Project 1 27

This year Project 1.27 continued Families Care, a program designed to support families with children at-risk for entering foster care to keep children safely at home and help families thrive in 3 counties. Twenty families and 44 children were served. The program was discontinued in two months because of lack of volunteers.

Project 1.27's first full year with Neighbors Program was very impactful. Project 1.27 recruits volunteer neighbors to provide a monthly meal and encouragement to kinship and foster families. The program increases sustainability of kinship and foster homes, thus decreasing disruption in placement for children in foster care. This provides an opportunity for children in care to develop healthy, healing relationships with foster providers, and avoids the additional trauma that comes with a placement disruption. The Neighbor Program served 40 foster families caring for 117 children.

ECHOflex, an 8-week class designed to help children and their parents develop skills for better mental health and resiliency, held 6 cohorts which served 90 children and 37 families. Participants reported significant increases in resiliency and healthy relationships.

The 1.27 National Network, led and funded by Project 1.27, served 18 similar organizations across the U.S. Together 1.27 Network organizations served 7,000 children through foster, kinship and adoptive families, mentoring, support services and direct resources. Project 1.27 provided Network members with 6 learning cohorts, monthly networking calls, a 3-day Executive Leader retreat and individual coaching and encouragement.