Lynette Nelson currently serves at the National Director of Advancement for Safe Families for Children, where she helps advance the mission of keeping children safe and families together. She lives in Edwardsville, Illinois which is a suburb of St Louis. Lynette is married to her husband Ryan and is mom to two kiddos: Joby and Harper. She is an avid runner, and you can find her most nights and weekends cheering on her children as they play baseball, basketball and softball. Lynette and her family volunteer as a host family through Safe Families for Children – opening up their home to temporary host children. They love traveling and have a goal to visit all 63 US National Parks.
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If you want to learn more about Safe Families and how to get involved, be sure to visit their website here or follow along on Instagram @safefamiliesforchildren
Hey mama. Welcome back to another episode of the Well Nourished Mama podcast. Today's episode is really cool because I am chatting with Lynette. She's the national director of a very large nonprofit worldwide organization called Safe Families for Children, and I wanted to bring her on to not only bring awareness to her nonprofit if you're looking for volunteer opportunities, but also if you are one of the mamas that would benefit from.
The services of this nonprofit if you need some help. this organization is really, really cool. It's geared towards helping families stay together, against all odds so that kids don't have to go into the foster care system. So, you know, think about the traditional scenario where, maybe there's some domestic violence or some abuse going on, and they want to put kids in foster care to keep them safe.
Well. This organization helps step in and say, okay, well let's provide a safe home for these kids to go to while, you know, dad goes to therapy or whatever it is, without putting them in the foster care system. that's obviously a very extreme example, but, some other examples could be, you know, if you are a.
Single mom and you're working two jobs and it's really, really hard for you to just have help with your kids. You're, they're in daycare and all that stuff, but you still feel like life is just on top of you and you just need a village. You need a community. Safe families for children can also be a part of that picture, whether that's with resources or friends coming to help at your home or.
Having a safe place for your kids to go if something happens with daycare. So again, we'll talk about more of that in the episode. But, something I really wanna touch on is a theme throughout this interview where we're talking about community. And I know you and I both know that it takes a village to raise a child.
We've heard that so many times. But in today's day and age, it's really hard to find that village. And so we spend a lot of our time talking about how to find your village, how to find your community, and then how to also be a villager, how to be a community member. and spoiler alert, I share a really, really personal story.
I was not planning on crying, in this episode, but you're gonna listen to me try and tell this story. amidst like full blown crying, about an experience that completely changed the way that I see a village and a community, um, as a mom. So I hope this episode is really helpful for you if you are just feeling like you are trying to navigate motherhood alone.
And you are like running on empty, trying to just keep up with the bare minimum. Or maybe you're on the flip side and you're like, you know what? Like I'm in a really good place in life and I want to give back. I want to create that community. I want to create that village, but I just don't know how. This episode is a great introduction to both sides of the equation.
I hope you love it. and I hope you don't hate me for crying. I promised I would never like cry on social media, like an Instagram post or something, and I try really hard to do that on my podcast, but that doesn't always happen. So sorry that you have to listen to me cry, but I promise it's a really good story.
And. There's a really good lesson in it. So again, I hope this interview is so fun to listen to. As always, please leave a star rating and review, so that the podcast can continue to grow and our guests know how much we appreciate them. Alright, let's dive in.
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Lynette Nelson currently serves at the National Director of Advancement for Safe Families for Children, where she helps advance the mission of keeping children safe and families together. She lives in Edwardsville, Illinois, which is a suburb of St. Louis. Lynette is married to her husband Ryan, and is a mom to two kiddos, Joby and Harper.
She's an avid runner and you can find her most nights and weekends cheering her children on as they play baseball, basketball, and softball. Linda and her family volunteer as a host family through Safe Families for children opening up their home to temporary host children. They love traveling and have a goal to visit all 63 US now, national Parks.
thanks much for joining us today. We're excited to have you here. Hi. Thanks so much for having me, Brooke. this conversation is gonna be really special because. I haven't had the chance to interact with many nonprofits in my lifetime, whether like that's with my own volunteer experience or just, getting to learn about them personally.
So I'm excited for our conversation today to learn more about the resources that are available to my mamas, whether. You actually need to benefit from the services of your nonprofit, or you want to donate your time and your love to volunteer at the nonprofit. So I'm excited for that. so let's just jump right in.
Lynette, can you tell us more about what Safe Families for Children is, how this got started and how you entered the picture? Yeah, so Safe Families for Children was started, a little over 20 years ago in 2003. our founder and CEO Dr. David Anderson is a, uh, clinical psychologist and he was working at the time, at Mount Sinai Hospital the Chicago area.
And his job was to simply investigate and determine if children who had been severely abused and had trauma, should be able to return home to their families, to their parents. He had investigated hundreds and hundreds of cases throughout his career, but unbeknownst to him, there was this one case that one day just kind of turned his world upside down and, um, as he.
Tells us, kind of received a calling for what the next phase of his life was gonna kind of entail. So he had met this five-year-old girl and she had been severely beaten. He describes it as she had a concussion. her retina was torn. It was, her eye was kind of not in place. Her arm was broken. I mean, just the unimaginable bruising and just what you would imagine.
And, she was in a similar age to his own. Child at the time. And so his heart just kind of really resonated with this. And he just said it kind of broke and he kind of just had some anger and like frustration and like, who could ever truly do something like this to a child? And he continued and did an investigation and he started talking to the mother and realized that the daughter had woke up sick.
As we can all relate, we're not planning on our children getting sick, right? But this happened to this mom and she had to make a tough decision like, do I go to work? Fear losing my job and that he describes it as she had been financially strained. And if she did not go to job, her job, she would lose it, which would impact where they lived and being able to survive.
Or did she stay home with her child? So she chose to. Go to work and entrust this sick child that she had, to the only person in her circle, if you will, you'll hear me talk about more about a circle, but the only person she could think to call, which was a former boyfriend. So she took the child to him and she went to work and came back and the child had been severely harmed, because she did not know that this former boyfriend had been using drugs.
At the time. And so the unspeakable happened to this poor child and a situation in which, this family really didn't need to be broken apart. And, the child was placed into the child welfare system. And so he just had this realization, our founder, Dr. David Anderson at the time, that if this mom, like if we got our phones out today and we had the same situation, would we have someone to call?
And he just realized like all she simply needed was a safe person in her corner in her life that she could have made one phone call to that could have showed up for her and helped her, her kid. And he was like, that's as simple as this was. Now there's other situations that warrant other things, but in this situation, he was just like, I had this awakening that I.
Needed to do something. And so he empowered his wife, his small children at the time, his close family, his friends, his church and his community to start what is now, uh, safe families for children in which they truly started walking alongside isolated parents and families. Who were enduring these challenges that kind of come up so that if at all possible, the family could remain together instead of being separated and put into the foster care system.
So that's how it started in 2003. And since then, we now are in 26 states across the US and in 15 countries around the world. And our true hope is to keep children safe and families together. And a tagline that we say is No family alone, so that no family has to endure that they have someone safe to call.
So yeah, that's beautiful. I love that story and it really does remind us, I think of. I wanna say like, there's so many times where we don't mean for things to happen. Mm-hmm. And like you said, it's not because we don't care about our children, or we don't want to take care of our children. It's, oh my gosh, like I'm choosing between two not so great options and I don't really know what to do here.
I feel like my hands are tied, like. I'm not trying to speak for everybody, but I know that there are a lot of moms who might have found themselves in that position before where they're like, I just don't know what to do and I need help. I'm stretched too thin. And this is so hard. And like you said, we don't want moms to have to get to that point.
So let's say there's a mama listening and she's like, okay, well like that's like a pretty extreme example. That won't happen to me. Yeah, sure. You know, I'm married and you know, my partner has a stable job and I'm with my kids all day. We're not living paycheck to paycheck. Like that couldn't happen to me.
So what would you say to that mama? Not to scare her, but to like, I don't know, kind of help her see how she could still take action today to make sure. That she's showing up the way that she wants to with intention every single day. Yeah. And we're all just one, I don't know, I just, one moment away I guess, from the unknown.
We just simply don't know what tomorrow holds. Right. And so I like your question about being intentional. Um. It's, it's really kind of going back to what I just said, like, who's your community? And that, that is like at the core of what we are trying to do. And if you feel like you don't have that community, where can you go and find that?
And so that's the core of who we are is to really empower. A community, we call it the circle of support within our own true communities that we understand. But community means different things, right? Whether that's your group of friends or your family or your church or other organizations you're a part of.
But community, I would bring that back to community. because. We were all created in families and in community, and it's just so, so important. We don't, no one wants to do life alone. And last year, well, I guess it was actually the end of 2024, the US Surgeon General came out with the loneliness epidemic.
And I, I mean, I like to think like I'm not, I'm not lonely, I'm not isolated. But if we're being honest with ourselves and truthful. Parenthood can be very isolating. Even though we have a partner, we have a community, and so it's just being intentional with. We're identifying with our families and our, and the role that we are as parents and a, and a mom, but it's also important for us to be pouring into ourselves.
And so if we're not getting poured into, and if we're not having a community around us, a circle around us, that can lead to an isolation that we don't realize. And so, that's what I would say to the listeners, to your listeners is, you might not think that you're in a, a challenge that might come up, that you don't have anyone to call.
But you know what? Maybe you know someone who is in that situation or to protect yourself from not having that. And so let's champion community. Together is what I would say. and that's what we try to do at Safe Families. And so, yes, there's extreme circumstances in which a lot of the families we're serving, you know, come from domestic violence or substance abuse issues, homelessness, they've lost a job, but all of that could, we could all understand what that's like tomorrow.
You know, that could all happen. We take that for granted. And so that's what we are. We do not discriminate against any kind of family or any kind of challenge that you're encountering, and so. we truly are here to just wrap support around each other. And we don't want it to be just a one-time incident and some of the families we serve, that's what they need is one-time help to get stabilized, but we want it to be extended support as well.
And that's just so crucial and so vital as we do life parenting and momming is, uh, forever. So, uh, we don't get to just turn it on and off, as you are well aware, so. Yeah, that sense of community IFI found over the years that it's not quite what I was expecting. And I became a mom. I feel like one, it was way easier to have friends and have a circle and all that stuff when it was just me and my husband because we could go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted.
And it was like, Hey, do you wanna do something tonight with these new people I met at the grocery store? Let's do it. Like, you don't even have to think twice. and oh yeah, now that I am three kids deep and they're all really, really little, it's not. It's not as simple as it used to be, but I find that I'm often a lot more cautious than I used to be.
Like, yes, I want, I'm always gonna be friendly and I'm gonna be kind. But you know, it's like, okay, well it's not just me, it's also my kids. And like I am super protective of my kids and it's like I find sometimes that it seems a little scary to try and. Either join an existing community or create one or ask for one because you're like, am I gonna be a burden to somebody?
have I been around this person enough to truly trust them? Sure. Am I ready to be vulnerable? Right? Like, there's so many, I don't wanna say like selfish, but like, really, really. personal feelings that come up when we talk about community, especially moms that maybe are in these tougher situations where they're solo parenting, they're a single mom, they're working two jobs, their kids are in daycare, and they're doing the best they can and they're still struggling.
Yeah. So what would you say to those moms who are maybe nervous to find, join, ask for a community? I would say be patient, but also just be willing to, like you said, be vulnerable, but step out. Right. To do that, whatever that stepping looks like. Some of us are more extroverted, some are more introverted, but, I have found, uh, I was sharing with you earlier, my kids are just maybe a season ahead of yours, but yeah, you get into this rhythm of like, how do I even find that community?
How do I become friends? Make friends my own age that aren't my kids or their friends and you, I don't, I think it's being very intentional with who's around you at the time. And so I find that sometimes, the people I thought I would end up being friends with forever, you know, those change, like you said.
And, I end up becoming, you know, you becoming connected with people in situations that. Come around that you didn't realize, uh, was even possible. Like friends with people that are maybe older than you or look different than you or come from a different background than you. And that's kind of exciting too.
So I think being open and being a little vulnerable, like you said. yes. 'cause I've ended up, I find that I've become friends with my kids, friends, parents. Whether that's like the sports they're playing or the activities they're doing, and, we just have to kind of be willing to, to adapt, but be open to that because like I said, isolation is a huge thing and I don't think we realize that, that we become.
I guess withdrawn, I dunno if that's the right word, but, that can impact all parts of our ability to thrive. and we find that in the health of our families too, we want healthy families. And that starts with, with us. And so to your listeners, I would say be willing To just find that community, that healthy community that's going to champion you, walk alongside you and cheer lead you on, which is really what we're doing too.
'cause I'm not sure where you are, but I remember moving across the country when my, yeah, oldest was a year old to Houston, Texas knew no one. It was isolating and it was just, you know, and that's really what this is, is just connection. It's so important. And, uh, I remember making friends at the park.
Like you said, you made friends at the grocery store. I was making friends at the park and, yeah, just different like moms groups. You just have to be willing to plug in or find the things that are going to help you get connected. I agree. It's a really hard lesson that I've had to learn. and I feel like I was kind of forced in the deep end because we are a military family, okay?
And so we move a lot and we know that wherever we're going, we're not staying there for very long. And so it's like, well, I am just gonna go make friends, I guess, and just like go find someone. And so it's really pushed me outta my comfort zone, but it's reminded me that. I do have to take that first step.
Like, yeah, you would hope that people are nice when they notice that you're new at church and they're like, oh, hi, I haven't seen you before. Like everyone wants someone to notice you. Right. But also let's say you just moved somewhere and you're taking your kids to the park and you see another mom.
something that I do is I always find something that I like about the other mom. Like today I was talking to a mom and I walked up to her and I said. I love how bright your outfit is. It is a cloudy day and your outfit is so bright and happy. It looks like you're glowing. You look amazing. I've only never seen her before in my life. She brightens up and she's like, oh my gosh. Thanks. I was kind of nervous about how bright this pink was. It's not really my style, but I guess like if, if it looks good, then like I'll wear it again. And then we just started talking and yeah, I don't know. it feels a lot scarier.
Than it is. Yeah. When you're just willing to smile and friend and be like always looking for opportunities Yeah. To someone. And that's how you create community. I feel like most of the time it's on accident like that that I met today. She very well could become like one of my closest friends. I know, right?
So I feel like a lot of the time you're gonna be finding these people either like on accident or you're like. Not really thinking much of it. And then just over time these relationships turn into something meaningful, and that's where community comes from. a hundred percent. I can't agree more. And that, and then maybe you're seeing someone that needed to be seen that day or hearing, you know what I mean?
Like, ugh, that, that was awesome. I love it. Thank you. I didn't share that to gloat, but yeah, no, it's just, yeah, just to be like a really simple example. I don't know. I've been really pushing myself outside my comfort zone to try and No. And it's not easy to do that, but it's being intentional and it's scary.
You know, we're, we grew up in institutions of school and stuff where it's like, it's kind of, you're friends with the people that you're around all the time, but when you get into this new space of adulthood and parenting and it's like, which. Depending on your season too. I think I would just piggyback off of that is, yeah, being willing to walk alongside people who are different than you.
Um, like we have an example, this, it was just the sweetest story. I know we can't share a video to your listeners, but, she didn't have any family. Her parents had, uh, passed away and this family and mom was really struggling. And, um, this older mom in the congregation at the church that she was.
Uh, attended. I'd come alongside of her and just said, I just see that you have these two children that you're, you know, raising or is there anything that I can do? And, the mom had just said to her, I've lost my mom. I don't have any parents. I don't have any, you know, other parent grandparents in our lives.
And would you be willing to be. My mom, like, walk alongside of us and be great, you know, be that mentor in my life. And so, that's just been a really cool story to share with, within our organization of, it wasn't necessarily a crisis, but it was this exact thing that we're talking about, this community, this family, this support that this mom, this young mom needed, and mentorship that she needed.
And so I guess throwing back to you is like. Where is an opportunity that you also see that you could walk alongside another mom that just, that maybe needs that, like, Hey, it's okay that you were, you were struggling today with like nap time or whatever it is we were talking about, you know, like, I understand that, or I see you and so that you never know like what that could do in someone's day.
I mean, I know that I've had people say that to me to, and I'm like, that's changed my whole day and my whole outlook. I don't think I've ever worn bright pink to a park, but it could be. It could happen. yeah, it's just, it's just being intentional, like you said. And, um. Taking the first step? It's hard.
It's hard. And honestly, I, the older I've gotten in my life, I also just don't truly care what people think of me. And so if I go and talk to someone and it didn't work out, that's okay. Like at least we try, you know, at least I tried and move on. So, yeah, I, I keep coming back to this experience that I had a couple years ago.
We had just moved here to El Paso a couple months prior. I was. Six weeks postpartum with my second baby and my husband had just deployed overseas and it was the week before Christmas. And so I was just super overwhelmed and oh my gosh, like, yeah, I'm not crying and I haven't even finished telling the story yet.
Sorry. I feel like I really need to share this story. Oh, yeah.
Wow, this is really hard. Um, I remember, me and my two kids, my son, my oldest was like two and a half at the time, and I had this brand new baby and we were all really sick. My husband was gone. It was Christmas. And I hadn't had any motivation to, to do any of the special Christmas stuff 'cause I was so sad.
And I was like, well my two year old's not gonna remember it. My baby's not gonna remember it. Like, I'm not gonna put all this pressure on myself. So we didn't have Sure. A fancy Christmas dinner. wow. Sorry, I probably sound so crazy right now. We didn't have this fancy Christmas dinner and we didn't really do a lot of the special things that I normally would've done on Christmas.
And we were just watching my son's favorite movie on Disney Plus. 'cause what else do you do? and there was a knock at the door. It was like five 30 at night, so it was already dark and I wasn't expecting anybody. There was a knock at the door. And it was a young mom who was my same age that I had seen a couple times at church, but I never really gotten the chance to talk to her.
She also had a 2-year-old and a newborn who was like maybe a month older than mine, and her husband had also deployed the week before with mine.
And she brought me Christmas dinner. Ah,
that's exactly, that's amazing. I didn't even know her name when she showed up at my door. I knew that she was from my congregation, but I didn't even know her name. So I didn't even know. Like I am pretty sure I said, remind me your name. Like, you obviously know who I am 'cause you're here. But I remember, Hmm.
Being so humbled in that moment
that this other mom who just like me, literally just like me, had every excuse Yeah, that's right. To be sad and to be with just her two little kids. And instead she was bringing me Christmas dinner. Yeah. She brought me ham. She brought me like a full cut ham. cheesy potatoes, like all the things bread.
She brought me a homemade dessert, like a whole Christmas dinner and I think back, this is where this, I promise this story has a point to bring it all together. I think back to that experience and that literally was a life changing moment for me about what community is. And where you find community.
Yeah. And I remember eating Christmas dinner that night in tears and saying, she's the example of what it means to be, to have a community. Now, obviously, I'm not saying that if you're at rock bottom, you need to just pretend that everything's okay and you know, go spend a bunch of money. Like, that's not what I'm saying.
But the idea that community is created and. It really is just doing what you can, where you can, even if it's with someone that you don't know that much. and to this day, she's one of my closest friends. Mm-hmm. she's been able to call me and in tears and be like, I don't know who else to call. I need help.
And I've gotten a return the favor many times. So my point with this whole story is when you're struggling, when you feel like you don't have a community, when you have every excuse in the book to have a pity party, to be sad, to feel lonely, I challenge you to find somebody to serve.
Whether that's the neighbor that you haven't met your kids, color them a picture that looks like absolutely nothing, but it's a 2-year-old that colored it and it's cute, and you walk over and you say, Hey, my toddler drew this picture and we thought it, it might make your day. You know, like. finding a way to serve somebody.
That is where community starts. It does connect. What a beautiful, oh my gosh. I wish we could like hug you. Oh yes. Like virtually. that's exactly what we are loving our neighbor. The gift of family, the connection that's so important. To our existence, truly in our, in surviving.
Oh, that was so beautiful. I wish I could just put my friend, like on a pedestal so that everyone could be like, yes, you're amazing. but yeah, I, I don't know. I just, I really learned in that moment what community was. And so I wanna, I wanna tie this back to what you guys do. So let's say. Let's say there's a mom listening who needs the help from Safe Families for Children.
what does your outreach look like? Um, what does your help look like? How would a mom, benefit from the services that you guys 📍 provide?
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Sure. Well, let me start with how people find out about us. This is part of the, way we're doing it, just getting our word out. And like I said, we're, we're in like half of the United States, but we really wanna be like everywhere.
So no one has to feel this. No family alone feels isolated. and so we partner. Within the community, within churches is a big way. 'cause just a lot of churches are structured in a way in which they already have kind of a group set up, volunteers, people are used to serving. but we partner with community agencies, referral partners who, you know.
Social work, government kind of agencies as well. We try to truly come alongside and say, this is who we are and this is what we do. Circumstances are a wide range and we want to walk alongside families, and so that's what we do. And in a local. Capacity, that's where we wanna be, is in everyone's backyard.
Um, so that we can walk alongside them. And then once we make those connections locally, people refer to us. Some people self-refer, so they may call in on the, the numbers that we have, kind of like a hotline, if you will. They might, it may ask for help. or maybe it's this like a friend, like, I heard about this and I, I think that this could be beneficial.
Let's see if there's. Community, you know, support already existing, or these partners that I talked about will. Refer and, and call and, and, and connect, uh, the situation. And so once that happens, our, we ha we're kind of two-pronged. We, we say that we're a grassroots movement. Um, meaning that we want to empower this exact thing, the community to truly be inspired to see and love their neighbors.
Not like an institution like formally making you do things, but truly like, it's like. Oh my gosh, like I'm on fire for what you just shared. Like to truly just like help and see others. and so once they come we just really try to identify what. Challenge is I try to shy away from using the word crisis, whether that's a extreme crisis or an, you know, an unexpected challenge, like whatever that is.
Our staff and our volunteers who are vetted and trained, um, they go through a very like thorough background screening process. Really try to identify what is it that this. Parent or family child is experiencing so we can bring the right people alongside of us and we call it a circle of support. So think of that like you're in the middle of the circle and all these things come alongside of you, and we identify what those resources are to help you.
Some of them when it was born out of, when I shared that story about Dr. Anderson, really the need at the time, 20 years ago was temporarily hosting children in a safe home so that parents retained custody of their children versus them going into the foster care system where they lost their ability to be reunited or keep parental rights.
And so. Our whole model was kind of started off of hosting in which volunteers are, like I said, background checked and trained to open their hearts and homes to have these children stay with them while the parent is getting stabilized, whatever that is, like it, maybe they're getting. Treatment or we're finding stable housing.
They've lost a job. We're trying to help them with job goals and getting stability, financial, you know, stability for the whole family, getting into a home instead of a homeless shelter. A lot of homeless shelters do not allow children to stay there for liability reasons, and so they need to, the parent can stay there, but the child cannot.
So it's just things like that, but we really look at the whole as a holistic approach of how can we help not just the child stay safe, but how can we help the parent and come alongside them as well? Um, so the hosting was like the foundation of what we do, but kind of coming out and going into and coming out of COVID, like if we're still talking about that, but it's kind of shifted from this loneliness aspect that we've just really touched on this community side of like, there's a lot of mental health.
Um, issues and, um, challenges that everyone's facing and how can we lock alongside the parents to make sure that they have everything that they need. And so, uh, we have a family friend, which is pairing like we could be family, friends, like I am, have this need, I, I'm completely isolated or I don't have anyone in my, my circle that I can call to help me with parenting or these things that, these challenges that I need.
So I get paired stay with you and we truly. Are connected and become friends, and you being the trained volunteer can, you know, start calling me or we can start meeting or whatever it looks like. And then we also have resource friends, which are more the tangible side, kind of what your friend just did, bringing meals.
Maybe it's respite care. I mean, how we, we can probably all identify and all your listeners can identify. So like sometimes you just need a respite minute, right? You know, the, it's a lot. And so that transportation, maybe they don't have a, a vehicle to get where they need to go. And so helping with that, again, like we provide mentoring as far as, um, getting them.
You know, any kind of professional services, connections to that as well. So that's kind of where we are all along. Um, and so. Again, back to your listeners, if there's anyone that is feeling like they need this assistance, we are here in any kind of range of that. And then if there's anyone that feels like they would like to step into that, you know, maybe you don't wanna go to the full blown hosting, maybe you wanna be a family friend, or truly feel like you don't have the capacity to do any of that and you wanna provide resources.
There's kind of like the whole, the whole range of where we are. But, I'll just share her personally. I am on staff now with Safe Families at the national office, but we started volunteering and it goes back to many years ago, this woman in my church, she would always be like, oh, I can't, I can't today 'cause I'm hosting.
And I'm like, oh, okay. You know? And I kind of just chalked it up to like, okay. And then finally I was just like, can you tell me more about what that is? And she just kind of described it for me and I'm like, you know what? I think this is something that my husband's. And I should really probably do with our family.
He had always wanted to adopt and I'm like, I don't really hear God calling me, like calling, like I don't hear that. Um, but I, you know, then we learned more about this hosting opportunity and I'm like, I think we could do that temporarily helping and walking alongside the people in our community. and.
Honestly, really showing our children how to help and serve and, and getting them immersed in that. And so we started opening our, our, uh, home before I even was on staff and hosting children. We've hosted. Dozen children, I think over the few years we've been doing it and, all sorts of reasons. Some of them are temporarily one or two days, some have been months that we've helped.
But all the situations, the parents have been involved. They've stayed connected to the children, and. We have had a connection still to create extended support, extended family care, if you will, to these families that we've walked alongside. And I know that it's probably, I know that we're impacting the families we're serving, but they're impacting our family.
And so it's been really, really cool to be a part of, part of something that isn't. Just kind of, I don't wanna say it like this, but one sided. It's just the whole, everyone, there's a role for everyone. and my, my one sweet friend, I mean, if you really saw us, you'd be like, oh, I don't, I would never think that they're friends.
But because we look different, different ages, and it's just we've become such great friends because of safe families. That's, we were able to host her daughter temporarily, and that was a couple years ago. And we are still. Hey, how you wanna hang out? We just went roller skating. My, my youngest daughter was like, has never seen, quads.
She's only seen like rollerblades. She didn't know what to do, you know, and so it's just fun like that. But, it's just doing life with each other. It really is just being together as, as community. So that's amazing. If there's a mama listening who wants to volunteer, who wants to get involved, who wants to contribute, how would she go about doing that?
Yeah, so we have a website like most everyone does these days. So we can go to Safe, SAFE families, uh, spelled out.org. And we have all the ways that you can get involved from, like I said, trying to go through the whole background process to donating resources or donating your time, financially supporting us.
And then for any listeners who are faith believers, we also really just welcome prayer. Because it's a big thing we're trying to do. So I love that. I'm looking at your website right now. There's a place where you can say, get support now, so that's really cool. 2 million bed nights of safety provided nearly 80,000 hosting arrangements.
85,000 children and families supported. 98% National family preservation rates, 5,000 participating churches and 97 local chapters. That's incredible. Yeah. And just to put that in perspective, so, uh, the average hosting I was talking about, for us to do is about $1,500. It lasts about four, four weeks, six weeks, about a month is what we say.
And comparing that to what. Child welfare. Foster care is, that's 20 months on average and costs a little over 60,000 for one child. So we just, like I said, we are trying to, to fill that gap. There are needs and, and reasons why children need to go into foster care, but for that. Percentage of children that do not need to do that, that families don't need to be torn apart, but could simply stay together with this community.
we just believe so much that this is what is needed. And, we have reunified 98% of that 80,000 that you read of our families stay together versus 40, it's about 45%. When they come back out of foster care. we're, we're here to just work together. and just the betterment of all families.
So truly, like I said before, no family is alone. It's just so much better together when we're working together. So, yeah, I agree. Mamas, I am looking at the map right now that are showing all the different chapters in the United States. Most of them are in the Midwest from what I can see right now. So Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma.
Then like some in Eastern Texas, so the majority of them are over there. there's a bunch in Florida, there's a bunch in Oregon, and then there's actually four in Alaska, which is really cool. Yes. so if you are in any of those areas that I mentioned and you are Interested in finding a way to connect and participate, whether that's, you know, being just a friend or contributing resources or hosting like we mentioned.
then I highly encourage you to go to the website and see if there is a local chapter near you. I'm gonna see if we can figure out how to get one in El Paso. 'cause I'm not seeing anything in the southwest of the United States. There's none in Arizona, none in New Mexico. None in El Paso, none in Utah.
So, no, and that's interesting you say that. That is our, our goal this next five years is to grow into one in every, at least a presence in every state. Um, and those states that you just identified the Southwest have very high incident race rates of child welfare. And so we need to be there.
So I'll just throw this out there as like, we'll, just big, big reaching, but if any of your listeners just feels called like we need. To grow in those states. We want to so that no family can be alone and we, uh, just need, we need champions connections to kinda get that started. One other thing I didn't mention before, but of all those sites you listed, when you type in your zip code, if that's how you're gonna search or your city?
a majority of them are what we, um, are part of Safe Families that we are if we chapters if you will, that we own. Um, but we also have partnered partner, uh, nonprofits. That are implementing our model. Um, and so that's been really cool. So maybe you already have an existing nonprofit that's like, we want to have safe families be a part of this.
We welcome that too. So, um, I just throw that out there 'cause you just never know who's listening in today. Um, but we, yeah, like, I, I guess I keep saying it's like a broken record. We just really don't want any family to do life alone. Um, and we just truly believe in that and standing in the gap for them, for families.
So. Amazing. We'll be sure to link your website in the show notes. Do you, are you guys on social media as well? Yeah. So all the socials, all, is that what you say? I'm not sure, but yes. Face, Facebook, you know, we Twitter, we snap and chat. I don't know all the things. YouTube, I, that's how old I am. I shouldn't say it.
Yeah, all the social media, Twitter and all the things, so, okay. Awesome. Well, we'll be sure to link all of that in the show notes. Mamas in case you want to reach out for help or you want to reach out to help. Either way, everything will be in the show notes for you. Lynette, thank you so much for joining us today.
It was. Amazing to get to chat with you. Before we close, we have one more question for you. It's a question I ask all my guests. Okay. It doesn't have be related to our conversation, but we would love to know what is a non-negotiable to you to living a well-nourished life? Ooh, that's a good one.
Non-negotiable. I think it's just rest. Is that the right answer? And I mean, not necessarily even sleep, but just sometimes this like resetting, refocusing time. Depending on what stage of life you're in, maybe it's your own time out of just the moment to, uh, just stay focused as being present for your kids.
My time with my kids, they're getting a little older. It's fleeting. Gosh, is that just, it's uh, it's changing. It's hard. So just rest so that I can be present. Yeah. I love that. mama, if you're listening and you're like, yeah, I have a newborn, can't rest, you can rest.
It just might look a little bit different. You just have to get creative. We can all find ways to rest. I love that. Okay. I am stumbling over my words. We're gonna end this before I make fun of myself anymore. Thank you so much for joining us today, Lynette Mamas. We will see you in the next episode.
And that's the end of another episode. I hope you love today's topic as much as I did. You can find all of today's show notes and details at the well nourished drama.com/podcast, as well as all of my recipes and resources on the blog. If you found this episode hopeful, inspirational, or motivational, please leave a five star rating and review so other mamas can discover the podcast too.
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