I am here in Elkhart at the Elkhart Health and Aquatics, which is right behind me, which is the location on Memorial Day weekend for an event that's coming up.

And I'm here with Michelle and Ashlyn and Michelle.

First of all, tell me a little bit about the organization that you're the founder of the Elkhart Family Alliance, which is a group, a collective group of non-profits, faith community members and just community members that come together.

And what we are doing is we were getting to know each other, getting to know what services and resources are available in Elkhart County for foster kinship and adoptive families.

And now we are at the point where we are formalizing some things that we want to accomplish.

And one of those things is the resource center that we're having on Memorial Day weekend.

And so the resource fair that you're having is going to be here in the aquatic center, not in the swimming pool, but, you know, in the general area.

And so why is it so important to bring all these resources together?

Like, what are the challenges that are being faced by families who do want to foster or adopt?

Well, there are nuanced things that they do deal with.

And so we want them to know what resources are available.

I mean, if you think about it, when you have a child that comes into your home, they are someone that you don't know.

And now everything that you have going on the rest of the day and tomorrow and next week, that child is going to be coming with you.

So there's so much learning and there's so much growth, but you also encounter things that you could not ever plan for.

And then you need help.

You need assistance.

Where do you reach out?

Where do you find that assistance?

There is so much.

Elkhart is a rich community that has so many things that are available for parents, and definitely for foster parents, kinship, adoptive parents.

But you don't necessarily know about these things until you need them.

So we're getting everybody together.

And I think it's awesome because if you're doing this work and you can meet with a resource and ask specific questions, find out what they do and if it really serves the needs that you have.

This is a great time to come and talk to the actual providers.

We have so many things that are going to be going on.

There's going to be games for kids.

It's going to be a therapy dog.

There's going to be food.

It's going to be a really wonderful day, along with very informational for people that are doing this really important work.

Nice.

And Ashley, tell me a little bit about the Michiana Family Center.

What is that and what do you do?

I know your executive director of that.

Yeah.

So we put supports around foster, adoptive and kinship families.

So we serve the Michigan area and Indiana.

So we come alongside Michelle and her group.

The once a month we all meet, we talk about all the different services we provide.

We do support groups.

We have monthly meetups.

We were just at Sky zone last week with all of our families having a great time.

So we do that and then we have mentors that we put around our kids.

So in people's first year being a foster parent, 50% of the families quit and they say it's because of lack of support.

So that's why we come together as a community to say this community has great support for you.

So come along, see what's available.

If you're a family who is thinking about being a foster parent, come to this resource fair to see what's available for you.

There's summer camps like we have the Boys and Girls Club in this area.

We have lifeline in this area.

There's lots of good things to be a part of.

So if you're thinking about being a foster parent, come and get the knowledge.

Yeah.

And because you talk about that 50% number I know that's a national number.

That's not just here in Elkhart.

It's everywhere.

But Michelle, it's so hard to get people to actually open up their homes.

And I get it.

It's like so so when you do get people, it's kind of disappointing to know that because of a lack of resources or maybe accessibility to resources, not the actual resources, maybe they're there.

It's kind of disappointing to know so many drop offs, right?

It is very disappointing because one, when you have a foster parent that is doing it, the value of someone who has done it and continues to do it, and then they understand the resources and they understand what's available to them.

They just bring so much of a richness to what they do.

I honestly think the people doing this work, I mean, they're social champions and we should be able to come around them and support what they are doing.

Maybe not everyone.

Like you said, it is difficult to be a foster parent, so maybe not everybody should do that.

But I do believe that everyone can play a part in helping and being a part of what is going on.

These, these kiddos, they need a lot.

They have a lot of needs, but there is so much support and resources in school and many of the organizations that you mentioned, and there's many others, there's clothing closets.

Ashland team helps with food insecurity and helping out.

So there's just so many resources, and we just want to make that available so that if it's about a community that wraps around that, a foster parent knows I've got community backing.

So this might be hard work, but it doesn't have to be lonely.

Yes.

Families that find our groups find Michiana Family Center, families that find out what Elkhart is doing.

Those families are not quitting because they're not alone.

Once they find us, they're like, they're just so happy to have found those resources.

Find the support groups, find the food distribution, find the summer camps that are available.

Once they find us, they're not quitting.

The number goes way down.

Yeah.

There are also so many behavioral health resources in this area.

It's very, very rich.

So it's not you know, there's therapy and there's school.

So psychologists that can help.

There's so many resources.

And again you know we talked about this a little bit with you.

I talked about this.

But you know when you have a young family or you have a family, it's really hard to like welcome in what can often be a child that's been through a lot of trauma.

I mean, even if they haven't come from an extremely traumatic background, it's still traumatic that they have to go into a house where they don't know anyone.

I mean, that alone is traumatic, right?

Even if their background hasn't been maybe as bad as other kids might have been.

But still, that in itself, and I know a lot of people struggle to like, welcome that kind of, you know, chaos for a while into your house.

But actually, what are some of the things that you're seeing in terms of like, what are the foster parents getting out of this?

Because obviously, you know, they're helping children, but like, what are the outcomes?

Like, are they happy they've done it?

Like what's the true reward for doing this.

Yeah.

Well, I think once families come like be a part of the support group, come be part of the resource fair, like we'll all be together and you're in it with other people.

You want to do this because you care about kids.

Care about kids who the child didn't ask to be a part of a hard situation.

But they are.

So there are grown ups that they want to be part to that a lot of times, because they may have been a part of hard times when they were young, so they know what grown ups did for them and they want to be that grown up now for this next group.

And they're so glad to not be doing it alone, because no one should parent alone, especially our families.

So we all get to do it together so that families get in camaraderie and everyone feels like they belong and have support.

Awesome.

Michelle.

It is Memorial Day weekend and Saturday, May 23rd.

Yes.

And so what are the times that it's going to be on here?

We're going to meet from 11 to 1.

So it's going to be a come and go as you can will be open from 11 to 1.

There will be food, lots of games and activities, tons of fun.

Yeah.

I mean, you can't have kids around.

I know it's going to be food trucks.

And I know you want to say thank you to the Community Foundation of Elkhart County for supporting this as well.

Their offices are right here in front of us.

And a lot of the community partners that have come on board to to try and help with this.

So is there any information online in advance or just show up on Saturday, May 23rd?

We do have registration.

I can Ashley can tell you about how to register, go to Michiana Family Center and the information is there on on the website.

All right.

Well you can just show up to.

Yeah, just show up and show up.

Free food for all foster, adoptive and kinship families.

Nice.

That's great.

Thank you.

All right, so hopefully you come along May 23rd.

Get involved.

Maybe you can come that day.

You can still go to their website and find out more.