Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of Tri-Cities. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Tri-Cities, Tennessee.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 25: Transforming Lives: Rachel Lawson's Mission with Smile Foster Closet and Community Impact
What makes Rachel Lawson with Smile Foster Closet a good neighbor?
Can the power of ongoing support transform the lives of foster and kinship families? This week, we sit down with Rachel Lawson, the inspiring Executive Director of Smile Foster Closet, to uncover her organization’s unique approach to assisting foster, kinship, and at-risk families. Rachel shares her personal journey into the world of foster care, demystifies common misconceptions about foster parenting, and sheds light on the financial hurdles these families face. We also get a peek into Rachel’s personal life, from her love for family time to the joys of her new puppy, and how the pandemic has reshaped her career.
We delve into the vital preventative initiatives spearheaded by Smile Foster Closet and their tangible impacts on the community. Rachel offers profound insights into the significance of addressing issues early and the evolving nature of her organization, especially in providing much-needed support to underserved kinship families. Join us as we express our heartfelt gratitude to Rachel for her unwavering dedication and commitment to making a positive difference. Tune in to the Good Neighbor Podcast to support local heroes like Rachel and her incredible team at Smile Foster Closet.
To learn more about Smile Foster Closet go to:
https://smilefostercloset.org/
Smile Foster Closet
(423) 480-1531
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everybody and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. We have an incredibly special guest today with us on the podcast. I have the pleasure and I'm sure it would be a pleasure for you as well to introduce to you your neighbor, ms Rachel Lawson, who is the Executive Director of Smile Foster Closet. Rachel, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, really glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Doing okay today, doing great. I hope you are as well.
Speaker 3:Doing okay today, doing great, I hope you are as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am, thank you so much. So I know I am, but I know our listeners are very excited to learn about you and your business.
Speaker 3:So, if you don't mind, just tell us a little bit about what Smile Foster Closet does. Sure sure, sure, sure so Smile Foster Closet, we became a 501c3 incorporated nonprofit in 2018 as a means to help being able to serve the community that community even better by not being a one and done service. So they can come to us as long as they are in their journey of foster care. We serve traditional foster families, the kinship families and the at-risk population that's already working with the state to stay out of care. Our main closet is located in Kingsport and we saw the need back in February 2023 to add another closet in Johnson City. Better serve the further out counties.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good, so how sounds very rewarding. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:So I fell right into the world of foster care. I knew almost nothing about it. Small began when a couple of foster mom friends of mine were sharing things amongst each other like clothing and baby equipment whenever they would get new placements, and soon there was too much to store in one house and they needed someplace else to go. My church, waverly Road, presbyterian, owned a house that was not being used at the time and I told them of the need and they decided to be a great mission to be a part of, and they've been our generous hosts for the last six years now. Generous host for the last six years now. In the beginning, I served as assistant director as MILE, and then board president for a while before accepting the role of executive director in 2021.
Speaker 2:Very good. So you've been at this for a while A little while I have since the beginning I'm a co-founder. That is awesome, that is awesome. So are there any myths or misconceptions in fostering in what you do?
Speaker 3:There's a lot but I'll just touch on a couple of them. But one of the myths in foster care world is that foster parents are in it for the money and I hate to say it. But the state allotment for these children called board payments is what they call them is not much and you only get that allotment in certain circumstances. If you're in a kinship situation like grandparents raising their grandkids, or aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, they often don't get that assistance and if they do, it is less than what the traditional foster families receive. So the reality is that the state just cannot keep up the relation in a timely fashion. So, unfortunately, feeding these kids these days everyone for that matter. It's increased pretty dramatically in the last year and the board payment hasn't necessarily changed enough to cover that appropriately. Part of the contributing factor, the actual number one reason that children end up in state care is due to poverty-related neglect.
Speaker 2:So, outside of work, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:I love to spend time with my family. I've got a wonderful husband and two sons and a daughter. We also got a new puppy this year and that has been very entertaining. I enjoy hanging out by the pool yard, sailing, crafting. I love to go on day trips with a group I have at my church called the Waverly Wanderers, which is a group of mostly retired folks that enjoy visiting nearby touristy spots, so that's a fun pastime for me.
Speaker 2:OK, so what kind of puppy did you get?
Speaker 3:He is a German Shepherd, many Australian Shepherd mix. He's very active, very active, I bet.
Speaker 2:I bet Most puppies are. So let's change gears a little bit. Can you describe one hardship or life challenge that you rose above and can now say, because of it you're better and stronger, and learn from it?
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. So, like most everybody, covid, of course, was a challenging time, of course, and for myself. I owned the Kinder Music, music and Movement program here in Kingsport for almost 15 years and when COVID hit I had to make the hard decision to close that business. I loved it, absolutely loved it, loved playing with the children. It really touched on the development of the child and I've always been fascinated with that, still am, and that was a really hard decision. But, as it happened, the current executive director at the time I was the board president but the current executive director had decided she wanted to go back to school and do a few other things, and so the position was open right when I had to make my decision to close the music program. So it wasn't an easy decision to close that job that I loved, but it was really a blessing to be able to step into a role that I was already so passionate about.
Speaker 2:So one door shuts, one door opens, that's right. That's right, okay. Well, can you please tell our listeners one thing they should remember, the one thing that you would like for them to remember about the Smile? Foster Closet.
Speaker 3:Well, I want you to remember that Smile is ever-growing and ever-changing thanks to the donations from the community. I want people to know that you know there are different programs out there for the traditional foster families, but also those kinship families, that's, an underserved population that don't receive quite the other assistance in a lot of programs that traditional foster families do, and that some of the new programs that we're offering are not just clothes and tangible things like this. I wanted to talk a little bit about the newest program we're offering, if that's all right. It's called Care Portal, and Care Portal is a national program in 25 other states already, but SMILE has been able to bring it here to Northeast Tennessee and it just launched in December of 2023 here in Sullivan County, and what it is is it is an online platform where child serving professionals can enter a vetted need of a child that's in need and then it pings all the churches, businesses and individuals that want to respond and help immediately, in real time. So it's truly an amazing way to connect the needs with the ones that want to help.
Speaker 3:The faith community has always been a really big supporter of Smile and we appreciate it very much, but it's really hard to connect them. Because there's so many denominations and things like that, they don't really work together a lot. So this is one platform that anyone can be on and anyone can respond to these needs and then the churches can pick up the response and they can, you know, deliver the dresser If a family has moved. There's a lot of situations like that. So Sullivan County has already launched this program. We've already served 45 children and made an impact economically of about $10,000 plus in items that have been needed. We've got eight churches on the responding network and we are looking to grow that program. This is one of our newest programs and we're super excited about it.
Speaker 2:Wow, it sounds like an incredible program based on technology. Sounds like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as that old adage, and we have definitely found that to be true. 75% of the adults that are incarcerated right now have spent time in foster care, and that's an insane amount.
Speaker 2:And if we can prevent, that if we can just prevent and break that cycle, I would love to work myself out of a job.
Speaker 3:Very good. Now how can our listeners learn more about Smile Foster Closet? Sure, they can go to smilefosterclosetorg. That's the best way, because it has information about all of our different programs and the things that we offer and the ways that you can help. You can also follow us on social media, on Facebook or Instagram, smile Foster Closet. And, of course, you can email us at info at smilefosterclosetorg.
Speaker 2:Very good. Well, it sounds like you and your organization are doing some incredible work in the community, and I'm really excited about the preventative what you were talking about. To you know, nip things in the bud early, so you're to be commended for what? You're doing so all right.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. I'm so glad we got to share it.
Speaker 2:Yes, Rachel, thank you so much. I appreciate I know your time is precious, so we really appreciate you being on the show and we wish you and the Smile Foster Closet all the best moving forward. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. I appreciate you Skip Thanks.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom. That's GNPtry-Citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.