Mission

In 2013, co-founder Sarah Desjarlais was a foster parent attending a meeting at the child welfare office in Vancouver, Washington. During that meeting, she saw a little boy sitting alone in a conference room – his meal and toys sitting untouched. He was alone in every sense of the word. His social worker sat across the hall, feverishly working the phone, trying to find a place he could call home. It occurred to her how hard it must be to do everything required of a social worker - and give a child who has just endured trauma the attention and comfort they need. A conversation with CPS supervisor Kim Karu followed, and the two women founded what was then known as Office Moms & Dads - using a mother's intuition and a social worker's know-how.

As child welfare offices remained shuttered throughout the pandemic and intake numbers decreased, our volunteers rallied to support local foster care communities. They provided meals, remote learning supplies, boxes of new clothing, Holiday gifts, and more to kids in care and their families. Funders stepped up, and we got busy training more volunteers to answer the tidal wave of needs that would come.

In 2020, we joined the national conversation about systemic racism because children of color have been, and continue to be, overrepresented in foster care. As we met with tribal leaders and members of Black and Hispanic community groups to hear their thoughts on becoming a more inclusive organization, a common topic of conversation was the title we had given ourselves as Office "Moms and Dads." For many children, the title of ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’ is reserved for two people alone. It doesn’t matter what they did - kids will always love their parents on some level. We had to honor that family culture. We had to change our name.

We believe 'Fosterful' highlights that we have become more than caring companions. Through trauma-informed care practices, we provide nurturing environments and basic necessities to kids entering foster care. While those things will always be the heartbeat of what we do, we now have room to grow into a MOVEMENT for changing the System from the inside out.

What started with five volunteers in one child welfare office has grown to nearly 400 volunteers (and counting) across Washington.