Restoring Hope Through Alignment: Foster Care Collective

At the recent Foster Care Collective hosted by WinShape Homes, more than 40 foster care leaders from across the country gathered with a shared purpose: to align vision, exchange hard-won lessons, and strengthen collaboration in support of children and families navigating the child welfare system.

Among the attendees were Karen Phillips and Paul Chapman, representing the Restore Hope network, alongside Jared Brown of For Others, a key philanthropic partner in this work. Chapman served as a featured speaker and panelist, offering a framework that challenged participants to rethink how systems engage families in crisis—and what it truly takes to see lasting change.

In his presentation on the Restore Hope Model, Paul Chapman grounded the conversation in a reality many practitioners recognize but systems often overlook: families in crisis are rarely struggling in just one area of life.

Poverty, addiction, legal pressure, disability, and child welfare involvement frequently collide all at once. Families are not failing because they don’t care or aren’t trying—they are buried under compounding pressures that no single program or provider can resolve alone.

"Systems designed to work in isolation are fundamentally mismatched with the complexity of human lives," Chapman emphasized. When agencies close individual cases without coordination, families often cycle right back into crisis. What appear to be separate systems are, in reality, a “system of systems” that most people in crisis cannot navigate without help.

A central theme of Chapman’s message was the danger of expecting desperate people to assemble their own solutions—asking the right person the wrong question simply because they don’t know how the system works.

True transformation, he argued, requires collective impact paired with relational commitment. Aligned partners must work together, and a trusted navigator must walk alongside families—sequencing support in the right order and staying through the process.

Hope, Chapman noted, is restored through momentum, not miracles. Small, coordinated wins build belief, shift outcomes, and re-humanize both families and the systems meant to serve them. The goal is simple but profound: no wrong door—and someone to walk with you.

These ideas carried into a panel discussion featuring Chapman alongside Jared Brown from For Others and Ben Sand from The Contingent. Together, they explored the realities of collective impact work in child welfare.

The panelists were candid: this work is messy, slow, and deeply relational. Complexity is not a sign of failure—it is the cost of engaging real people, real systems, and real stakes. The posture required is one of incarnation: listening first, then responding.

Drawing on faith language, the panel reflected on how meaningful solutions follow listening—not the other way around. Just as Jesus entered into complexity, listened, and stayed, effective child welfare work begins by hearing what families, communities, and states are actually experiencing.

Another clear takeaway from the panel was that unity attracts resources—but money alone does not create unity. Funding can accelerate aligned work, but when money becomes the primary motivator, the mission often drifts. Shared vision and trust must come first.

Leadership also emerged as a decisive factor. Progress depends on leaders with both political and relational capital—people willing to reduce unnecessary regulation, encourage transparency, and make space for collaboration. Without that leadership, silos persist and trust erodes.

Data sharing, the panel acknowledged, is essential and deeply threatening. Transparency exposes pain points and failures, but without shared data, real problem-solving is impossible. Openness and accountability are non-negotiable for meaningful collective impact.

The panelists stressed that there is no single model for reform. Effective strategies require humility and adaptation to local context, with an increasing focus on piloting ecosystem-based models in specific regions and scaling what proves effective over time.

One powerful example highlighted the impact of grassroots faithfulness: a single committed leader, rooted in the local church and supported by volunteers, coordinating care for hundreds of families. The common thread was not scale or structure—but someone who stayed.

Backbone organizations, the panel emphasized, must be trusted servants rather than competitors. Who coordinates the work matters more than what they do. Without humility and credibility, even the best models collapse.

Ultimately, the conversation returned again and again to the spiritual nature of this work. Collective impact, when done well, is not just systems change—it is community renewal. The fruit is not only fewer children in foster care, but healthier families, safer communities, and restored hope.

Moments like the Foster Care Collective move the work forward—shaping the future of foster care through alignment, faithfulness, and a shared commitment to walk with families, no matter how complex the journey.