Second Nurture Newsletter Winter 2021

Growing Families, Loving Communities

Dear Friends,

In this newsletter we give you a peek into our families, an update on our newly launched program in Columbus, and show you our brand new two-minute video conveying our unique model!

Our New Video

Please take a look out our brand new video with narration by our own, inimitable, former foster youth, superstar and 2N Board Member, Tiffany Haddish! Check it out!

A Second Nurture family welcomes teenager L!

L was delighted by the welcome gifts her new community sent, including games for family game night, a pampering basket, and matching slippers for her and her new foster parents for a cozier shutdown during Covid.

Another Second Nurture family welcomes baby brother!

Baby G’s brand new biological brother, L, joined him and his foster mom, K. And we are overjoyed that this 2N community made it possible to keep siblings together! K told us, “As a single mom I thought I would have one child. When I got the call that G’s brother was born, I was in shock. Without Second Nurture I would not have been able to say yes.”

We think the excitement wore little G out!

Columbus

We launched our mentorship program in Columbus! Former foster youth, ages 18-24, joined mentors from Harmony Project. What open-minded, open-hearted young people! It is a privilege to get to know them and join them as they launch into meaningful adulthoods. And we are so excited to see them join the Harmony Project Choir!

And speaking of Columbus…

Welcome to the newest member of the Second Nurture team!

Thank you…

…for taking this peek into our work, our communities and watching our video. We are filled with gratitude for you joining with us to make this all happen. With love, Susan

Fall Newsletter on Giving Tuesday

Second Nurture is circles of love and support—and it is such a gift to be part of that belonging with our families and communities. The Wilshire Boulevard Temple continues to grow and to meet by Zoom for our special brunches of sharing, learning and support. And now we have two more communities meeting monthly: Nefesh and IKAR. We are so grateful for the way the families support each other, families already fostering and adopting lending guidance to those just starting on the path, everyone offering their wisdom to one another, and our professional consultants and social service partners doing all they can to lift our families up.

Our partners at Children's Bureau, always game for a new initiative to give kids the love and stability they need, have helped us initiate a supported path for families to offer transitional care for youth who are newly removed from a household and need a safe, loving place to be while the best possible long-term plan is made for them. A thoughtful transitional plan makes it more likely that siblings can stay together in the long-term, that trauma is minimized, capacity for growth and healthy relationships are maximized and children are safe. This path is now available at all our partner communities.

And Columbus! This has this been a long haul—but worth it. Courtney Keys is on-the-ground coordinating all the partners, Starfish Alliance has completed the insightful and rich curriculum, curious, engaged young people from Carol Stewart Village are signing up and Donato's is giving us loads of pizza over the coming months. And, we are so excited to have have hired our new group mentorship facilitator, Te'Asia Tarver. Check us out—and support us—at 2Nurture.org.

With love and blessings for health and well-being, Susan