Today, we welcome back a wonderful guest, Charell Star. We first discovered Charell in 2021 from the “Humans of New York” column and video she was featured. We wanted Charell to come back on our podcast to give us an update on her work in the foster care system since then.

Charell shares her common experiences with CASA and talks with Rob about the needs of youth in foster care, especially to promote reunification.

“If we were looking to help people, and not penalize people for the unfair luck of being born poor in a system that doesn’t want to support those born without privilege. If we would spend even a fraction of what we spend to take their children away from them… we could actually solve this.”

Later this Spring, Charell will be an Honoree at the 2024 CASA-NYC Gala.

Charell has finished her autobiography. Once it’s published, you know she’ll be back on our podcast!

You can learn more about Charell by visiting her here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charellstar/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charellstar/

You can read Charell’s “Human’s of New York” story here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUK7yfSrFT3/?hl=en

A reminder that Fostering Change now posts on alternative Tuesdays. Our next episode will drop on March 26! You can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you! Please write to us at [email protected].

As always, thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Often times when children are removed from their homes and brought to a social service agency or law enforcement office, they are not placed in a foster home immediately, and have to spend hours, a whole night, or even days sitting on an uncomfortable office chair, a lumpy couch or maybe an air mattress tucked under a desk. No privacy, and no dignity.

Jennifer Tice and her team at LilyPad: A Soft Place to Land have taken steps to end this practice in their home state of South Carolina, and soon throughout the country. Lily Pad volunteers are building comfortable living spaces, within the state’s Department of Social Service offices, for children to feel loved and valued during an uncertain time.

Each Lily Pad space is unique to the DSS office it is installed in. You can click HERE to see a “before and after” of what a Lily Pad space is like (or visit this link: https://www.lilypadinc.org/lilypadroomsbeforeandafter)

On today’s episode of Fostering Change, you will learn, as Rob Scheer did, more about Jennifer and her family’s road to foster care, and why the name “Lily” is so important to them.

All Lily Pad funding comes from volunteers and good humans like you - our listeners.  To find out more about LilyPad, volunteer, or see how you can get involved, please visit: https://www.lilypadinc.org/

You can also follow Lilypad on social media:

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/LilyPad.ASoftPlacetoLand

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/lily.pad.inc/

A reminder that Fostering Change now posts on alternative Tuesdays.  Our next episode will drop on February 27  You can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write to us at [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy Valentine’s Day! (one day early)

On today’s special episode, of Fostering Change we bring in two of our favorite married couples:

David & Julie Bulitt and Rob & Reece Scheer!  Yes, our host and his husband - co-founders of Comfort Cases - discuss relationships, particularly the issues faced by parents who adopt children and how to keep the marital relationship going strong!

David & Julie have appeared on Fostering Change before. They have a unique perspective based on their careers as Julie is a licensed clinical social worker and David is a Divorce Attorney. David and Julie have been married for more than 35 years. They have four daughters and three grandchildren and are the authors of two books: Secrets of Strong Couples and the recently released, Couple’s Journal - Goal Setting for Strong Couples.

Rob & Reece are soon to be celebrating their 21st anniversary, and as you likely know are the parents of five children, all adopted through the foster care system.

In today’s discussion, you will hear the Scheers and Bulitts discuss issues they are currently experiencing as married couples and the solutions they have - including compromise - that keep the lines of communication open and flowing positively.  But they do admit that it’s not all “wine and roses” every day, and you need to work together and on a regular basis to keep the relationship going strong.

The Bulitt’s new book, The Couple’s Journal is a terrific tool to do just that.  It helps couples set goals and arranges “check-ins” to make sure you’re actually working on those goals.  They also have a new podcast, Conversations for Couples that we encourage you to listen (after you finish this episode of Fostering Change, of course!)

To learn more about David & Julie Bulitt:

Website: https://thebulitts.com/ 

All social media channels: @thebulitts

Conversations for Couples Podcast: https://audioboom.com/channels/5118597-conversations-for-couples

A reminder that Fostering Change now posts on alternative Tuesdays.  Our next episode will drop on February 27  You can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write to us at [email protected].

As always, thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, on Fostering Change, Comfort Cases’ founder Rob Scheer has an enlightening conversation with Mark Daley, author of SAFE: A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family.  The book offers a deeply personal window into what happens when the universal longing for family crashes up against the unique madness and bureaucracy of a child protection system that often fails to consider the needs of the most vulnerable parties of all—the children themselves.

You will hear Rob share that he believes that SAFE is an important resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about, or is actively participating in our foster care system.  You will hear Rob and Mark discuss how having a community of support all around you is so important. In fact, finding community is “Step Number 1!” - be that community family, church, neighbors or others who can support you as you work to juggle this new lifestyle.

You will learn so much more about Mark and his thoughts on our broken foster care system. We encourage you to write a review, and share this podcast with others you care about.

Mark will be visiting a number of cities for book readings and signings. To see when he is coming to your city, or to invite him to your city, please visit: https://markdaley.us/

To purchase SAFE, please visit your local independent bookstore or purchase online on sites including:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Bookshop.org

You can follow Mark on Social Media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markdaley00/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markdaley00

A reminder that Fostering Change now posts on alternative Tuesdays.  So our next episode will drop on February 13 - a very special Valentine’s Day episode!  You can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write to us at [email protected].

As always, thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comfort Cases is so lucky to have many friends and supporters from around the world.  In 2022 we opened our first international center, Comfort CasesUK (https://comfortcasesuk.org/).  On today’s episode, we welcome a guest from England, our friend Kevin Leslie.

Kevin is known for many movie and tv roles, most recently appearing in the Christmas movie: Christmas at the Holly Day Inn.  Today on Fostering Change, Rob Scheer talks to Kevin about the new children’s books series he wrote, Granddad Brian & His Stories.

Kevin wrote these books as a creative way of dealing with loss and grief, following the loss of his grandfather to covid.  His grandfather loved telling stories and Kevin wanted to share the warmth from his “granddad” with children around the world.  He partnered with Comfort Cases and has donated numerous books to our center in the UK! 

We know you’ll enjoy today’s episode!

To find out more about Kevin, please visit him on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KevinLeslieActor/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinleslieactor/ 

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/TheKevinLeslie 

If interested in getting one of Kevin’s books, reach out to him directly at:  https://www.instagram.com/grandadbrianstories/

If interested in making a donation to our center in the UK, please visit: https://www.justgiving.com/comfortcasesuk

A reminder that Fostering Change now posts on alternative Tuesdays.  So our next episode will drop on Tuesday, January 30.  You can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write to us at [email protected].

As always, thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to 2024! The entire team at Comfort Cases hopes you had a festive, and happy holiday season.  Note that we didn’t write “restful”, as we know the past few weeks are generally the busiest time of year.

This is why we are starting off our 2024 season right, with an interview with Ashley Neese, author of Permission to Rest: Revolutionary Practices for Healing, Empowerment, and Collective Care. 

Ashley Neese is a renowned breathwork teacher, author, parent, and land steward. She has spent over a decade working at the intersections of embodiment, transformation, and renewal. Ashley is host of The Deeper Call podcast, where she shares restorative conversations to support connection and healing. 

Ashley is a foster parent, as well as adoptive parent and biological parent. She has recently brought a foster son into their home as part of an emergency foster care situation and understands that all parents need to find time for rest in their lives. 

In this interview, host Rob Scheer and Ashley discuss how resting as a practice is a portal to grow ones capacity to be with hard things , which in turn gives you the capacity to be there for your kids and partner when they are going through hard things rather than dismiss, shame, or try to make them feel differently - it allows one to meet them where they are.

To learn more about Ashley, please visit:

Website: https://www.ashleyneese.com/

Instagram: ashley_neese

About her books: https://www.ashleyneese.com/books

* We want to share one note about Fostering Change. Starting this week, we will be posting episodes on a bi-weekly basis (we all need a little rest, right?) So our next episode will be posted on January 16.

But you can always catch up on previous episodes of Fostering Change by visiting www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write us at [email protected].

As always, thank you for listening!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today is a special episode of Fostering Change (well, all our episodes are special, but this one has a very special significance!) It’s the final episode of 2023 AND, today’s episode marks the 200th Episode of Fostering Change. Amazing that we’ve reached this important milestone in our 5th season! And the past 3 seasons, we’ve been named the #1 podcast for issues about Adoption and Foster Care!

We couldn’t have achieved this without the amazing support from our amazing guests and all of the positive feedback we’ve received from you, our viewers and listeners. Thank you so much!

And what a way to mark this milestone, with another GOOD HUMAN, Emily Cole. You may not know Emily’s name (yet), but surely you’ve heard of the organization she and her husband Jesse run: The Savannah Bananas (https://thesavannahbananas.com/), known as “The Greatest Show in Sports!” The Cole’s started the organization with the goal to make baseball fun and bring families together.

And beyond the entertaining brand of baseball the team plays, Emily and Jesse founded Bananas Foster,, an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to Bringing Families Together by focusing on celebrating those who are doing amazing things in the foster care world while educating and inspiring others to get involved. In 2020, the Cole’s became a licensed foster family, an action that would truly change their life.

Emily shares her story with Rob on today’s podcast. We know you will find it inspiring and hopefully motivate you to become involved in your community - be it foster care or some other form of charitable act.

To learn more about Bananas Foster, please visit: https://bananasfoster.org/ and visit https://thesavannahbananas.com/ to learn more about the Savannah Bananas Baseball team!

You can follow Emily and the Bananas on Social Media:

Instagram: @EmCole3 @thesavbananas @bananasfosterinc

TikTok: @SavBananas

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSavBananas

To listen to previous episodes of Fostering Change, please visit: www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you! Please write us at [email protected].

Thank you for listening and we’ll see you next Tuesday!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve watched or listened to Fostering Change before, or you’ve seen Rob Scheer speak at an event or a Comfort Cases “Packing Party”, you know that he loves to promote people who are doing great things for others - what he calls “Good Humans.” Well, on today’s episode you’ll meet one of the “goodest of them all,” Marcy Bursac.

Scaling her lived experience as an adoptive mom of a sibling pair, Marcy advocates for the more than 100,000 children in the U.S. foster care system that are waiting to be adopted through her free app, books, monthly podcast, speaking engagements, and TV, radio, magazine, and podcast appearances.

Marcy’s latest book, "What to Know When You Adopt Through Foster Care" is available now - and we highly recommend that if you’ve given any thought at all to adopting that you order this book today. This honest guide covers how to handle the ups and downs, behaviors, and realities involved in raising children adopted through the foster care system who may have experienced neglect, abuse, trauma and/or loss.

Inside you'll learn:

- what foster care adoption is and which children can be adopted

- why some families waited and how some pursued this path after facing infertility

- how some had to be persistent and how they endured the process

- tips for parenting children who have experienced neglect, trauma, alcohol exposure

- tips for parenting children who have mental health or medical needs

and more!

Marcy is a recipient of the Angels in Adoption® Award from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute from Missouri with Senator Blunt. She was crowned United States of America’s Mrs. Ohio 2022. She founded the organization The Forgotten Adoption Option. She is the creator of the Foster Care Adoption Awareness Reading Program. Most recently, Marcy was interviewed and announced the winner of the Pilot Pen G2 Overachievers Grant on The Kelly Clarkson Show on October 26th, 2023.

To learn more about Marcy, please visit her website: https://forgottenadoptionoption.com/

You can also follow Marcy on social media:

Instagram: @marcybursac

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ForgottenAdoptionOption 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcybursac/ 

To listen to previous episodes of Fostering Change, please visit: www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write us at [email protected].

Thank you for listening and we’ll see you next Tuesday!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prepare yourself for an interview with a woman who defines the term “resilience.”  Regina Calcaterra’s memoir Etched in Sand, A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island is a #1 international best-seller and a New York Times best-seller.  As a result of Etched in Sand’s messages of resilience, optimism, the plight of foster children, that no child is a lost cause and how we can all positively impact the life of a child in need, it has been integrated into college and high school curricula throughout the U.S. and been selected for community reads. 

She is also co-author of Etched in Sand’s sequel which she wrote with her younger sister Rosie Maloney, Girl Unbroken, A Sister’s Harrowing Journey from the Streets of Long Island to the Farms of Idaho. Girl Unbroken has also been integrated into college curricula alongside Etched in Sand. Regina speaks nationally about her books’ messages and how we can all impact the life of a child in need. 

To learn more about Regina, please visit: https://reginacalcaterra.com/

We encourage you to follow Regina’s journey on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Calcaterra.Regina/ 

Instagram: @regina_calcaterra 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/regina-calcaterra-1a9608285/

To listen to previous episodes of Fostering Change, please visit: www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write us at [email protected].

Thank you for listening and we’ll see you next Tuesday!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Understand there is more of a reality out there than you’ve been living through.”

Today’s episode of Fostering Change will truly inspire you!  Rob Scheer interviews Lisa Cohen, someone he shares much in common.  They were both in foster care, both from Washington, DC and following foster care, both joined the Navy.  They also both have “bucked the trend” and have been successful in business and in life.  They share how they moved forward in their careers, they didn’t talk about their experiences in foster care, as they didn’t want it to be used against them.

Lisa has also loved sports her entire life and was a “Muhammad Ali addict”, and became a championship boxer!  She writes about these experiences in her memoir, “Being Too Fierce”.

Lisa holds the esteemed position of President of the Rotary Club of Washington DC. Under her leadership, she has spearheaded an initiative called "Rotary's Championship Fight for Youth," which aims to provide essential services to foster youth in the Washington DC metropolitan area. She also works as a Behavioral Clinician for Sasha Bruce Youthwork, an organization that is the leading provider of homeless youth services in the DC Region and have opened their first Foster House.

This episode will truly inspire you! 

To get in touch with Lisa and/or order a signed copy of “Being Too Fierce,” please email directly at: [email protected].

To learn more about Sasha Bruce Youthwork, please visit: https://www.sashabruce.org/

To listen to previous episodes of Fostering Change, please visit: www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

If you have any comments, questions, or guest suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!  Please write us at [email protected].

Thank you for listening and we’ll see you next Tuesday!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.