Utilizing My Talents For Good

I have always had a passion for helping kids in Foster Care!

 

At 26 years old I started volunteering as a Guardian Ad Litem, representing kids in the foster care system. I then got on the Board of the Guardian Ad Litem Guild to help recruit and retain more Guardian volunteers.

But I continued to see so many needs for kids in foster care going unmet. About a year later, I decided to create a non-profit to fill those needs. It was called For The Children.

Over the next 5 years we did a lot of great work to get kids adopted out of foster care, to provide backpacks filled with necessities for kids who are immediately placed in foster care, we assisted in building a clothing closet and held a clothing drive to fill it. And with a partnership with the Junior League, we created a Basic Needs Fund.

When I was planning my return to Tampa, I wanted to get back involved with helping this population. ~ But I didn't want to create another non-profit.  I believed there were some great organizations out there that were already doing great work.

 

I wanted to see how I could get involved, maybe rally some people to collaborate, and assist a non-profit in making a bigger impact.

 

Shortly after arriving in Tampa I saw an article in the local paper about an organization called Social Venture Partners that was doing just that!

 

SVP is a national organization that started in Seattle in 1997.  The chapter in Tampa Bay was fairly new, only forming in 2013, but it joined a global network of 3500 partners aligning passion and purpose.  It sounded like my kind of group!

 

What I loved was their business model and their focused areas of assistance being kids in foster care, homelessness and education.

 

I immediately reached out to them to learn more.

 

After a few meetings I decided to join ~ just as they were about to decide on the second non-profit they would help.

 

Out of the 3 organizations that presented I was drawn to Ready for Life - a non-profit that helps kids aging out of foster care, provide them with services and tools they need to succeed.

 

I wasn't the only one impressed.  It was a huge landslide of the partners voting in favor of Ready for Life.  

 

After the vote, while sharing cocktails and celebrating the decision, the Executive Director of SVP approached me about taking on the role of Co-Lead for Ready for Life.

 

I was hesitant at first because of the time commitment, but my heart kept pulling me towards a "yes." 

 

I also could see the impact that I could make by taking on that role.

 

Several months later, we have put together a Work Plan/Set of Goals for this year and it is going to be exciting to see what gets accomplished!

 

The Executive Director of Ready for Life is amazing, the two founders/board members are entrepreneurs so I  clicked with them immediately. I liked all the members of their Passionate Board and the staff is inspiring!