(Formerly Embrace Oregon)
One Small Act
What do children do when they have been removed from their homes and are sitting in the office awaiting a foster home?
I learned there was no protocol.
Social workers, administrators, and other staff are left scrambling. Children have nothing to claim as their own in this scary, vulnerable time. With a grant from my faith community, I started Welcome Boxes.
With unprecedented momentum a local, grassroots movement called Embrace Oregon emerged. Embrace Oregon focuses on hospitality and generosity to kids in foster care and those who serve them. Embrace Oregon then became the catalyst for a statewide movement called Every Child.
From speaking to the state legislature and participating in roundtable conversations with DHS Child Welfare leadership, to organizing community groups to physically transform their local Child Welfare offices into places of dignity, to mentoring foster parents, I am humbled to have a front row seat to transformative community collaboration for the sake of vulnerable children.