Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Radicchi.
Rebecca, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Lexington, KY, and landed in the ATL area for my husband’s work at the CDC. I began dreaming of adopting as early as thirteen.
Three family adoptions from China cracked open our worldview and gave us eyes to see the startling number of kids in our community and beyond growing up without the love and guidance of families. It also ushered us into the foster care and adoption community.
For the first time, we truly saw the struggles and joys of adoptive and foster families. It’s a community of generally giant-hearted people who get what is required, what is sacrificed, and what is received when children from broken homes join our families. In this world, it’s the families in the trenches that see and meet the needs of other families in the trenches.
This awareness, and personal experience with the beauty and brokenness of adoption, led to writing to and for adoptive/foster families. This then granted me the platform and opportunity to speak and advocate for vulnerable children and families.
Simultaneously, within my own family, we experienced life with a daughter with chronic, complex medical needs and long-term, relentless hospitalizations. Alongside her battle for healing, I fought my own fight against an aggressive case of breast cancer. These personal struggles cracked my heart wide open, humbled me, made me intentional with my time and energy, and helped me pinpoint the work I was made to do.
The place I find myself in now is a place of tenderness for the hurting, unique, traumatized, spunky, smart, and resilient children in the foster system, the parents who’ve lost them, and the families who welcome them to their tables. I see them and I can’t un-see them.
I led the launch of Georgia Kids Belong, as a state chapter of America’s Kids Belong, in late 2020.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My personal journey has been marked by potholes, detours, roadblocks, and often rough terrain. Breast cancer, family losses, and parenting a child with complex, chronic medical needs have diverted my attention from the work but never stopped me.
I believe that everyone can serve kids and families in foster care. When life’s limitations didn’t allow me to work professionally in this arena, I wrote articles and blog posts and helped lead a ministry at our church for foster and adoptive families. I used what skills, influence, and gifts I had whenever I could.
As for Georgia Kids Belong, we believe in our mission. We believe in fighting for families for kids without them and nothing less. Through fundraising, red tape, and lack of community awareness are formidable foes, we stay on mission. We trust that the funds, permissions, and support will come if we keep our eyes on serving vulnerable kids.
Despite having a tiny team and budget, we’ve seen massive momentum and doors opening.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am the state manager for Georgia Kids Belong, which is part of the America’s Kids Belong family. We are a nonprofit committed to dramatically improving the experiences and outcomes of kids in foster care.
Georgia Kids Belong supports kids and families in foster care through or I Belong Project and Foster Friendly initiative.
I’m deeply proud of helping kids find families through our I Belong Project. We’ve created 123 adoption advocacy videos for kids waiting in the Georgia’s foster system due to termination of parental right. Through our partnership with GA’s Department of Family and Children’s Services, we invite groups of the state’s most vulnerable children to video shoots. The goal of these days is to surround these “harder-to=place” kids with attention, sensory-rich, therapeutic fun, and an opportunity to share who they are, what they like to do, and what they hope for. Our I Belong Project has been hosted by farms, churches, and Truist Park. At one of the video shoots, kids got to learn to make pizza with the chefs at no.246!
Professional photographers and videographers help us create an advocacy package of high-quality photos and 2-3 minute videos for the state, nonprofits, and churches to use to advocate for families for each child. Video-based storytelling sets each child apart and increases their exposure to potential adoptive families.
It’s our great honor to amplify their voices in hopes that they’ll find a family to call their own.
Through our Foster Friendly initiative, we help recruit, support and retain foster families for Georgia’s 11,370 kids in the foster system. Sadly, nearly half of foster parents who become certified to foster quit within the first year, often citing a lack of community support.
When communities become Foster Friendly, foster families receive practical support, care, and encouragement from businesses, churches, community members, and city leadership. It helps them stay stronger, longer. The Foster Friendly App is utilized to provide a way for businesses of any size to serve in a new and innovative way. Restaurants, attractions, automotive repair shops, ice cream stores, etc. offer discounts or exclusive services to foster parents (similar to military discounts). The result is that businesses begin to see and support foster parents in their community. For foster families, it provides practical assistance in affording outings and meeting the daily needs of homes with many kids. It also fosters a feeling of being seen and valued as the community servants that they are.
Our goal is to make Georgia a Foster Friendly state, which would increase awareness, help recruit additional much-needed foster parents, and support those serving our state’s most vulnerable children. The incredible news is that massive momentum is building, and Foster Friendly is becoming a movement! Attractions all over the state, such as Pine Mountain Animal Safari and the Savannah Children’s Museum, are offering significantly reduced admission costs! Ice cream places, such as Scoops and Rock Salt Milk Bar, are making ice cream cones affordable. In Atlanta, Southern Baked Pie Co, Good Kitchen, and Moe’s BBQ are helping feed families!
Deeper still, cities are exploring the Foster Friendly concept, with Acworth becoming GA’s first Foster Friendly city! Now, cities are taking note and reaching out to learn how to support this underserved population.
Simultaneously, we are identifying and spurring Foster Friendly churches that minister to the foster families within their congregations and communities. We believe that faith communities are uniquely positioned to lock arms with foster families to meet their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. This frees foster parents to make their homes places of refuge where they pour out love to and battle on behalf of the kids in their care.
The Foster Friendly App is free to all certified foster and kinship families. They create an ID card within it and can then search for Foster Friendly businesses and faith communities around them and identify the nonprofits offering services. It’s a directory of care for foster families. It will undoubtedly help retain more foster families and help the state recruit many more!
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I see kids waiting in the system becoming better served and finding families more quickly. I envision Georgia becoming a Foster Friendly state with multiple Foster Friendly cities!
Though GA’s number of foster youth is staggering and the lack of foster families willing to take older kids concerning, I’m hoping for the setting aside of politics, power, and territory to focus on struggling kids. I hope to see nonprofits, faith communities, civic groups, and government officials coming together to best meet the needs of vulnerable children.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://americaskidsbelong.org/states/ga/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgiakidsbelong/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgiakidsbelong
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89529102/admin/feed/posts/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@americaskidsbelong2579/videos
Image Credits
Sara Harper Photography Mallory Neal Photography Passion City Church’s Love ATL photography Reveal Media Group
