Life & Work with Sarah Grundy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Grundy.

Hi Sarah, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We started in response to an ask from America’s Kids Belong. They work with government, businesses, creatives, and churches to provide a collective response to the foster care crisis. A local count came to them for help in 2018 and their response was to look at their partners and provide support.

I worked at Flatirons Church West Campus at the time and was shocked when I heard that in 2017 this county had trained 51 foster families (about a 9-month invasive process) and by the time we were talking only 1 of those 51 remained. I’ve always had a huge heart for kids especially kids in this community and I was shocked by this number.

Over the next year, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out WHY it was so hard. WHY 50% of foster families nationwide quit after the first placement or first year? The words that we heard over and over were… Hard. Isolating. Alone. We understand that it’s hard, these kids come from very hard places and have behaviors that reflect that (not to mention the broken systems, extra appointments, etc.). But, no one saying yes to a kid should ever feel alone or isolated.

Based on those conversations and through coaching from America’s Kids Belong we developed Rise. In 2020 we virtually launched our branding and mission under the umbrella of Flatirons. As we grew it became more and more obvious that this was something that we could invite more people into to meet the evergrowing needs of the foster community. In June of 2023, we received our 501(c)3 and began partnering with other organizations and counties to serve more and more families.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with anything worthwhile, there is always an uphill battle. Our biggest struggle is never having enough volunteers or resources to meet the needs of the families. Our waitlist continues to grow with foster and adoptive families who are tired, burned out, and feeling forgotten. We continue to grow our partnerships and financial support, but it is only a start for addressing the needs of this community.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Our primary focus as an organization is to mobilize volunteers in the community to support foster/adoptive/kinship families in the basic everyday things such as meals, babysitting, laundry, house cleaning, etc. Anyone who has kids can see how taking these little everyday things off of your plate would be helpful, but when we do it for a family who is supporting one of these kiddos it gives them the space, time, and energy to be present with their kiddos and help them heal in ways that only they can do.

We really believe that it doesn’t take much, it’s the little things that we each do that compound and make a big impact on the kids and families. Even while families are on our wait list we include them with holiday encouragement and random checking and gift cards. trying to help them feel seen and loved even if they don’t have an ongoing support team yet.

Rise is unique in that we partner with multiple organizations and counties. There are a handful of churches that utilize the wrap-around support model, but we are the only external program that will train and equip volunteers and manage volunteers with multiple organizations rather than each individual organization having to develop its own program for supporting foster and adoptive families. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to say yes to the people who are saying yes to these kids.

We also work with several counties supporting youth who are aging out of the foster care system without a forever family. We provide support as they move into their first apartment, start families of their own, pursue a career or education, and most importantly help them build community with each other and adults who care about them. One young man was shocked that several of our volunteers remembered his name from the last event, “Wait! How do you know my name? You remembered me?!” Yes we did. You are worth remembering.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Pay for coffee. Almost anyone will say yes to grabbing coffee with you and you can learn so much from anyone. Literally just asking someone what their story is, what they are passionate about, what the hardest parts of business and life have been, and how they navigated it will teach you so much.

Find people in your field, on the fringe of what you do, and people who work in things totally unrelated to your field, and then ask all the “stupid questions” and learn what you don’t know you didn’t know. You will be surprised at how open people are and how excited they are to support you and pour into you and your organization when you take the time to ask questions and learn.

Contact Info:

• Website: Risefamily.org
• Instagram: @therisefam
• Facebook: facebook.com/therisefam
• Twitter: @therisefam