Start the giving season off strong by donating to a local nonprofit organization in Santa Barbara County on #GivingTuesday, November 29th!
With your support these nonprofits can continue to thrive and serve those who need their services the most. This is why Noozhawk has re-launched its annual Good for Santa Barbara Section, so that finding a cause you connect with is made easy and donation information is readily available!
In this interview, Noozhawk spoke with Elizabeth Moss, Communications and Development Manager for Angels Foster Care, to learn more about how their organization provides safe, stable, and loving homes for infants and toddlers in foster care.
Angels Foster Care
Question: What is the name and mission of your nonprofit organization?
Answer: Angels Foster Care protects abused, neglected, and abandoned infants and toddlers, nurtures them in one loving home until adoption or reunification and ensures that they reach their maximum development potential.
Q: What types of fundraisers and/or programs does your nonprofit run?
A: Angels Foster Care serves infants and toddlers from birth through age three, and their siblings up to age five, who have been detained by Santa Barbara County Child Welfare Services (SBCWS) due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect. Angels carefully matches each child to a well-trained, loving resource (aka foster) family with a full-time parent who cares for them in a safe, stable home until reunification with their biological parents or adoption occurs. Our master’s degree level social workers screen, approve, and train prospective and current Angels Foster Care parents. Additionally, our social workers regularly visit all Angels Foster Care homes, connect children with advanced needs to appropriate local services, and offer group support, continuing education, and counseling to Angels Foster Care families. Our social work staff supervises all court ordered visits with birth parents and attend all court hearings on each child’s behalf.
Since 2012, Angels has hosted its highly coveted annual Al Fresco Luncheon to raise proceeds benefitting Angels Foster Care babies and families. This event is our biggest fundraiser of the year with roughly 200-250 guests and supporters in attendance.
In May 2022, our Angels Al Fresco Luncheon took place at the home of one of our Angels families, a beautiful Hope Ranch estate with breathtaking ocean views. Guests were able to arrive early to purchase raffle tickets and browse the wide array of raffle prize choices. A delicious “al fresco” luncheon of tasteful, gourmet cuisine followed. Beautiful table décor, music and floral arrangements made it a memorable afternoon honoring Angels Foster Care families. This year’s luncheon was timed to coincide with National Foster Care Month in May.
Tickets will be going on sale for our 2023 Al Fresco Luncheon in February 2023. Please be sure to visit our website at www.angelsfostercare.org/events for more details!
Q: How long has your nonprofit been in service and whom was it started by?
A: Angels was founded in 2006 by local Santa Barbara resident, Meichelle Arntz. Meichelle is a registered nurse and a local business entrepreneur.
Q: What was the inspiration behind your nonprofit?
A: Angels founder, Meichelle Arntz, served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for two young brothers. These little boys were moved seven times, to seven different foster homes, in a single year. Meichelle saw that moving from placement to placement had a devastating effect on the children’s’ emotional, behavioral, and physical health. She knew that our community could do better for infants and toddlers in the foster care system. Meichelle was inspired by the experience of these two little boys to launch Angels Foster Care with the goal of reducing the trauma that local babies and toddlers experience in foster care. Her original goal of keeping very young foster children in one home, with one loving family, for the entire time that they are in the foster care system has greatly contributed to the success of the children served by Angels Foster Care.
Q: What makes your nonprofit different from others?
A: Angels Foster Care addresses the shortage of high-quality resource homes for young children in Santa Barbara County by recruiting, training, and supporting exceptional resource families who can provide supportive, healthy homes for infants and young children. Currently, there are approximately 410 children in the Santa Barbara County foster care system, with roughly 35% of those children under the age of six and 23% under the age of three. While the conventional model of foster care focuses primarily on providing shelter for a child, this only scratches the surface of the sensitive care these children desperately require. Children who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected possess emotional, developmental, psychosocial, and biological needs which necessitate a unique level of care and attention. This especially applies to the youngest children who need to attach and bond very early with primary caregivers who can provide the specialized love and care needed in the formative years of a child’s life. Angels works to address this problem by recruiting, training, and supporting the most highly qualified resource families who provide a soft place to land while parents and family members work to resolve conflicts and learn healthy skills so that children can safely return home, if and when possible. With our extensive training in early childhood trauma informed care, Angels families can provide nurturing and wholesome environments for our community’s most vulnerable young children.
Angels Foster Care is the only Foster Family Agency (FFA) based in Santa Barbara County as well as the only FFA in the region which focuses specifically on serving babies and young children. Young children who have experienced the trauma of abuse and neglect need security and intimate bonding with caring adults for healthy development, which is why we require at least one full-time parent in the home who can focus on cultivating secure attachment with their Angels child. Moreover, being moved from placement to placement increases the likelihood that children will develop attachment disorders and developmental delays as they grow older. To support and nurture the full scope of their developmental needs, dependable care is critical to their well-being. This is also why we require each resource family to commit to keeping the child throughout the entire time he/she is in dependency care. The Angels “branded” parenting experience, with its higher level of social worker support, ensures Angels children are given nourishing care by their Angels family. This fundamental experience between child and parent creates a healthy template for all future relationships.
Q: A story about how our services have made an impact.
A: Angels resource parents Anna and Kiah had been considering adopting a child for quite some time but weren’t quite sure what that path looked like. Then, in 2009, they attended an adoption conference at a local church in Santa Barbara. Here, our Angels Founder, Meichelle Arntz, spoke about the unique model of care Angels offers. After attending this conference and learning more about the need for Angels parents, Anna and Kiah knew that becoming resource (aka foster) parents was the right decision for them.
In 2011, Anna and Kiah finalized their Angels resource parent approval and finished their training with the intention of doing respite care for a pair of twins. However, things quickly changed when they received a phone call from an Angels social worker stating that a 3-month-old baby boy needed long-term care and would potentially move in the direction of adoption. Things moved swiftly, as that very same day, they picked up the sweet baby boy and brought him home with them. Right away, Anna and Kiah fell utterly head over heels for him.
Anna stated that the desire to attach and bond with foster children is complicated, as there is a painful element of knowing that you want the biological parents to be able to be with their child; however, you also want to love and protect them: “It’s a push and pull relationship of rooting for the biological parents and wanting what is best for the child while also forming an attachment to the child as their foster parent just wanting to love and protect them.”
As first-time parents, Anna and Kiah’s parenting style was highly influenced by research and their Angels training. “The information coming from parenting experts, books, and mainstream parenting guidelines is what trauma-informed care has been saying all along about connection.” Trauma-informed care has been the basis of their parenting style and helped to set the tone for their parenting philosophy: “The trauma-informed training that we received from Angels has been intrinsically valuable, not just circumstantial.”
Anna and Kiah are very encouraging to families who are thinking about fostering a child; however, they advise that this decision shouldn’t be entered into lightly: “It’s important to make sure you are on the same page as your partner, and you both are committed to the process. You need to create a support system for yourself to handle the ups and downs that will inevitably transpire.”
With great empathy and conviction, Anna commented, “foster children should not have to bear the weight or burden of the trauma they’ve experienced all by themselves. Your job is to shelter these kids from the storm; you are the umbrella.” In talking about the rewards of being a resource parent, Anna added that “fostering is such a worthy role to have in these children’s lives, whether for six months or forever or any increment. You should go into it cheering for reunification.”
In talking about their experience working with the Angels team, Anna commented, “Angels does an excellent job of providing support, and this made all the difference in our experience. It’s so helpful to have a social worker explaining everything and be there every step of the way. It makes it so much more manageable.”
Q: How do people get involved/volunteer for your nonprofit?
A: There are a variety of different ways to get involved at Angels! We are always looking for volunteers to help with fundraisers/events and special projects. Additionally, we offer internships to both undergraduate and graduate students. To learn more about available opportunities, please call (805) 884-0012 or send an email to Elizabeth Moss at elizabeth@angelsfostercare.org.
Q: How is your nonprofit primarily funded and what are your greatest needs?
A: The majority of our income comes from annual fundraising events and community/individual donors. Our greatest needs for funding include donations to support our ongoing Angels Parent Program which encompasses three main elements: (1) resource family recruitment, (2) parent training and approval, and (3) child placement and placement support. The target audience of our Angels Parent Program includes recruitment of individuals and families who are between the ages of 25-70 and live in Santa Barbara County and south San Luis Obispo County.
Q: Why should donors trust your organization and are there other ways to help outside of donations?
A: We strive to maintain full financial transparency with our donors, ensuring every dollar donated is utilized with careful attention to effectiveness and efficiency. Our complete nonprofit and financial background is made public on our platinum level GuideStar profile. Here, viewers can access our form 990’s and other yearly audited financial statements and data. Additionally, we are proud to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), signaling our commitment to continually improving our services, encouraging feedback, and serving our community.
We accept new and unused strollers, diapers, toys, clothes and other baby-related equipment and supplies. Goods such as these are especially helpful for newly approved Angels families who are fostering for the first time. If you’re unsure of what to donate, please check out our Angels Foster Care Baby Supplies Wishlist on AmazonSmile or call us at (805) 884-0012.
Q: How does the work of your nonprofit get communicated to the public?
A: We host monthly virtual information sessions for individuals and families interested in learning more about becoming Angels resource parents. We also give in-person presentations to various community organizations in Santa Barbara County. Additionally, we send out a newsletter on a quarterly basis and are very active on social media. Please visit our website to sign up for an information session, our quarterly newsletter, and to follow us on all our socials!
Click here to support Angel Foster Care’s mission to protect abused, neglected and abandoned infants and toddlers and nurture them in a loving home until adoption or reunification.
Check out Noozhawk’s Guide to Giving for a full list of nonprofits to donate to this giving season.