Transformations By Bakersfield Angels

Children placed in foster care face very high risks for much worse outcomes later in life than their peers who are not in foster care. This isn’t only because the situation that caused them to be placed in the care of the state was traumatic, but also because the experience of being in foster care layers on additional trauma. An overwhelming body of evidence shows that the kind of ongoing, chronic trauma experienced by these children not only severely impacts their emotional state and behavioral needs during childhood, but also leads to drastically poorer outcomes as they reach adulthood. One of the main contributors to the trauma children experience in foster care is the lack of community support and stable relationships with caring, responsible, dependable adults. Placement in the foster system can sometimes equate to stability, but more often children are repeatedly moved, often far from their community and all they know, uprooting and re-traumatizing them again and again.

In addition, the parenting of a hurt child takes tremendous resources of time, education, and heart. And when a foster parent gives up, effects ripple in our community and social and economic costs begin to accrue.

Children, youth, and families experiencing foster care desperately need community. This is why we have developed the Love Box and Dare to Dream programs––for people like you, who may not be called to foster or adopt, to create real impact through intentional giving, relationship building, and mentorship.

We know that trauma can be healed in the context of healthy, supportive relationships, and our programs help bring just that––relational healing, empowerment, and hope. We believe that “Not everyone is called to foster, not everyone is called to adopt, but everyone can make a difference in the life of a child.”

We've invented a new way to serve: heart-to-heart in the home of a family. Showing up for children. Encouraging youth. Supporting caretakers.

Our hope is that through our programs we can:
1) Walk alongside children, youth, and families in the foster care community by offering consistent support through intentional giving, relationship building, and mentorship.
2) Increase placement stability and minimize trauma by supporting the entire family unit.
3) Provide children, youth, and families with a sense of normalcy, during a time that can feel very uncertain.

1) We accomplish this through our Love Box and Dare to Dream programs, which match dedicated volunteers with youth and families experiencing foster care. These volunteers commit to being a consistent support in their lives, by meeting a minimum of once monthly with families (in our Love Box program) or twice monthly with youth (in our Dare to Dream program).
2) It is our hope that with this added layer of community, foster parents would have the support that they need to continue fostering, children would stay in placements longer, and the trauma caused by moving from home-to-home-to-home would be minimized.
3) We increase normalcy by helping provide children with experiences like birthday parties, graduation celebrations, a “Back To School Bash”, fulfilling holiday wishlists, and helping fund extracurricular activities like baseball, gymnastics, ballet, and more.

Bakersfield Angels has 10 staff members and an 7 person working board who are committed to pushing the mission forward. In addition, we have hundreds of committed donors, as well as volunteers, who play critical roles in making the work that we do possible. In 2022 alone, the combination of all of these efforts looked like an incredible 397 children and 66 families served by 325 volunteers.
Our long-term vision is to reach and serve every single child and family experiencing the foster care system in Kern County through our Love Box and Dare to Dream programs. We believe that with the help of our community in building awareness, we will continue to grow our support base to a place where this vision will be realized.

Bakersfield Angels measures its success in a number of ways:
1) Through the number of children who are consistently being served on a monthly basis through our programs (this number is currently at 397)
2) Through mandatory volunteer report forms, which outline the ways in which each youth and family is being served by our volunteers (including time spent, and progress in relationship with the youth/family, miles driven, and value of items given to the youth/family)
3) Through the number of children and families who are being served through events like our Spring Break and Summer camps, Back to School Event, Holiday Basket Drive, Holiday Wishlist Fulfillment, and more.
4) Through the number of families on our waitlist who are receiving one-time boxes while they are waiting to be matched with volunteers
5) Through feedback we receive from foster families in our programs, speaking to the impact that our programs and their volunteers have had on their children and family as a whole
6) Through families who are able to move to adoption because of the support they have received through our programs
7) Through the partnerships we form with DHS and other child placement agencies, who educate families about our programs

To date, we have served hundreds of children and families experiencing foster care in Kern County through our Love Box and Dare to Dream programs, as well as events, service projects, and one-time boxes. The impact of our Love Box and Dare to Dream programs have been documented mainly through anecdotal evidence thus far––and foster parent feedback, changes seen in foster children, volunteer reports, collaborations and partnerships built with child placement agencies and other community groups are clearly indicating success. We are seeing lives being impacted right here in our community. We are seeing children and families experiencing foster care differently.

“I grew up in the system, I know how hard it is for these kids. My husband and I have been fostering for 15 years and we have never had the kind of support that we have gotten from Austin Angels. It is such a blessing to have people love our kids the way we love them.” –– Nikki, foster mom

“I’m a stay-at-home dad. We thought we would foster one or two kids, but when we got a call for a sibling set of five, we couldn’t say no. It has been the hardest thing we have ever done, and the Love Box program couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.” –– Ryan, foster dad

Our vision for the future is to continue to expand our reach and impact within Kern County. We are currently serving just shy of 400 children on a monthly basis through our programs, however, there are currently 2,000 children in foster care in our county. Our goal is to grow our funding, staff, and volunteer base to be able to serve every one of these children.