CHRISTIAN BALE GETS IT!

I watched CBS Sunday Morning’s today show, May 18, 2025. Tracy Smith’s story was about actor Christian Bale’s Foster Home Community he is building in California.  His goal is to build twelve independent foster homes on sixteen acres with licensed foster parents in each home, helping sibling groups in foster care stay together.  Two thirds of children in U.S. foster care have at least one sibling in care and 75% of siblings in foster care are split up. Sounds like an innovative plan and a successful one for foster care and one that sounds familiar to me and my mission. YES, we get it at Geary Foster Foundations, we have a goal to build seven homes on twelve acres, and I get it as a foster child and part of a sibling group of five that was always split up in placements.

We have been sharing our mission for eight years now and we still struggle to get our mission, our message and the success of our program to the public. We cannot be successful in the community program without building the homes that exist in that community. Building several homes in one central location is our plan and having foster parents who share our mission is the key to the success of helping our children. That is why our slogan is “Building Homes, Building Lives”. We have had a couple of Capital Grants received to help build “shelter” for foster children, but the idea of building large, newly constructed homes in one central location is a unique program and one that takes much explanation.

 We have a goal to build four more homes and I’m not sure I’ll see that in my lifetime. Christian Bale has been thinking of his plan for over sixteen years and according to this interview, began construction recently and will have his village built this year!  We completed our first home in 2019, and that is when our foster parents began helping children.  We build one home at a time, as we raise the funds. These funds are from grants, donations, and fundraiser events.  To date, we have three homes, and we have helped forty-seven foster children, seventeen sibling groups. With three homes in operation, we have been able to keep sibling groups together. They may be in different homes, but they are in the same community and see each other every day. Our homes are large enough to help four to six children in each. Foster homes in Texas are limited to a maximum of six foster children in one home.

We surround our parents with support by creating a healthy environment in the country, with family-friendly homes that have large porches and large, fenced backyards.  Our village includes a community garden, a community playground, a sports court, a foster closet, and a recently constructed pavilion. At any time, you may see pets, chickens, and children running amuck!

 It warms my heart to hear the children calling me “Ms. Susie” when I visit the property, wanting me to play basketball, swing with them, pick veggies with them, or hear their stories.  Even though it may be a hundred times, I never get tired of hearing it! I know they are thriving, learning and being guided by our six loving, exhausted foster parents, who are always supporting and helping each other. It is a challenging, overwhelming, sometimes thankless job being a foster parent to “many” with “many needs”.  As I drive away, having spent an hour or two, I’m exhausted, and I always think about what more we can do to make life easier for them. They are the true heroes to these children.

We keep building, we keep praying for our mission and the journey continues. So, put your boots on Christian, come see us, we share your passion, your vision and your mission.

Susie