Mrs. Shellie took on the role of Advocate at First ARP because as an empty nester, she really wanted to get involved with children and felt she had a lot of love to give.
As a team, their FAM has been able to form a Care Community for Joy Braunius, a single foster mom who is caring for a 13-year-old girl and a 1-year-old baby.
Joy was in foster care herself and started fostering as an adult so she could help kids who are going through the same thing she did growing up.
Throughout her life, Joy has felt like she’s always had to do things by herself with little to no community support. She was struggling to manage everything alone, especially with the age gap between her foster children and their different needs, such as her older foster daughter needing to go to volleyball practice, but the baby still needing her attention at the same time.
After getting connected to Fostering the Family’s York County Support Group, First ARP was able to step in and wrap around Joy’s family. They’ve been able to provide transportation for her foster daughter’s volleyball practice, as well as taking her foster daughter out to dinner and shopping after volleyball practice. Additionally, they’ve been able to bring Joy’s family weekly meals and have a sofa she badly needed delivered straight to her house.
Joy has shared that this Care Community is the first time she’s been able to open up to people. She finally feels connected and like she doesn’t have to do it alone anymore.
To make a positive difference in even more children’s lives, the FAM at First ARP has even started hosting the monthly York County Support Group meetings at their church. All of the FAM volunteers greatly enjoy being able to play with and pour into the kids whose families attend the support group.
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