The Highly Selective Community of Nonprofits Work to Break the Cycle of Poverty

FALLS CHURCH, VA – July 2023 – Connect Our Kids is proud to announce that it has been selected to participate in the Stand Together Foundation Catalyst Program, a management training and peer-learning program to help nonprofit organizations further their mission to transform communities. Connect Our Kids is one of 16 nonprofits joining the Catalyst Community, a growing network of over 300 organizations across all 50 states working to transform the lives of more than one million Americans through bottom-up empowerment.

Connect Our Kids is dedicated to helping child welfare professionals find extended family, build connections and create caring support networks for children and youth in the child welfare system. These innovative and freely accessible tech tools are force multipliers for social workers, lawyers, family recruiters, and Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA)/Guardian ad Litem (GAL) volunteers. The tech tools dramatically increase the speed and scale of family search and engagement efforts, ensuring work is well-documented, organized, shareable, and secure.

Working in collaboration with America’s most forward-leaning child welfare thought leaders and guided by a team of advocates with lived experience in the foster care system, Connect Our Kids is revolutionizing the process of searching for and engaging with family and kinship connections. Connect Our Kids aims to give every child and youth in foster care the support and belonging needed to heal trauma and build a brighter future.

Connect Our Kids was selected among hundreds of nonprofit organizations through an extensive vetting process and accepted into the program after a rigorous evaluation. Nonprofits joining Stand Together Foundation’s Catalyst Community are recognized for disrupting the status quo, demonstrating outside-the-box thinking, and embracing community-driven and people-centered approaches. Program criteria also include proven outcomes and the potential for scale and cultural impact.

“We are excited to welcome 16 new organizations to the Catalyst Community, a dynamic network of the most innovative social entrepreneurs in the country,” said Evan Feinberg, Executive Director of Stand Together Foundation. “Through a shared vision of empowering individuals, these Catalysts are demonstrating bottom-up approaches to solving the biggest problems facing our country today.”

“Our service partners are one part detective, one part superhero as they seek to establish and expand personal connections for children and youth in foster care,” said Connect Our Kids CEO Jennifer Jacobs, Ph.D. “Being selected for the Catalyst Program increases our access to the critical resource-building and networking we need to keep moving toward our ultimate goal: finding a permanent and loving home for every child.”

The Catalyst Program is a six-month management and peer-learning training program for the nation’s most transformative non-profits. The experience will equip Connect Our Kids leaders with principle-based thinking and new tools and approaches to deepen its impact and expand its reach. The program serves as an on-ramp to a long-term partnership with Stand Together Foundation, including Principle Based Management™ coaching, leadership development, operational support, and access to a community of entrepreneurial peers, influential philanthropists, and business leaders.

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Contact: Katie Adams, Director of Training Content
Email: [email protected]

About Connect Our Kids

Connect Our Kids is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization started in 2017 to apply modern technology to extended family search and engagement. The organization develops freely accessible software tools, including People Search and Family Connections, to assist welfare professionals in helping children in foster care and other vulnerable groups. Connect Our Kids works with direct service partners, funding partners, strategic and advocacy partners and some of the largest technology companies in the world. In use across 44 states, the Connect Our Kids platform fills a much-needed gap in the child welfare system, accelerating the support and caring relationships that change lives and help heal trauma. Learn more at www.ConnectOurKids.org.

About Stand Together Foundation

Stand Together Foundation is committed to breaking the cycle of poverty in America by driving change from within communities. They are building a community of social entrepreneurs who believe in people, work from the bottom up and unite with anyone to do right. Since 2016, they have committed over $150 million and counting to fuel the innovation of nonprofits throughout the country to build stronger, safer communities where all people can learn, contribute and realize their full potential. Their goal is to help nonprofit leaders maximize their impact to transform more lives out of poverty. Learn more at www.StandTogetherFoundation.org.

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