The Fostered Gift began many years ago as a dream in the heart of a young girl in foster care. A young girl who promised that someday she would find a way to help children like herself. Cofounder Shannon Leach was in foster care until the age of eighteen and soon afterward pursued a bachelor’s degree in social work. Her work provided many opportunities to give back to children like herself; however, it also gave her opportunities to see the gaps that existed in a worn and dated system. She began to look for ways to address those gaps.

Especially for waiting kids. There was a distinct gap that existed for children who found themselves unable to return home due to a crisis that remained, no matter what age or location. These children experienced many unknowns as they waited to hear the answers to where they would sleep next or how they would get what they needed. These moments of delay left a child already experiencing a traumatic crisis in an even more heartbreaking situation. Workers did all they could to narrow the wait, but a system is still just a system.

After many years of working in the field, the gaps continued and the barriers remained unchanged. The waiting, the lack of places for a child to go, and the unknown next steps continued to weigh heavy on children in the moment of a life-changing crisis. Shannon wanted a way to impact those gaps—a way to change the memory for children who suddenly found themselves unable to return home—a way to give them something positive in one of the worst moments of their lives.

She found a way. In February 2022, the dream became a reality when The Fostered Gift was born. This mission-focused, direct service, on-call response to provide items of comfort and need to a child in their hardest moment did not solve all the problems, but it was a move in the right direction. It was an opportunity to change the message of a moment that a child would live with forever. It was an opportunity to bridge the gap for a child.