The vision of Clara’s Hope is to help families have success in foster care and adoption.  Many families unsure of how to enter the realm of foster care or adoption and need somewhere to get their questions answered.  Clara’s Hope exists to fill the gaps in the system through support, education, and concrete assistance.  Regardless of where an individual or family is on their journey of foster care or adoption, Clara’s Hope is available to offer support and hope.

Clara’s Hope coordinates family gatherings to provide peer support, parenting classes, and scholarships for counseling. The awarded grant from The Hagerman Foundation supports scholarships for family and individual counseling; counseling they would unlikely receive due to out of pocket expenses.

As of April 2017, Genesee County had 537 children in foster care with only 234 licensed foster homes. Livingston County had 145 children in foster care and only 48 licensed homes.  “Obstacles to successful foster care and adoption are often related to lack of information about access to and cost of services,” said Tami Kromer, director of Clara’s Hope.  “The support that we offer is geared toward moving families from simply surviving to thriving.” Clara’s Hope can be a consistent presence throughout the foster care/adoption process and even beyond adoption when most service providers cannot continue.

“When I first heard the mission of Clara’s Hope, I knew we wanted to support their efforts. “Every family unit looks a little different and some need extra support,” said Jocelyn Hagerman, CEO, The Hagerman Foundation. “Clara’s Hope is providing a valuable service and we were pleased to provide seed funds to help them get off the ground.”