Fostering the Future Podcast: Recent Episodes
Fostering the Future Podcast
A show about all things child welfare, dependency, adoption and foster care. Your hosts, Jack & Cat are veterans in the world of child welfare and excited to spend a little time each week chatting about how we can all do something to help kids in care.
When Hayley and Gary are accused of child abuse – when they bring their 3 month to the hospital for help with an unexplained injury – their life takes a tragic turn. The result is Gary becoming a prisoner and Hayley fighting for her son and her husband and deciding to go to law school...
When Hayley and Gary are accused of child abuse – when they bring their 3 month to the hospital for help with an unexplained injury – their life takes a tragic turn. The result is Gary becoming a prisoner and Hayley fighting for her son and her husband and deciding to go to law school...
Megan and her husband, from Washington, experienced medical kidnapping when their son’s RSV turned into a nightmare. One trip to the ER when he was struggling with a cold and suddenly he was being intubated, which went awry, and then coded in a helicopter en route to a children’s hospital and had to have CPR...
Miranda Hager from Hope Restored Counseling joins Jack to discuss EMDR Therapy and how it can be an incredible solution for behaviors caused by trauma, especially for kids in foster care and those that work in child welfare. When we last spoke with Miranda, she was working for the local CAC (child advocacy center) as...
Carrie and Brady Timms are the parents of 2 year old Jameson. He started experiencing some concerning symptoms in his first months of life that had his parents bringing him to the doctor and the hospital trying to figure out. He would have discolorations appear on his body and then disappear. Sometimes within minutes they...
Diana and Corey Sullivan met in 6th grade and started dating in 8th grade. Married by 21, they immediately started trying to have children. When it didn’t work out they turned to fertility doctors and ended up conceiving their first child the first time they tried IVF. In hopes of providing their daughter with a...
Diana and Corey Sullivan met in 6th grade and started dating in 8th grade. Married by 21, they immediately started trying to have children. When it didn’t work out they turned to fertility doctors and ended up conceiving their first child the first time they tried IVF. In hopes of providing their daughter with a...
Diana and Corey Sullivan met in 6th grade and started dating in 8th grade. Married by 21, they immediately started trying to have children. When it didn’t work out they turned to fertility doctors and ended up conceiving their first child the first time they tried IVF. In hopes of providing their daughter with a...
We have an update for you regarding the Hernandez Family. An unexpected turn of events at a court hearing which was just supposed to age a review this week – resulted in the girls moving to family members (pending the resolution of the criminal charges) and Georgia DFCS closing the case against the Matt and...
Jack & Cat got a chance to chat with Richi from Tiktok about his post on the trending tok "Why do white people adopt black children?" We learned about his adoption from Haiti, along with his older biological brother (who may soon be younger). We chatted about his experience as a black man with white parents and how that has affected him in his life.
@bezznees ♬ original sound - Richi
Samantha Haskins, a BCBA in Tampa Bay, Florida, chats with Jack about the use of ABA services for behaviors. While ABA is only covered by insurance for children with specific developmental disabilities, it can be effective for children with trauma as well. Sam explains the science of ABA, the process of ABA services, how it...
Jack & Christy chat with Tasha and her attorney, Valentina Villalobos, A mom in South Florida who has another story of medical abuse of power. Tasha and her husband had their 8 year old son and newborn twins removed after a child abuse pediatrician declared a diagnosis of abuse, despite the children having numerous medical...
Jack & Christy chat with Tasha and her attorney, Valentina Villalobos, A mom in South Florida who has another story of medical abuse of power. Tasha and her husband had their 8 year old son and newborn twins removed after a child abuse pediatrician declared a diagnosis of abuse, despite the children having numerous medical...
Jack & Christy chat with Tasha and her attorney, Valentina Villalobos, A mom in South Florida who has another story of medical abuse of power. Tasha and her husband had their 8 year old son and newborn twins removed after a child abuse pediatrician declared a diagnosis of abuse, despite the children having numerous medical...
Jack & Christy chat with Tasha and her attorney, Valentina Villalobos, A mom in South Florida who has another story of medical abuse of power. Tasha and her husband had their 8 year old son and newborn twins removed after a child abuse pediatrician declared a diagnosis of abuse, despite the children having numerous medical...
Jack & Christy chat with Tasha and her attorney, Valentina Villalobos, A mom in South Florida who has another story of medical abuse of power. Tasha and her husband had their 8 year old son and newborn twins removed after a child abuse pediatrician declared a diagnosis of abuse, despite the children having numerous medical...
Zielia Crespo, co-owner of Sensory Works in Dade City, Florida, join Jack & Nichole for a conversation about how occupational therapy can help improve behaviors. OT (occupational therapy) can seem like magic when your kids appear to just be playing with a therapist and within months you can see drastic improvements in their behavior. Whether...
Leigh Ann Drew from Family Initiatives join Jack & Cat for a conversation about how TBRI can help improve behaviors. TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) was developed by the Kathryn Purvis Institute Of Child Development to be a trust based and trauma informed modality to support children who have experienced trauma. TBRI is based on...
Jack & Christy chat with Shelby, A mom in Georgia who has similar story of medical abuse of power. Shelby is one of dozens of moms in Georgia who had her child removed after a child abuse pediatrician declared a diagnosis of abuse, despite the child having diseases explaining the injuries. The Whiting Family (Shelby...
Jack & Christy continue their chat with Jennifer, A fostermom in Georgia who is helping the Hernandez family and many other families going through similar stories of medical abuse of power. Matt & Taki Hernandez noticed a swollen leg on their infant and brought her to the dr who referred her to CHOA and within...
A mini episode with a continued conversation about the Hernandez story. We chat about the consequences of child abuse pediatricians doubling down even in the face of diagnoses explaining injuries – and the consequence of that is the destruction of a family – versus the slap on the wrist they may get if they admitted...
A mini episode with a continued conversation about the Hernandez story. Jennifer shares how the agency who trained her to coparent had great concerns when she tried to coparent, and also how the agency would take Taki’s breastmilk and dispose of it without giving it to her child or informing her that they would not...
A mini episode with a continued conversation about the Hernandez story. Jennifer shares how a therapist supervising Matt Hernandez visits exclaimed that he is a perfect parent and she has no concerns for him. She also found it odd that noone told her any issues to watch for with Matt, despite him being indicted by...
A mini episode with a continued conversation about the Hernandez story. Jennifer shares how the agency would force Matt to lie about why Taki was not present at visits to the girls, and how the agency lied in court about vetting relatives and fictive kin for placement.
Jack & Christy chat with Jennifer. A fostermom in Georgia who is helping the Hernandez family and many other families going through similar stories of medical abuse of power. Matt & Taki Hernandez noticed a swollen leg on their infant and brought her to the dr who referred her to CHOA and within two hours...
Jack & Christy chat with Jennifer. A fostermom in Georgia who is helping the Hernandez family and many other families going through similar stories of medical abuse of power. Matt & Taki Hernandez noticed a swollen leg on their infant and brought her to the dr who referred her to CHOA and within two hours...
Jack & Nichole chat with Jennifer Anderson about her firm’s representation of the Kowalski family and their journey to hold Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions.
Jack & Nichole chat with Jennifer Anderson about her firm’s representation of the Kowalski family and their journey to hold Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions.
Jack chats with Sandy, a mom of a young man with CRPS – Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, about caring for a child with CRPS. We wanted to share this story with you so that we can all have a better understanding of what life was like for Beata Kowalski, while caring for her daughter, Maya.
Jack chats with Sandy, a mom of a young man with CRPS – Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, about caring for a child with CRPS. We wanted to share this story with you so that we can all have a better understanding of what life was like for Beata Kowalski, while caring for her daughter, Maya.
Jack & Lynn chat about the Maya Kowalski case, as documented in Take Care of Maya and the recent televised trial.
Jack & Lynn chat about the Maya Kowalski case, as documented in Take Care of Maya and the recent televised trial.
Jack chats with guest Michelle – a nurse practitioner about medical abuse of power and false abuse reports. What happens when medical systems use their power and influence to not only negate parental rights to their children’s medical decisions but to even remove the guardianship of parents by placing children under the care of the...
Jack chats with guest Michelle – a nurse practitioner about medical abuse of power and false abuse reports. What happens when medical systems use their power and influence to not only negate parental rights to their children’s medical decisions but to even remove the guardianship of parents by placing children under the care of the...
Cat & Jack continue their chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No Harm Podcast, but we bring her in...
Cat & Jack continue their chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No Harm Podcast, but we bring her in...
Cat & Jack continue their chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No Harm Podcast, but we bring her in...
Cat & Jack continue their chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No Harm Podcast, but we bring her in...
[TW: ORIGINAL AUDIO FROM A CHILD REMOVAL] Cat & Jack continue their chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No...
[TW: ORIGINAL AUDIO FROM A CHILD REMOVAL] Cat & Jack continue their chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No...
[TW: ORIGINAL AUDIO FROM A CHILD REMOVAL] Cat & Jack chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No Harm Podcast,...
[TW: ORIGINAL AUDIO FROM A CHILD REMOVAL] Cat & Jack chat with Melissa Bright who experienced a devastating false child abuse charge where her children were removed from her care due to overlooked medical information and a “better safe than sorry” attitude. Many of us heard about her story on the Do No Harm Podcast,...
Jack & Sam chat with CBC VP of Placement Resources, Tory Wilson with FSS in Florida about how the CBC functions in privatized states like Florida and about the transition of Florida Circuit 6 from Eckerd to FSS.
Cat & Jack discuss the curious case of Natalia Grace, We discuss how the docuseries on Netflix addresses the situation as well as how a careful examination of facts and documents paints a very particular story of both the adoption, abuse, and abandonment of an orphan from Ukraine.
Please be advised that this episode discusses some adult topics that may be sensitive for young ears.
Cat & Jack chat with Deric from Boldfam - the viral social sensation who has recently undergone an interaction with CPS in Texas due to an abuse call from a doctor.
Jack & Nichole chat about one of their favorite fostercare and adoption movies – instant family.
Nichole & Jack chat with nichole’s teen son Sisco about his time in foster care group homes after 4+ years and 70+ foster homes.
TW: Child Abuse in foster careJack & Nichole & Jack Jr, chat with Nichole’s son Lucas who discusses being abused in foster care, and shares his sweet optimism and resilience.
Jack & Nichole chat with Erin NeSmith from Grow Into You Foundation for aged out kids in foster care.
We mentioned a Starbucks Christmas drink in episode 9 and later looked up what it was called (Juniper Latte), we were cracking up reading this article about it. While it didn’t make the cut for the episode – we figured we would share the description of this Starbucks Juniper Latte in a bonus episode.
Jack & Nichole sit with Papo and chat with him about his experience growing up in the foster care system in Philadelphia and how he turned the table by helping teens in foster care by working in a group home and connecting with the kids through his own foster experiences.
Jack and Nichole chat with Lisa from Emerald M Ranch in Brooksville that specializes in equine (hippo) therapy to help children who have experienced trauma (foster children) and children with medical needs.
Nichole and Jack share the lifehacks for foster parents that listeners sent in to help us all get more organized.
Cat, Jack, & Nichole continue their chat with Sr Retired Judge Lynn Tepper about her experiences in the courtroom and her evolution to creating a trauma informed courtroom. If you have not yet listened to part 1 and 2, we recommend you listen to those episodes before this episode.
Cat, Jack, & Nichole continue their chat with Sr Retired Judge Lynn Tepper about her experiences in the courtroom and her evolution to creating a trauma informed courtroom. If you have not yet listened to part 1, we recommend you listen to that episodes before this episode.
Cat, Jack, & Nichole chat with Sr Retired Judge Lynn Tepper about her experiences in the courtroom and her evolution to creating a trauma informed courtroom. Stay tuned to next week for part 2
Jack chats with Ryan, a black single foster mom who can be found on instagram as @black_single_foster_mom about becoming a foster parent during a pandemic, race dynamics, and fostering teens as a single mom.
Jack chats with Brittany, the single fostermom behind the social account “foster the teens”.
Now that we have dragged a couple special hosts into our equation and are starting a new season – we are excited to spend some time letting you get to know all of us a little better.
Jack & Cat sit with Judge Luke to get a better understanding of the role of a judge in dependency and foster care.
Jack and Brenna (from episode 33) talk about how breathwork and yoga can help build resiliency to heal and withstand trauma.
Just an update that we are on a holiday hiatus until after the new year. But we are working in bringing you some amazing content we have for you!
Jack & Mac chat with Mac’s daughter and Jack’s former foster daughter about what being in foster care was like for her.
Cat, Jack, and Nichole sit with Brenna to discuss her history as the targeted abused child in her biological home, going through the dependency system in New Jersey, and what it looked like to travel the path of abuse report to signed surrender paperwork. We were recently chosen as one of the Top 20 Foster […]
Jack (fostermom) & Nichole (fostermom & gal) chat about ways to make Christmas easier on children who are in foster care and away from their families. Here are some ideas: Ask them and their family about any traditions they have and see what you can implement in your home so they don’t miss it, and […]
Nichole (fostermom & gal) & Jack (fostermom) sit and chat about local events concerning the state DCF cancelling the contract of the local CBC and the sheriff’s department opening a criminal investigation into the CBC. The community is anxiously awaiting information about what will happen in the next 60 days while we wait for DCF […]
Cat (Therapist) & Jack (Fostermom) talk to Ellie (a former foster youth) who has recently reunified with her son who was removed from her care and placed in foster care. Ellie had to overcome so many obstacles, including addiction, domestic violence, raising a son with special needs (autism), and learning how to advocate for herself. […]
Mac (biomom) & Jack (fostermom) sit with Madeleine (former foster youth) and discuss her experience in the foster care system. Madeleine lived in group homes and bounced around until a therapeutic group home allowed her to move in with a relative. After a failed permanent guardianship situation, she still beat the odds and graduated high […]
Jack & Nichole sit with former foster youth and current social worker, Marissa to talk about her experience as a child in the system. Marissa was removed from her relative caregiver when she was 13 years old, sent to another relative, and then reunified with her primary caregiver, only for the problems to recur. Marissa […]
Jack & Guest Host Nichole join Marissa (former foster youth and masters social worker) to walk the path of foster care from the viewpoint of a foster child. Experience of a Child in Foster Care Child experiences a trauma of abuse or neglect Police show up and child is questioned if possible Life goes on […]
Jack & Cat sit to talk with Argie about the role of occupational therapy in foster care.
Jack & Cat chat with Rob Callahan to discuss his experience as an Assistant District Attorney (in some states called Assistant State Attorney) prosecuting cases for child dependency. His experiences across the board as an ADA, and also parent attorney, and also as an attorney for intervening foster parents bring a great deal of knowledge […]
Jack invites Jack Jr to the studio for a chat about being a brother to foster siblings. Jack Jr was adopted internationally at the age of 2 and was an only child for about 4 years before Jack’s family became a foster family. Now Jack is a brother to his foster siblings and three siblings […]
Jack & Cat chat with Chef Kibby about how connecting through cooking helps build relationships with kids who have experienced trauma and helps kids in foster care build resiliency and positive childhood experiences. Chef Kibby’s Resources: Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Podcast | 20-Day Challenge
Jack & Cat sit with David who has previously served as a case manager in foster care, an adoption case manager, and an adoption case manager supervisor about the role of adoption case management in foster care.
We received a DM this week from one of our favorite listeners who is about to be licensed, asking for tips on how to better prepare for her first placement. So we asked Brendale (a local foster mom) to help us give her some tips and things that she wish she knew from the jump. […]
We received a DM this week from one of our favorite listeners who is about to be licensed, asking for tips on how to better prepare for her first placement. So we asked Coryn (a local foster mom) to help us give her some tips and things that she wish she knew from the jump. […]
Jack & Cat sit with Bowdre M. McAllister, a parent attorney in dependency and who also serves as an attorney ad litem for special needs kids in foster care in Florida.
Jack & Cat sit with Nichole who has had one wild ride through successfully adopting three siblings despite enormous adversity. She has had to remain quiet throughout the media reports over the past year, due to the confidentiality requirements of foster parents and those involved with these cases. But… Today… She takes her voice back. […]
Jack & Cat sit with Elyse from Placement and discuss what it is like to work in placement in foster care and also how to partner better with them.
Jack & Cat sit with Red from Licensing and discuss what it is like to work in licensing in foster care and also how to partner better with them and how they are a support for all the partners.
Jack & Cat sit with Irene from Case Management and discuss what it is like to be a case manager in foster care and how partners can both understand and work better with Case Managers.
Jack & Cat discuss the main people involved in a foster case to get a picture of who the players are and what their functions are.
Jack & Cat sit and chat with a fostermom who has an interesting story about her life flipping upside down as a foster parent.
A special episode for Father’s Day with Jack Daddy, a foster and adoptive father of many.
Jack, Cat, & Mac discuss coparenting of foster children between foster parents and biological parents.
Jack & Cat sit with a foster parent (Lynn) and talk about the foster parent experience and what makes them want to live this crazy life.
Jack and Cat chat with Mac about her journey of addiction and recovery throughout the process of trying to reunify with her children from fostercare. Links: NA – https://m.na.org/ ASAP – https://empoweredcommunities.org/asap/
Jack, Cat, & Mac discuss the journey Mac took to become successful at changing her life and repairing her family.
Jack & Cat discuss some ways that you can support foster kids by supporting foster families. Some Ideas: Provide Meals Babysitting especially for court but also date nights Non judgement Don’t probe for the details (respect privacy) Emotional support (listen) Socks, underwear, and pajamas, Providing clothes Treat the kids the same as the other kids […]
Jack & Cat discuss some ways that you can help foster kids if you decide not to become a foster parent. Here are some ways that you can help: Become a CASA / Guardian Ad Litem Pay for activities for foster kids Support aging out foster youth As an educator Volunteer with foster organizations Donate […]
Here are some pros and cons of becoming a foster parent to consider and Jack & Cat discuss them along with some thoughts from other foster parents. Pros It is so fun Seeing success stories of families repaired Being able to help families repair Adoption is sometimes an option Seeing kids’ transformation is rewarding Cons […]
Jack & Cat discuss some questions you should ask yourself if you are considering becoming a foster parent. Questions to ask yourself when considering becoming a foster parent: What is your motivation to become a foster parent? Do you have the patience for the behaviors? Do you have the time for the children and working […]
Meet your hosts: Jack & Cat in this episode and get ready to join us weekly as we delve into the world of child welfare!