GREAT FALLS – Nikki Davalos and Kat Whitish were having coffee one morning when they came up with LOVE, Linking Our Voices Everyday.
The mission of the nonprofit is to link the foster care community throughout Great Falls.
“We were both in foster care ourselves when we were younger. Since we connected in that way and then we became foster parents, we were like, ‘Yeah, this is something that is needed,’” Davalos said.
They have mentorship trips, a lending library, and a parent’s cafe for foster parents.
LOVE is not just only for foster families, they also support kinship families as well.
Davalos added they have a program called Home Sweet Home that helps and rewards parents who work hard to get their kids back.
Through Home Sweet Home, the nonprofit will get the parents something they may need, like a kid’s bed.
For the month of February, Davalos and Whitish are bringing awareness to Fostering Love.
“We really want to get more foster families. We want to get more involvement. That is our really big thing right now, if you are interested in being a foster family contact us,” Davalos said.
Whitish added they also want to support children who may not be in the foster system as well.
“We thought if we can build a really strong foster family community in our area, we can prevent any child neglect or abuse within our foster care community,” Davalos said.
Reporting by Margaret DeMarco for MTN News
