The nonprofit Raise the Future has more than 40 years of experience helping children in Colorado who are in foster care. Their team finds connections for kids who are likely to linger in the system.
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State funding has changed in recent years for organizations like Raise the Future, and as dollars get reallocated, they have to make up the difference by encouraging more donations to their cause.
The group advocates for legislation that impacts children who are under the care of the state. They lobby lawmakers at the Colorado State Capitol and give a voice to those who often feel like they are unheard.
“That is something we just take very seriously at Raise the Future,” CEO Ann Ayers said. “We’re never going to give up.”
During this legislative session, Democratic state Rep. Lindsay Gilchrist is sponsoring a bill that would require human services departments to create a plan for transitioning a child from one foster care home to another.
“We don’t want the bill to be too prescriptive, but the purpose is to ensure we can move kids in a trauma-informed way,” Gilchrist said.
Gilchrist is a foster mom herself.
“We had a great experience; a really well thought out transition plan with all parties involved. Trauma-informed, all of those things,” she said.
Not every transition is so well planned out, and and it’s the children who suffer the consequences in those situations.
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 “One of the things we see with our kids, our kids tend to have bags packed, and I don’t know if many people know this but often social services shows up right after school — so that is a really scary period of time for kids, to go home, because they’re afraid that there’s going to be a worker waiting to move them to a different home at that point,” Ayers said.
“When you’re leaving your child with a babysitter, you give them tons of information. And if you could imagine a kid moving with no information, they are moving to a new home where they may not be able to bring their favorite stuffy. I mean, that is just heartbreaking,” Gilchrist said.
A plan might include an outline of logistics, a framework for pre- and post-move communications and consulting the child on the move.
The bill does make allowances for emergencies.
“We understand that sometimes if there is a safety issue if for whatever reason the current provider or foster parent can no longer care for the child, you do not want to slow that process down if it’s necessary that they move quickly,” Gilchrist said.
The goal is to set a standard in which children get some agency over their own lives.
“We just want to make sure that that is as smooth as possible,” Gilchrist said.
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