Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Rose.
Hi Megan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in a home with two loving parents, but we struggled. The local church supported my mom while helping my dad get on track and stay sober.
My family became whole again with their support and love, and I felt moved early on to pay that forward. I was a foster care case manager but there was never enough time to give families what they really needed.
Too many cases on the caseload, too much paperwork, and red tape, and too many children were being shuffled from home to home and getting abused. I was convinced the best way to fix foster care was to reduce the need for it in the first place, and we do that at Better Together.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our program runs entirely at the community level, using screened and trained volunteers who live in the same neighborhoods as the families we serve.
We grow carefully since our success depends on earning local trust and keeping children safe. Our challenge is to find churches, volunteers, and businesses to help us grow. We need people who are fully on board with our vision because when working with children, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Right now we are expanding our programs in Pinellas and Pasco counties and Tampa because the need is urgent in these areas.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We provide a dignified way for parents to overcome hardship without losing children to foster care. Since 2015, our programs have cared for more than 3,200 Southwest Florida children while helping their parents find jobs, homes, child care, treatment, and more.
Ninety-eight percent of our families are able to stay together, which is more than double the reunification rate of Florida foster care. It’s a collective effort of volunteers, churches, businesses, and other community partners who listen to the full story and identify the underlying causes of the family breakdown.
They never stop believing in people and reminding parents of their potential. Our work is just getting started, we want to end the foster care crisis in the Tampa Bay region for good.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
We are privately funded, which keeps our programs fast and flexible to quickly meet the evolving needs of our community. It also helps parents trust us; we meet parents all the time who initially refuse our help because they are afraid of losing their children.
Once they discover our goal is to keep all families intact, they have a change of heart. Our programs are driven by volunteers and supported by professionals who evaluate the needs of each family and connect them to the people and resources needed to get on track.
Because all these support networks are local, they remain available for parents long after the crisis is over. It’s not just about today, we are building a community that will be there tomorrow, too.
Contact Info:
- Website: bettertogetherus.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BTogetherOrg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BTogetherOrg
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/btogetherorg
Image Credits
Dawson Jordan/Better Together
