improving the Foster Care system

A child's first encounter with the foster care system is too often traumatic and confusing. We’ve stepped in to change this by building a welcoming place where kids can feel safe and have access to the services they need.

Shop Bridge’s Amazon Wish List:

Click to shop for items needed by and for the children at Bridge. Send your items to: PO Box 2930, Woodinville, WA 98072-2930.

Read more about how you can get involved!

This video shows what it’s like for a child just entering foster care for the first time and how Bridge can make all the difference in their experience.

THE PROBLEM

for kids entering foster care

There are many problems in the foster care system nationwide. There has been a serious shortage of licensed homes that often leads to the many “bounces” that children just entering foster care often experience. Children often spend their first days and weeks bouncing between the DCYF office, motels, shelters, and emergency care facilities. In addition, children have little chance to get their questions answered, let alone process the recent upheaval in their lives.

Our solution

to revolutionize the system

We’ve developed a therapeutic transitional residential program in a camp-like setting where children, ages 4 and older, will find an immediate safe place to stay for up to 30 days – or longer, if needed. This extended time gives social workers and the courts time to determine what’s next for the children - a return back home, moving in with relatives/family friends or their first placement in a foster home. Our receiving center in Snohomish County often results in family reunification, the ability to keep siblings together, more successful first placements and fewer multiple placements. 

Get involved

and impact a generation

We need your help in order to keep making this vision a reality. We’ll equip you to serve as a volunteer alongside our staff with the children, to understand the importance of trauma-responsive care and spread the word about Bridge Receiving Center. You can shop our Amazon Wish List to provide items the children need. We especially need your financial contributions to keep our Center doors open to every child that needs us.