Meet Our Community Partner: Foster Village
In the United States, there are currently over 400,000 children in the foster care system. Founded in Austin in 2016, the mission of Foster Village™ is to come alongside children and families in the child welfare system and show them that they are not alone. Their goal is to create opportunities for the community to be a “village” of support to these vulnerable and underserved children and families.
The local foster community is a cause that is personally very dear to several team members here at Kickstand. With this in mind, we engaged with Foster Village in 2019 with the goal of exciting and engaging a diverse cross-section of the Austin community and encouraging them to donate or volunteer their time. Over the course of the partnership, we’ve helped launch the organization’s newest North Austin location, spearheaded research efforts to collect data on the perceptions of the foster care system and leverage the findings across the organization’s marketing channels, and in 2021, led their annual Amplify Austin event to achieve a 10x fundraising increase over previous years. In addition, Kickstand has helped build the profile of both Foster Village and its leadership team, securing a feature for Foster Village CEO and Founder Chrystal Smith in Authority Magazine and helping earn Chrystal much-deserved recognition as an Austin Business Journal 2020 Profile in Power winner. Since the start of our partnership, Kickstand has contributed more than 200 hours to Foster Village and its mission, driving impactful media coverage and supporting its annual fundraising efforts.
“Our founding was spurred by a desire to bridge the gap between local communities and foster families. When everyone gives a little, it adds up to a big message to our most vulnerable children and families: ‘you are not alone.’ Kickstand has given us the opportunity to connect with an even greater number of volunteers, donors, and caregivers through their storytelling, helping us build an even greater community dedicated to our mission. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have them as a partner.”
– Chrystal Smith, founder and CEO, Foster Village
In addition to providing professional PR services, Kickstand regularly donates time and volunteer hours to organizations in support of a number of causes that have included social justice, refugee services and LGBTQ mental health services. Kickstand team members also serve as mentors to up and coming startups through organizations like MassChallenge and TechStars, and all employees receive formal Volunteer Time Off to encourage individual engagement and community service.
