About Home Base Orphan Care
Support for Children in Foster Care
Homebase Orphan Care is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization established to provide love and support for children in need. The primary focus is to assist children in the foster system. Our goal is to make a difference one child at a time.
Our Mission
Homebase Orphan Care operates to provide love and support for children in need by serving as a Partner in Prevention for the Department of Family Protective Services, providing ongoing support for children entering foster care, providing guidance and assistance for families in the adoption process and assisting young people aging out of the system in successfully transitioning to emancipation.
How it all started
This journey began March 28, 2017, when our founders welcomed a sibling group of four foster children into their home. The children ranged in age from one to four. The Evans family later completed the adoption of the four littles adding to their other three children in becoming the Evans Seven.
Through the experience of navigating the foster to adopt the process, Chuck and Monica discovered there was a much bigger story that needed to be told.
Making a difference one child at a time.
Partner in Prevention
The best way to rescue a child out of foster care is to prevent them from entering the system. The DFPS investigates over 280,000 reports of abuse and neglect every year. Over 66,000 cases are confirmed resulting in the child being removed from the home to be placed with other family members or foster care.
In many instances, the CPS Caseworker will discover various needs which if left unmet could result in the child being removed from the family. Homebase partners with DFPS to meet these needs in order to keep children in the home. The needs can range from fuel expenses to keep the parent working until they receive their first paycheck to bedding for the children.
Homebase receives multiple requests on a regular basis for Bunk Beds from DFPS. CPS guidelines require bedding for each child. The Bunk Beds meet these guidelines allowing the child to stay with their family.
A Bunk Bed is a much better investment than a prison bed. The Texas Department of Corrections considers the number of children aging out of foster care when determining how many prison beds to purchase. They anticipate moving the children from one state funded system to the next. Over 70% of those incarcerated in Texas prisons spent time in foster care.
Support for Children in Foster Care
Adoption Guidance and Assistance
The state of Texas covers the legal expenses for parents adopting children out of foster care, but there are great number of expenses incurred by family members adopting children. Homebase has actively worked with many families in need of assistance in paying for legal fees, background checks and other adoption related expenses.
In addition to assisting in kinship adoption related expenses, Homebase has played a key role in assisting foster parents in navigating the adoption process and receiving the maximum amount of assistance possible.
The founders of Homebase, Chuck and Monica Evans, have adopted five children. The first adoption was private and the last four were a sibling group out of the Texas foster care system. They have experienced the process first hand, and their experiences continue to benefit foster parents on a daily basis.
Aging Out / Emancipation
As previously stated, the state of Texas anticipates the children leaving foster care to be incarcerated. Under certain circumstances, young people can stay in foster care until they are twenty-one, but many will be emancipated at eighteen and others will seek emancipation as young as sixteen.
Homebase partners with other organizations providing job skills and seeks to establish its own job skills training and mentoring programs for young people leaving foster care.
When a child is removed from the family, all of their possessions are placed in a trash bag. They carry their entire world in that trash bag from one foster home to the next. Homebase has provided over 4,000 Blue Bags for children entering foster care over the course of the last three years.
It is more than a bag. It is a symbol of love and value. It lets the child know they are not forgotten and their value far exceeds a trash bag. The Next Step goal for Homebase is to provide a Blue Bag for every child entering foster care in the state of Texas. The cost of each bag is $25, but the value placed on a child’s life is priceless. The number of children entering foster care in Texas every year averages about 19,000.