Our vision for the Thrive Program is to help prevent children from being removed from their families due to the lack of basic needs and resources, and reunify children from the Foster Care system with their biological families, and partner with Aged Out young adults as they transition to adulthood. Working in cooperation with California Department of Child Safety caseworkers and community social workers, we connect our clients with community partners to help provide the basic needs required by the California Department of Child Safety.

Thrive originated in Arizona by President and Executive Directors Steve and Teri Vogel with Thrive Az. Ryan and Rose Mcfadden moved to San Diego in 2019 to begin their continued efforts by serving San Diego on the same capacity.

HOW IT STARTED

In 2016, “Thrive” started in Phoenix, Arizona and immediately began to impact lives of countless Arizona families for the better. Thrive has played an integral role in foster care prevention and biological family reunification by connecting deserving families with critical resources and support that would otherwise be out of reach.

As a volunteer about 5 years ago, Thrive AZ founder, Teri Vogel, was working with a young woman who was dealing with a crisis pregnancy. She was dealing with domestic violence, substance abuse, a history of trauma - trying to beat all of these things. She was six months pregnant, and Teri was working with her as an advocate to help reunite her with her six other children that were in foster care.

Teri and her husband, Steve, were new empty-nesters and had downsized. One day, this mother she was working with called to tell her that she was at the hospital and had just had her baby. She told Teri that DCS was on their way to remove her infant son, and she asked Teri if there was any way she could take the baby for her.

So Teri called her husband and said, ‘we’re going to get a baby tonight.’ Naturally, his response was ‘… what?’ But by about 8.30 that night, DCS had completed all of their background checks and deemed them suitable as a kinship family. So this four-day-old infant was dropped off to them with nothing but a car seat.

Fast forward a bit, and over time Teri and Steve were able to move the mom into a temporary home, connect her with food pantries, help her find employment, and other resources she would need—and slowly reunite her with her infant son and her six other children.

It was this woman and her family that showed Teri the challenges that many families face. Because of her time working with this mom, Teri came to learn that there were 18,000 kids in foster care. Every 40 seconds, a child is removed from their home and put into the foster care system. Teri knew why they were removed… they didn’t have beds, they didn’t have enough food, they were sleeping in cars. At that point, she couldn’t unknow it.

That’s where the passion came from. Walking with this mother and seeing all of the missing pieces that had to come together for her to get back on track. Our work with Thrive comes from a very deep place in our hearts because we were a part of that journey.