnie Rice
And eventually, you do it long enough,
00:26:17 Tawnie Rice
becomes a habit, right?
00:26:18 Tawnie Rice
These kids learn these habits quick.
00:26:20 Tawnie Rice
They're very, very smart.
00:26:21 Tawnie Rice
They pick up like that sometimes.
00:26:22 Tawnie Rice
So really things like that.
00:26:25 Athena Cordero
And thanks for like digging through that with me.
00:26:29 Athena Cordero
And the reason I wanted to get kind of a clear, really clear picture is because I want folks to understand that the way you were parented maybe as a child is not necessarily what your foster child
00:26:44 Athena Cordero
might need.
00:26:44 Athena Cordero
Yes.
00:26:45 Athena Cordero
Right?
00:26:45 Athena Cordero
Yes.
00:26:45 Athena Cordero
I had a really healthy fear of my mother.
00:26:48 Athena Cordero
Yeah, I think I still do.
00:26:51 Athena Cordero
But she could look at us, you know, and we would know she means business.
00:26:57 Athena Cordero
And that's not going to fly, maybe with your foster kids.
00:27:00 Athena Cordero
And not because you're not giving the look the right way, but because that look doesn't mean anything for the situation.
00:27:07 Athena Cordero
And sometimes you absolutely need some external support.
00:27:10 Athena Cordero
So when you brought up ABA, yeah, you might need someone with that expertise to come in and help you understand.
00:27:18 Athena Cordero
not just how to stop it, but why it's happening.
00:27:21 Athena Cordero
Because if you know why it's happening, then you can kind of navigate what to do when it does show up again.
00:27:27 Athena Cordero
And that's important because you don't, I don't want foster parents to be discouraged thinking that they don't, they're not disciplining the right way or God forbid, discipline harder, right?
00:27:36 Athena Cordero
Whatever that looks like.
00:27:38 Athena Cordero
But this is not, this is kind of uncharted territory.
00:27:41 Athena Cordero
when it comes to discipline.
00:27:43 Athena Cordero
And so when you, back when we were talking about, when you want to become a parent, what's your heart like, what is your heart condition?
00:27:50 Athena Cordero
I think that's a really good place to go to is your patience.
00:27:54 Athena Cordero
You know, what are you willing to not know or learn when it comes to disciplining a child that's, you know, in foster care?
00:28:02 Athena Cordero
I think that would be helpful.
00:28:05 Athena Cordero
The one thing that I can honestly say that I'm stringing together from getting to talk to you and some others in this series is every time I go back to what do you think the kids need or what do you hope to give them, I think just about everybody has said the word hope.
00:28:23 Athena Cordero
I've heard that over and over and over again, whether we caught it on the interview or in other conversations with them, that's an underlying theme is to make sure you give them hope.
00:28:32 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:28:33 Athena Cordero
When you say that, and you're hoping to give that to a child that's in the foster care system, what do you think that hope does for them?
00:28:46 Athena Cordero
You know, like what does it provide and why is it so important that they have that?
00:28:50 Tawnie Rice
So one of the things, for example, like hope looks different depending on the age or maybe the developmental level that a child is at.
00:28:56 Tawnie Rice
That's a good point, yeah.
00:28:58 Tawnie Rice
But for example, maybe you promise a child that you're going to come see that child at school because they mentioned it's a special dress-up day and they want you to come and you show up.
00:29:09 Tawnie Rice
And you keep doing these things.
00:29:10 Tawnie Rice
You keep showing up.
00:29:11 Tawnie Rice
You remember their birthday and you call them and say, happy birthday, or they're upset and you offer to comfort them and they accept.
00:29:19 Tawnie Rice
Or maybe it's just as simple as you making sure that you're consistent in everything that you tell them and everything that you say, because that's also what it breeds is predictive
00:29:28 Tawnie Rice
ability.
00:29:29 Tawnie Rice
And when we're thinking of what hope fosters, hope fosters resilience, and that's how you get through it.
00:29:35 Tawnie Rice
Because foster care is never an easy thing.
00:29:38 Tawnie Rice
If you're there for a month, a year, five years, six years, whatever it may be, foster care in itself, just the act of coming into care alone is very traumatic.
00:29:46 Tawnie Rice
So what can we do to build these relationships with these children?
00:29:51 Tawnie Rice
to give them that hope.
00:29:53 Tawnie Rice
how can we really show up for them?
00:29:54 Tawnie Rice
Because a social worker is just on a nine to five job.
00:29:57 Tawnie Rice
It doesn't stop there.
00:29:59 Tawnie Rice
It's not as simple as you just go to work, you collect your paycheck, you clock out, boom, done.
00:30:03 Tawnie Rice
No, it's not that.
00:30:04 Tawnie Rice
It's
00:30:05 Tawnie Rice
How are you being extra creative and making sure that you're showing up for these kids?
00:30:08 Tawnie Rice
How can you encourage your foster parents to show up?
00:30:11 Tawnie Rice
And not that they're doing a poor job.
00:30:13 Tawnie Rice
It's just maybe they don't know.
00:30:15 Tawnie Rice
Like you said, it goes back to like those parenting skills, right?
00:30:17 Tawnie Rice
When you get foster kids, you have to develop a new set of skills.
00:30:20 Ad
Yes.
00:30:21 Tawnie Rice
And your level of patience has to be way up because you cannot discipline like maybe how your parents disciplined you, right?
00:30:28 Tawnie Rice
Like you can't spank a foster child.
00:30:30 Tawnie Rice
Like to put it flintly, you just can't.
00:30:32 Tawnie Rice
So you got to figure out, okay, what can I do to really
00:30:35 Tawnie Rice
connect with this child, redirect the behavior, who can I utilize as my supports?
00:30:39 Tawnie Rice
But definitely when it comes to fostering hope, definitely just be consistent.
00:30:45 Tawnie Rice
Like, and you know,
00:30:47 Tawnie Rice
One of my foster parents once told me that kids spell love, T-I-M-E.
00:30:51 Tawnie Rice
And they're right.
00:30:51 Tawnie Rice
Wow.
00:30:52 Tawnie Rice
I love that.
00:30:53 Tawnie Rice
I love that.
00:30:53 Tawnie Rice
And I've really resonated with that ever since because you're right.
00:30:57 Tawnie Rice
Kids want the time.
00:30:58 Tawnie Rice
Maybe they just want someone to sit down on the floor and play blocks with them.
00:31:01 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:31:01 Tawnie Rice
You know, maybe they want to show you all their new dinosaur toys.
00:31:04 Athena Cordero
Or to know that if they ask you to do that, you will.
00:31:07 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:31:09 Tawnie Rice
or to provide that safe space for them.
00:31:11 Tawnie Rice
Like, hey, I'm here for you.
00:31:12 Tawnie Rice
Like, let's talk about what's going on.
00:31:14 Tawnie Rice
You know, how can we work through this together?
00:31:16 Tawnie Rice
I'm here in your corner, you know?
00:31:18 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:31:18 Tawnie Rice
Maybe they're really missing their parents, you know, and you have to figure out how to support them through that 'cause that's a thing, you know?
00:31:25 Tawnie Rice
That's really a big thing is missing their families.
00:31:28 Athena Cordero
I'm glad you brought that up because I can't imagine that
00:31:33 Athena Cordero
It's easy for a foster parent to to be so understanding of a child that wants their family when the things that they went through were caused by that by that family.
00:31:46 Athena Cordero
But every kid wants to love their mother, you know, their parents, their home, their siblings.
00:31:52 Athena Cordero
They want to be there.
00:31:53 Athena Cordero
It's hard.
00:31:54 Athena Cordero
You don't just turn that off, I guess is what I'm saying.
00:31:56 Athena Cordero
Even if the situation you were in was bad.
00:32:00 Athena Cordero
and now you're in something safer, that doesn't mean you don't want to go home.
00:32:03 Athena Cordero
Right.
00:32:04 Athena Cordero
You just want home to be better.
00:32:06 Tawnie Rice
Yes.
00:32:06 Athena Cordero
I guess it's important not to take offense to that as a foster parent.
00:32:10 Athena Cordero
It's not against, you know, a dig against you that they don't want to be there.
00:32:14 Athena Cordero
They just want what they've, what they should be, what they should have to be better.
00:32:20 Athena Cordero
Yes.
00:32:20 Athena Cordero
So I guess I think that's probably another thing I want somebody to tell me is, you know, don't take offense.
00:32:25 Athena Cordero
to some of that, because it doesn't have anything to do with you.
00:32:29 Athena Cordero
It has everything to do with them wanting things to be better in their own family.
00:32:32 Tawnie Rice
Yeah, I agree.
00:32:34 Tawnie Rice
And I think that's like one of the things to remember when you're in the social work field in general is like, don't take anything too serious.
00:32:40 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:32:40 Tawnie Rice
Yes, things are serious, especially when we're talking about abuse and neglected children.
00:32:44 Tawnie Rice
However, what can you do to
00:32:48 Tawnie Rice
foster that happiness for them.
00:32:50 Tawnie Rice
How can you be there for them when their biological family can't?
00:32:53 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:32:53 Tawnie Rice
You know, and what does that look like?
00:32:55 Tawnie Rice
And like you said, like maybe not developing this attitude of, oh, they like their mom better than me or.
00:33:03 Tawnie Rice
I'm not doing something right.
00:33:04 Tawnie Rice
It's not even that.
00:33:05 Tawnie Rice
It's just kids love their families.
00:33:07 Tawnie Rice
And I've seen some really intense situations where you would think it would be the complete opposite, but no, they still love their parents.
00:33:13 Tawnie Rice
They still love grandpa, grandma, whoever it may be.
00:33:16 Tawnie Rice
They've built this connection with them and they want to maintain that.
00:33:19 Tawnie Rice
So I think it's important to keep that in mind as well.
00:33:24 Athena Cordero
I'm thinking now, you did mention that you were in the foster care system at the youth.
00:33:28 Athena Cordero
Yes.
00:33:29 Athena Cordero
You also had, I think I counted six, seven different positions with On the Rise.
00:33:33 Athena Cordero
You've seen that place, you know, from the beginning up until now as an administrator.
00:33:38 Athena Cordero
What do you think, and I know there's a lot, Tawny, but if there was just maybe one or two things you wanted people to understand that maybe is a myth or just a misunderstanding about kids,
00:33:49 Athena Cordero
in the foster care system or what that looks like for them, what would that be?
00:33:53 Athena Cordero
Like, what would you debunk?
00:33:55 Tawnie Rice
Kind of what I said before, there's no bad kids.
00:33:58 Athena Cordero
Okay.
00:33:58 Tawnie Rice
Literally no bad kids.
00:33:59 Tawnie Rice
There's just children who have been through major things that sometimes we as adults can't even comprehend.
00:34:05 Tawnie Rice
And I think it's important to see how that plays out with everything, but there is no such thing as a bad child.
00:34:10 Tawnie Rice
There's just poor behavior, maybe.
00:34:13 Tawnie Rice
There was neglect going on, there was abuse going on, there was safety issues.
00:34:17 Tawnie Rice
So keeping that in mind, and also, I think a lot of the time, some foster parents have this idea that when they get a child placed in the home, they're not gonna have any behaviors.
00:34:26 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:34:26 Tawnie Rice
That is completely incorrect, completely incorrect.
00:34:29 Tawnie Rice
And I try and really like highlight that for them because I wanna prepare them.
00:34:34 Tawnie Rice
Some behaviors are things you might never see anywhere else except with children in the foster care system.
00:34:40 Tawnie Rice
So, and also like,
00:34:43 Tawnie Rice
A lot of people think, oh, I can't do it.
00:34:44 Tawnie Rice
I'm going to get too attached.
00:34:45 Tawnie Rice
I hear that all the time.
00:34:46 Tawnie Rice
I could never do your job.
00:34:47 Tawnie Rice
I would get too attached.
00:34:48 Tawnie Rice
I could never be a foster parent.
00:34:49 Tawnie Rice
I'd get too attached.
00:34:50 Tawnie Rice
But that's what you want.
00:34:52 Tawnie Rice
You might be the only person in that child's life who attaches to them.
00:34:56 Tawnie Rice
And they need that.
00:34:56 Tawnie Rice
That's so great for their development when we're thinking of infancy and toddlerhood.
00:35:01 Tawnie Rice
And then we're also thinking of teenagers.
00:35:04 Tawnie Rice
Nobody ever wants to mention the fact that between the ages of 13 to 19, your brain is making all these different connections.
00:35:12 Tawnie Rice
And you want to foster that.
00:35:13 Tawnie Rice
And then, right, you want to help them make good connections, positive connections, and attach to them.
00:35:17 Tawnie Rice
They need that attachment that you only get with a primary caregiver.
00:35:21 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:35:21 Tawnie Rice
So.
00:35:22 Athena Cordero
So in your experience, and we're not going to go too much into it, Tawny, but did you have positive experiences in foster care?
00:35:35 Tawnie Rice
I had one really great social worker and she really stuck with me.
00:35:39 Tawnie Rice
And she is actually the director of On the Rise.
00:35:41 Tawnie Rice
And we ran into each other one day and it was at a community event.
00:35:45 Tawnie Rice
And I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life at that time.
00:35:49 Tawnie Rice
Again, I didn't have any support.
00:35:50 Tawnie Rice
I wasn't sure what was going on.
00:35:52 Tawnie Rice
I was doing okay, but I just, I knew I wanted to do something more.
00:35:55 Tawnie Rice
And then when I ran into her and she mentioned that she had started her own agency and asked if I wanted to try and come and work for her, I was like, sure, why not?
00:36:02 Tawnie Rice
You know?
00:36:02 Tawnie Rice
And so going back to the foster
00:36:05 Tawnie Rice
care experience, she really showed up the way that I needed someone to show up, the way my brother needed someone to show up.
00:36:12 Tawnie Rice
So seeing that aspect of support come from a social worker is amazing.
00:36:17 Tawnie Rice
And I never had that outside of whatever she provided for us.
00:36:21 Tawnie Rice
And she wasn't our social worker the whole time.
00:36:24 Tawnie Rice
We did have different social workers, but she by far set the bar as far as it went for social workers.
00:36:30 Tawnie Rice
And I just remember
00:36:32 Tawnie Rice
feeling very welcomed and accepted by her.
00:36:35 Tawnie Rice
And I knew that when I became a social worker, I wanted to give that.
00:36:39 Tawnie Rice
And I wanted to go above and beyond and be there and also like teach others how to do that, because some people don't know how to do that, right?
00:36:48 Tawnie Rice
But I think I really wish that somebody would have stood up for me more or my brother more when we were in foster care.
00:36:54 Tawnie Rice
And
00:36:55 Tawnie Rice
It was not really the greatest experience.
00:36:57 Tawnie Rice
Like I said, the act of coming into care alone is very traumatic.
00:37:00 Tawnie Rice
Not to mention everything you experienced prior to coming into care, that's traumatic.
00:37:04 Tawnie Rice
And I think also one of the important things that I really, really try and do my best with now and try and support others in doing their best with now is getting children those mental health services, because we did not have them.
00:37:17 Tawnie Rice
And as an adult, you know, now I'm able to see the impact of that, right?
00:37:22 Tawnie Rice
I was able to see that and I was able to say, okay,
00:37:25 Tawnie Rice
this is how things could have been different.
00:37:27 Tawnie Rice
How can I bridge that gap now as a social worker?
00:37:30 Tawnie Rice
And like I said, when you clock out from work, that doesn't stop.
00:37:35 Tawnie Rice
Like you're still like, you might be at the grocery store and see a resource on a bulletin board, right?
00:37:39 Tawnie Rice
And you're like, oh, I can use that for my kids, you know?
00:37:42 Tawnie Rice
So really like making sure that children get those mental health services because it's crucial.
00:37:46 Tawnie Rice
And we know with research, when you have those services, they have better outcomes, you know?
00:37:50 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:37:51 Athena Cordero
So your director, what's her name?
00:37:54 Tawnie Rice
Her name's Kim Hammock.
00:37:55 Athena Cordero
Let's shout out Kim.
00:37:56 Tawnie Rice
Yes, absolutely.
00:37:57 Tawnie Rice
Shout out Kim.
00:37:58 Athena Cordero
I did talk to Kim briefly.
00:38:00 Tawnie Rice
Yes.
00:38:00 Athena Cordero
And then hopefully, you know, we'll get a chance to talk to her again.
00:38:05 Athena Cordero
But she spoke very highly of you.
00:38:07 Tawnie Rice
Oh, that's awesome.
00:38:08 Athena Cordero
So to see that your social worker
00:38:13 Athena Cordero
has such a lasting effect, impression on you.
00:38:16 Athena Cordero
I think that's something else for us to consider and to think about.
00:38:20 Athena Cordero
It's not that we are temporary.
00:38:23 Athena Cordero
We do have a, we have the ability to have a lasting effect on kids' lives, even if that effect was six months.
00:38:30 Athena Cordero
Or, you know, in your case, you ended up working with them.
00:38:33 Tawnie Rice
Yeah, that's beautiful.
00:38:36 Tawnie Rice
I guess some people would, I guess, question maybe like how that happened, but I just, I don't believe in coincidence.
00:38:42 Tawnie Rice
I think that everything happens exactly as it's supposed to.
00:38:44 Tawnie Rice
And I really appreciate that somebody just was like, you can do it.
00:38:48 Tawnie Rice
And she was like, you can do it.
00:38:50 Tawnie Rice
And so I did it.
00:38:51 Tawnie Rice
I did everything.
00:38:53 Tawnie Rice
I'm still doing it, and I'm still growing.
00:38:55 Tawnie Rice
And I think it's been great also maybe for her to see that too, because I know for me as a social worker, I had a teenager who actually went back with her mom.
00:39:03 Tawnie Rice
She had reached out to me and was like, hey, I wanted to tell you I'm graduating from high school.
00:39:08 Tawnie Rice
I'm graduating early.
00:39:09 Tawnie Rice
I'm going to go to college.
00:39:10 Tawnie Rice
And I just wanted to thank you for being there for me and always fighting for me, and just really being that source of support.
00:39:17 Tawnie Rice
I have kids come back and visit me all the time.
00:39:19 Tawnie Rice
I have kids who've been adopted come back and visit me.
00:39:21 Tawnie Rice
That's such a pleasure.
00:39:23 Tawnie Rice
makes the hard days worth it because as a social worker, which all of my fellow social workers know this, it is not easy in the day of a life as a social worker.
00:39:32 Tawnie Rice
It's rough.
00:39:32 Tawnie Rice
It's hard out there sometimes.
00:39:34 Tawnie Rice
And as a social worker,
00:39:36 Tawnie Rice
Especially like, you know, those of us who actually have our degrees and things like that in social work.
00:39:41 Tawnie Rice
Not that you're not a social worker if you don't have it, but they really drill things into you.
00:39:45 Tawnie Rice
So to find people that understand like what has been drilled into you, like it really creates this level of support that you can have within your own, you know, network of people that you're working with, you know, so.
00:39:58 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:39:58 Athena Cordero
Well, I've learned a lot from you.
00:40:01 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:40:01 Athena Cordero
My goodness.
00:40:03 Athena Cordero
You are.
00:40:04 Athena Cordero
a wealth of information and knowledge.
00:40:06 Athena Cordero
I see why Ms.
00:40:08 Athena Cordero
Kimberly Hammock was so excited to have you come and talk to us about On the Rise and the work that you guys get to do.
00:40:15 Athena Cordero
I thank you.
00:40:16 Athena Cordero
I thank her.
00:40:18 Athena Cordero
I have to say, though, that in listening to you, I don't know too many details about your youth, your story, but I can absolutely tell that what you
00:40:31 Athena Cordero
have experienced absolutely shapes the way you care about kids today and the work that you're willing to put in to help them.
00:40:38 Athena Cordero
You can see that very much.
00:40:40 Tawnie Rice
Yeah, and I would definitely agree with that.
00:40:41 Tawnie Rice
And that's really influenced my whole career, right?
00:40:44 Tawnie Rice
Like even wanting to like work with others in a different capacity than I ever have before.
00:40:50 Tawnie Rice
And I think I just became really inspired because I seen, and I think also I really want to highlight like I didn't get into this work to fix myself.
00:40:57 Tawnie Rice
I got into this work to be able to help others because that's what social work is.
00:41:01 Tawnie Rice
It's a helping profession, right?
00:41:02 Tawnie Rice
And when I seen that I had a gift for helping others, I really wanted to utilize it, right?
00:41:07 Tawnie Rice
Like we're all given special gifts.
00:41:09 Tawnie Rice
And I seen that I had that gift and I wanted to utilize it and I wanted to do it.
00:41:13 Tawnie Rice
I wanted to start first my own community.
00:41:16 Tawnie Rice
And when we talk about change, right, so many people highlight, well, what can we change in the world?
00:41:21 Tawnie Rice
Well, you start in your own community.
00:41:22 Tawnie Rice
You start in your own backyard.
00:41:23 Tawnie Rice
That's where you start.
00:41:24 Tawnie Rice
That's where real change starts.
00:41:26 Tawnie Rice
And you do it one person at a time and one thing at a time, you know, and you put your best effort every day and you just keep showing up, you know?
00:41:34 Athena Cordero
That's really great advice.
00:41:35 Athena Cordero
And it makes it feel absolutely doable.
00:41:38 Tawnie Rice
Yeah.
00:41:38 Athena Cordero
She start here, start small, and then just see where you go with it.
00:41:41 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:41:42 Athena Cordero
I like it.
00:41:42 Athena Cordero
Yeah.
00:41:44 Athena Cordero
Is there any way
00:41:45 Athena Cordero
that those of us listening, if we wanted to offer some support to On the Rise or to the work that you all do, is there anything that we can do?
00:41:55 Tawnie Rice
I would say if you're wanting to provide support to foster children, then definitely contact us and we can
00:42:03 Tawnie Rice
get you through that certification process if that's what you're looking for, if you're looking to donate your resources, time, different things like that.
00:42:09 Tawnie Rice
Like we have people who will come all year long and donate like clothing or donate gifts for birthdays or Christmas, different agencies that really partner with us to show up for our foster children.
00:42:19 Tawnie Rice
We love that.
00:42:20 Tawnie Rice
So if there's anybody who would like to come and partner with us, you can call the agency, you can ask for Kim, you can ask for myself, you can e-mail us, whatever it is you want to do, you can stop by and visit us in the bar show office.
00:42:31 Tawnie Rice
We're available and we're always
00:42:33 Tawnie Rice
looking for people who have that same heart, that same heart in the helping profession.
00:42:37 Athena Cordero
Awesome.
00:42:37 Athena Cordero
Okay, well, we all heard it.
00:42:39 Athena Cordero
And now we know who to reach out to.
00:42:41 Athena Cordero
Thank you so much for talking with me today.
00:42:42 Tawnie Rice
Yep.
00:42:43 Tawnie Rice
All right.
00:42:44 Outro
Before we wrap up, we want to remind you that if you or someone you know is facing a crisis, help is available.
00:42:52 Outro
You are not alone.
00:42:55 Outro
If it's an emergency, please call 911.
00:42:59 Outro
For immediate support, you can reach out to the Crisis and Suicide Hotline by dialing 988.
00:43:06 Outro
Remember, taking the first step to ask for help is a sign of strength.
00:43:11 Outro
Stay safe, take care of yourself, and take care of each other.
00:43:15 Outro
Until next time, be well.
00:43:40 Ad
In the next episode of Fostering Futures with CA Help, Pan Bender steps in as host and is joined by Yvonne Campos, program specialist.
00:43:48 Ad
Together, they explore speech and language services through an educational lens.
00:43:53 Ad
Breaking down eligibility, the differences between medical and school-based services, support for multilingual families, practical ways parents can advocate for their children, from early intervention to IEPs and family-centered strategies, this episode keeps the focus on understanding the process and supporting children where it matters most.
00:44:16 Ad
See you next time.
