Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh

E21: Pittsburgh's Safe Haven Support Community for Foster Children

• Leila Carter & Kelly Hughes • Episode 21

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What makes Kelly Hughes with Foster Love Project a good neighbor?  

Every child deserves dignity, especially those facing the trauma of foster care. Kelly Hughes, founder of Foster Love Project, transforms this belief into action every day for children across the Pittsburgh region.

Kelly's journey began in 2013 when she and her husband became foster parents. After welcoming eight children into their home, they identified critical gaps in support that inspired the creation of Foster Love Project. Now celebrating ten years of service, this grassroots organization has grown into a vital community resource serving approximately 1,000 children annually.

What makes Foster Love Project special is their compassionate problem-solving approach. Kelly challenges the all-too-common narrative of vilifying biological families whose children enter foster care. "There is a lot of vitriol and disparaging families whose kids enter foster care," she explains. Instead, she recognizes the profound trauma experienced by both children and parents during separation and advocates for providing support to keep families together whenever safely possible.

The organization's free shopping center allows foster children to select clothing, shoes, toiletries, books, and bedding—providing essential items with dignity and choice. Their back-to-school program equips 250 children with backpacks, school supplies, new shoes, and sweatshirts, ensuring they start the academic year confident and prepared.

Even during the pandemic, when facing facility closure and service disruptions, Kelly's team pivoted to curbside appointments and secured a new location three times larger than before. This remarkable resilience speaks volumes about their commitment to ensuring no child feels forgotten in the system.

Want to make a difference? Foster Love Project welcomes volunteers, financial donations, and contributions through their Amazon wishlist. Visit fosterloveproject.org or find them on social media to join this powerful community supporting our most vulnerable neighbors. Together, we can ensure every child knows they are seen, valued, and worthy of love.

To learn more about Foster Love Project go to: 

https://www.fosterloveproject.org/

Foster Love Project

(412)819-5908


Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a foster support community? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, kelly Hughes, with Foster Love Project. Kelly, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

It's going well, Lila. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for being here. We're excited to learn all about you and your organization, so tell us about your company.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I have a nonprofit called Foster Love Project that started to provide support to kids in foster care in the Pittsburgh region.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. So how'd you get into this business?

Speaker 3:

My husband and I became foster parents in 2013. And through that process we've had eight children that have come through our home at different times and feeling like there were some gaps in support. That we experienced and looking for ways that we could provide more community and support and resources to other families is what led me to take just some initial steps to providing goods and services of support and then just the community started really rallying behind what we were doing and through that we've been able to be established now for 10 years.

Speaker 2:

So what are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?

Speaker 3:

I think there is a lot of vitriol and disparaging families whose kids enter foster care, and we hear a lot of people talking badly and down about the biological families who have found themselves in these crises where their children have been able to be removed. So I feel very passionate about looking at the whole wellness of the family and seeing where we can provide continuing supports for families who are experiencing their children lost to the foster care system, because we know that separation of these families causes some very deep trauma for both the parents and the kids deep trauma for both the parents and the kids and so when we can see how we can provide supports that we can keep the kids with their family whenever safely possible, I think is a really important aspect that we want to continually support.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you seem like a real problem solver. You know you saw the concern within the system and then you took that extra step to go ahead and try and address where you're seeing trauma issues. Who are your target customers and how do you attract them to Foster Love Project?

Speaker 3:

We partner with Children, youth and Families in our region and they are a big partner and supporter for us, so they ensure that they're sending kids that are in the foster care system to our doors and making sure they know about the resources that we provide. We partner with all of the foster care agencies in our region, try to continually make sure they're aware of us and the supports that we can provide, and then you know word of mouth. A lot of foster families know about us and then they tell their friends who are foster families. We also use our platforms on social media to spread as much awareness as possible.

Speaker 2:

Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast to reach these people?

Speaker 3:

I have. It's sometimes mostly a capacity issue of you know seeing how much capacity we have to add something like that, but I do think that is a really important platform where we can continually spread the word about the needs of kids in foster care. So, outside of work.

Speaker 2:

What do you do for fun?

Speaker 3:

Well, I have four teenagers and so I do a lot of chauffeuring. They are very busy. We're always, you know, making sure they need to be where they have to be, but so we spend a lot of times in gyms and sports fields and they do music things. But I love being outside. I walk a lot, play tennis bike, really enjoy just being outside and kind of grounding myself in nature whenever possible.

Speaker 2:

Very good. So let's switch gears here. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame and how it made you strong?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, if I think in terms of Foster Love Project.

Speaker 3:

You know, going through the pandemic was a real challenge for all businesses. So we have a free shopping center that we have for kids in foster care, where they shop for clothes and shoes, toiletries, books, bedding, a variety of goods, and so when things began to shut down, we had that big challenge of how do we continually ensure that our kids in our community are still getting the resources and support they need, and, at the same time, the facility that we were renting was closing off to us. The landlord needed it for another purpose, and so we were facing needing a new facility as well as trying to pivot in how we can still get the goods and services to kids in our community, and so we really worked hard that year of 2020 in finding a new facility and pivoting to curbside appointments, and our team here at Foster Law Project just did an incredible job at rising to the challenges and meeting them. It was a very difficult and challenging few years, but I'm so grateful to say that now we have a facility that is three times the size of our previous facility and really meets our needs in an even better way, and we've been able to expand the number of shopping appointments. We have about a thousand kids that come and shop every year and we're continually growing all of our programs, and so I'm really proud of our team for how they've met the challenges and just continued to provide the impact and support to the kids that needed us.

Speaker 2:

That's remarkable how you kind of adjust the sales in the moment whenever we're all impacted by COVID at the same time, and able to implement things like the curbside assistance to still get to those people that you needed to help. So I think that's beautiful Very well done.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome. So, kelly, please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember about Foster Love Project.

Speaker 3:

There are kids in crisis in our community that are hurting every day and we can't change their circumstances and we can't change, maybe, what their family is facing. But we can say that we see you, you are not forgotten, you are not a number in a system and we can come along and we can provide these supports to you and just try to help you as you walk through these different crises that your family might be facing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I got chills whenever you said that. I think a lot of people really needed to hear that. How can our listeners learn more about Foster Support Community?

Speaker 3:

Our website, fosterloveprojectorg, will give you an overview of all of our programs. We're also on Facebook and Instagram. At Foster Love Project, we always continually have a need for goods on our shelf. We have Amazon lists that you can purchase items right off that list and have them shipped right to our door. We're amping up for our annual back to school program in August, so we'll have 250 kids that come through. They get to pick backpack and school supplies, but they also get a brand new pair of shoes and a sweatshirt, as we feel that's part of the back to school package, of going back to school with dignity, and so we take volunteers for that event. We take people supporting the purchase of shoes and hoodies and backpacks and school supplies so you can volunteer, you can donate financially, you can also purchase items off our wish list and takes a lot of arms linking together to ensure that we're ensuring that the kids have everything they need to go back to school.

Speaker 2:

Well, Kelly, I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on our show. We wish you and Foster Love Project the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to share about this vital need in our community.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Pittsburgh dot com. That's GNP Pittsburgh. Pittsburghcom. That's gnp pittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.