Two girls of the HandMade program
“Children in foster care are just like yours—they’re talented, funny, smart, ornery—they just don’t have you for parents. But together, we can help them succeed!” –Lynn Schnurnberger, Founder of Foster Pride
To kick off our series of grantee highlights during our Summer in a Safe City campaign, we’ll start with one of our “Youth and Education” programs. This blog post is dedicated to the wonderful staff and participants of the Foster Pride organization.
Foster Pride’s programs strive to help
youth in foster care develop talents, skills, and self-esteem through mentoring partnerships. At Foster Pride, staff members work with these adolescents to navigate their individual pathways to adulthood and achieving their dreams through art-oriented workshops. In the safe, nurturing environment at Foster Pride, these teenagers develop a strong sense of self and confidence about the future–something before that might have seemed unattainable without the work of this organization. The environment that Foster Pride creates deep, meaningful relationships with the participants. Even as the children “graduate” from the program, some former participants of the program came back to work at Foster Pride because they firsthand saw the impact of the organization’s missions and how effective their programming is.
The Reisenbach Foundation provides financial sponsorship with the John A. Reisenbach Financial Literacy Workshops of HandMade at Foster Pride. The HandMade program enables teenage women in foster care to develop and launch their own small businesses. Participants create and market crocheted accessories in order to learn the inner workings of entrepreneurship. The John A. Reisenbach Financial Literacy Workshops help the young women in HandMade develop money management skills and economic self-sufficiency. All proceeds from sales go to straight in the hands of the women who run this small business. This opportunity allows these girls to secure internships with professionals in the fashion industry.
