COVER STORY 28 FEBRUARY 2024 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition BiG Children’s Foundation to Open Education Center for Teens in Foster Care Shelly Pond Good News Editor Thousands of teens enter the foster care system in Florida each year as victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment, or because they have run away or had run-ins with the law. Because of their age and history, their odds of being fostered or adopted are slim. The health of most teens is compromised due to the trauma and abuse they’ve suffered. A good majority resort to crime that results in arrest or incarceration, and more than half will become homeless within 18 months of leaving the system, becoming targets for sex trafficking and gang recruitment. However, Big Children’s Foundation (BCF) is on a mission to change the trajectory for these teens and set them on a path to success by restoring their health, training them to be self-sufficient, and providing the skills, education and professional development they need to succeed. Together with their community partners, they’ve begun work on an Education Center, scheduled to open in the fall of 2024 where they can consistently provide these youth with the love, healing, education and direction they desperately need to live happy, self-sufficient and successful lives. They are currently raising funds to complete the project and will host their annual Big Cardio 5K and Fitness Event on March 2nd at Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, bringing together corporate, church and school teams to compete for the cause. When Joyce Lello Feldman, founder and CEO of BiG Children’s Foundation, first learned about the challenges of children in foster care during a church service more than 20 years ago, she was moved and wept deeply with compassion. Today, she is a passionate advocate for at-risk youth. “I’ve always had a heart for teaching and mentoring youth. Going back to the early ‘90’s, when I had a boutique advertising and graphic design studio, I developed a co-op program with a high school on Miami Beach where some of the students would work with us a few hours a week to get exposure and experience in the advertising and marketing biz. So several years later when I got involved with foster care, naturally I gravitated to the older kids and young adults.” When Joyce founded Big Children’s Foundation in 2015 and was mentoring teens who had aged out of the foster system, she began to learn how their health had suffered from repeated exposure to trauma. “As we began to learn of their poor health, we knew we had to address it in order to improve their quality of life and create a solid foundation to build on. The sad truth is if you’re racked with anxiety and depression so deep you can’t get out of bed, you’re not thinking about writing a resume or getting a job. You’re just trying to survive and get through the day. ”It became apparent that we needed to start working with the youth early on, before they aged out, while we had time on our side, and the programming had to be intensive. So we developed a program for teens aged 14-17 that would restore the health of their mind, body and spirit, train them to be self-sufficient, and provide the education and professional development they’ll need to succeed. With the coming of the Education Center, we’ll be offering an accredited online alternative to those who are behind and need credit recovery, tutoring, or enrichment to achieve their high school degree or G.E.D.” Larry Rein, president and CEO of ChildNet, the community-based care lead agency operating the foster care system in Broward and Palm Beach counties, said, “We’ve done an unbelievably good job in South Florida of serving abused and abandoned kids in foster care.” However, he asserts, “What we don’t do so great is meeting the needs effectively of the more challenging kids and the teenagers that we serve. That continues to be, in my mind, our biggest challenge and a place we need to improve, and what really needs to improve is their educational skills. These kids often have not had good experiences in school; either they move around, or they don’t attend, and it becomes a place they really don’t want to go to. So we need concerned and caring individuals who can come in and help develop those skills, so they can be successful in school and be successful in life. And that’s what BiG Children's Foundation is doing with their Education Center. I think it’s a perfect fit for exactly what we need.” Understanding these challenges, it’s no surprise that very few foster teens continue their education by attending post-secondary school or college. The vision of Big Children’s Foundation is to prevent these negative outcomes and provide an opportunity for foster teens to enjoy a radically reshaped future. Kristin Stablein, executive director of Avidity, an organization that provides group care for teenagers in Broward County, said they got involved with Big Children’s Foundation during the pandemic. Avidity serves the more difficult kids in foster care who often exhibit what she calls pain-based behaviors… “A lot of our kids are not only in the dependency system; they also have engagement with the juvenile justice system… There aren’t many organizations that hang in there when it comes to dealing with these difficult behaviors, and in our shelter program at SafePlace, Big Children’s has shown they are going to hang in there. They continue to come back, and that really is when you have success with difficult kids and teenagers.” Joyce understands that foster teens need healing, laughter and love. They long for the kind of stability that comes from having solid relationships and experiencing the love of God. One teen boy, “Kenny” described his experience living in a foster shelter. “You have to sleep in rooms with other people you don’t know and feel afraid some nights because you don’t know what people are going to do.” However, he said Big Children’s Foundation “made the kids feel like they’re actually loved… and made me think at least I have this one person who cares about me and is actually looking after me. All the staff are like moms and will bring a good future for the kids that come in.” ScounDrel Oliver, Director of Child Welfare for Lutheran Services Florida, Lippman Youth Shelter, said she is “extremely appreciative of Miss Joyce and Big Children’s Foundation… When they come to the shelter, for their weekly academic programs and activities, or their fitness camp over the summer, the kids enjoy themselves …and we see the benefits every time.” David P. Lhota, Pamela J. Rossi, Carolina Wiebe and Joyce Lello Feldman admire an artist’s rendering of the future Education Center. Photo Credit: Justus Martin
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