Episode 254: What It’s Like Becoming a TFI Advocate (w/ Justin Meehan)
Release Date: 11/11/2024
Episode 267: Beauty Woven in the Brokenness (w/ Austin Ludwig)
The Forgotten Podcast
Trigger Warning: We want to let our listeners know that this episode includes mentions of physical abuse. If you are sensitive to this topic, we recommend you listen with caution. Trauma is one of the hardest challenges to navigate in life. Whether it’s impacting you or someone you love, it can be easy to wish that trauma could be erased in an instant. But our latest guest’s powerful story reminds us that healing doesn’t happen with the snap of a finger. It takes the steady presence of others, the patience to water seeds we can’t yet see growing, and the courage to keep seeking...
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Episode 266: Advocating for Whole Family Care (w/ Esther Sherrard)
The Forgotten Podcast
The child welfare system is not perfect. Not only is it subject to the types of challenges all government programs can face—such as a lack of funding, policy gaps, and inefficiencies—it’s also very overloaded. As a result, many biological parents don’t receive the best resources to help them navigate their circumstances, and often, they are confused about how to access the resources that are available. Here at The Forgotten Initiative, we’re committed to advocating for the best interests of children and families while ensuring that the laws and procedures designed to...
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Episode 265: Walking Through the Heartache of "Blocked Care" (w/ Eric & Diana Powell)
The Forgotten Podcast
Like so many families, Eric and Diana Powell entered into adoption with the best intentions. After their first international adoption from Thailand, they quickly started the paperwork for their second, knowing that the process is often long and fraught with delays. What they couldn’t know is that the next few years of their adoption journey would include physical aggression, episodes of emotional dysregulation, marriage tension, a phenomenon known as “blocked care”, and an overwhelming sense of isolation. During this challenging period, they often didn’t know where to turn next or what...
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Episode 264: The Reality of a Caseworker’s Role (w/ Brittni Hodges)
The Forgotten Podcast
Foster care caseworkers often feel forgotten, isolated, and alone. From managing stressful workloads to coping with secondary trauma and sometimes facing frustration from families in crisis, it’s not hard to understand why caseworker turnover is so high. But here at The Forgotten Initiative, we believe well-supported caseworkers will more effectively serve children, leading to better outcomes for everyone. Our guest for this episode is here to give us an inside look at the kinds of struggles caseworkers may be experiencing in your community and how both individuals and churches can come...
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Episode 263: Learning How to Serve the Foster Care Community (w/ April Hobbs)
The Forgotten Podcast
How much do you know about the foster care community where you live? Many people—both individuals and organizations like churches—want to support their vulnerable neighbors. But few are aware of the many practical ways they can help the children, biological families, foster families, and agency workers who make up their local foster care communities. When our latest guest discovered the overwhelming needs of her local foster care community, she was passionate about getting her local church involved. But when she first set out to make this a reality, her mission turned out to be harder than...
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Episode 262: Hope for Healing from Adverse Childhood Experiences (w/ Angela Paganelli)
The Forgotten Podcast
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can affect children from any background, but those in foster care are especially vulnerable. There are that have been identified—ranging from abuse to neglect to household dysfunction. All of them have the potential to negatively impact future outcomes for a child. Our latest guest, Angela Paganelli, is a former foster youth who experienced all ten ACEs. After the tragic loss of her mother at the age of 13, Angela spent her teenage years in foster care and institutional settings. These formative experiences shaped her passion for supporting children...
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Episode 261: Helping Children Develop Positive Relationships with Food (w/ Madison Tyler)
The Forgotten Podcast
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 13.5% of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during 2023. Unfortunately, food-related trauma is a common challenge for many children who have entered the foster care system. Whether it’s an aversion to a particular type of food, fear that there won’t be enough food, or a tendency to overeat and hoard food, there are many behaviors a child may exhibit as a result of their past experiences. When these behaviors occur, it’s important to meet them with curiosity and kindness. Madison Tyler, a foster and adoptive parent who has been...
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Episode 260: Transforming Despair Into Hope (w/ Keristein Fox)
The Forgotten Podcast
For our very first episode of 2025, we’re bringing you another great conversation that sheds light on the real people of the foster care community. In this episode, we are talking to Keristein Fox. Today, she’s a happily married stay-at-home mom who loves watching her three children grow and thrive. But Keristein’s story wasn’t always this joyful. She endured many dark seasons to reach where she is now. For many years, she struggled with addiction, ultimately encountering the foster care system firsthand when her daughter was placed in kinship care. At first, Keristein despised...
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Episode 259: Born into Foster Care (w/ Lucy Baker)
The Forgotten Podcast
Trigger Warning: We want to let our listeners know that this episode includes mentions of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and thoughts of suicide. If you are sensitive to any of these topics, we recommend you listen with caution. From the day she entered the world, Lucy Baker felt as though she didn’t have a home. Born inside of a jail to a mother in crisis, she was immediately placed into foster care and would end up having 37 different homes in her lifetime. Because of the extensive trauma she endured growing up, Lucy always struggled to feel as though she belonged. But Lucy knows that her...
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Episode 258: Learning How to Care for a Child’s Hair (w/ Authrine T.K. Singleton)
The Forgotten Podcast
When a child enters our home, there are many factors we consider to ensure their comfort and safety. However, one important aspect of a child’s well-being can often be overlooked—their hair care. This is especially true if the child comes from a different racial background, where hair care needs may differ significantly. Hair is an important part of African American culture and identity, but white foster parents sometimes struggle to understand how to care for types and textures of hair that are unlike their own. And for some children, caring for their hair can be emotionally or physically...
info_outlineIt’s that time of year again! As you may know, we open applications to become a TFI Advocate only a couple times each year, and this November is one of those opportunities. If you’re considering applying, today’s episode is the perfect chance to learn more about what becoming a TFI Advocate journey really looks like.
That’s because we have the special treat of hearing from one of our most recently launched Advocates, Justin Meehan.
Justin and his wife have been foster parents for the last three years. Currently, they have three biological children and a soon-to-be adopted son. Justin is a newly launched TFI Advocate in Rochester, NH, where he is bridging the gap between his church and the local state foster care agency.
In this episode, you’ll hear what kind of support and community TFI Advocates receive, how seeing the struggles caseworkers are facing firsthand opened Justin’s eyes to their unmet needs, why answering just one question for your local church can help them get involved in foster care, and so much more.
Find resources mentioned and more in the show notes for this episode: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/justin-meehan-254/