Community Profile
Crossnore Communities for Children — Standing in the Gap for Foster Care
By Elizabeth Baird Hardy
In 1913, the Crossnore School began its mission of caring for children. Now, over a century later, Crossnore Communities for Children continues that legacy of caring by advocating for children in a wide array of settings that provide children with the support and stability they need. Currently, Crossnore Communities for Children encompasses three facilities: residential campuses in Crossnore and Winston-Salem and foster care/administrative offices in Hendersonville. As the state and nation are undergoing a crisis in foster care, Crossnore is rising to the challenge of filling needs for children and families.
Brett Loftis, who has served as the Crossnore Chief Executive Officer for over 11 years, points out that the foster care system is radically different than it was fifty years ago. There is “no other public resource mostly run by volunteers, but foster care has relied on good-hearted people to do a really hard job.” While in the past, volunteer foster parents often primarily cared for children who had been sent into care due to poverty, Loftis notes that the needs have changed. Children being placed in care now have often suffered from “significant and prolonged abuse and neglect, trauma, and other problems” such as the devastating effect of the opioid crisis, in addition to poverty. Children who need foster care now include children who have endured child trafficking as well as those who have witnessed addiction, untreated mental illness, and domestic abuse in their homes.
In addition to changing issues, the available workforce for fostering children has been decreasing. As the older foster parents of the past have retired, they have not been replaced, and fewer career foster parents are available. The steady decline that has been occurring for years was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a 25 percent decrease in the number of foster parents statewide. Now, Loftis says, “Children are being removed from dangerous situations and there is nowhere to put them.” Children are sleeping in DSS offices and being housed in makeshift, unlicensed situations ranging from hotels to Airbnbs. “It stresses the system to the breaking point,” he adds, and children who are already vulnerable and experiencing grief and trauma often feel like burdens upon a struggling infrastructure. In North Carolina, on any given day, approximately 12,000 children are in care, with a yearly average of 15,000. Of those children, 40 percent are six years old and younger, and the average age is seven.
With counties across the state reporting increasing vacancies among social workers and volunteers even as populations increase and the number of children in care rises, foster care has become a “chronic crisis.” People begin to accept that this is just the way it is. However, the system doesn’t have to be broken, and Crossnore is leading the way to address the crisis.
As the problems have evolved, Crossnore has evolved and is now meeting needs with new, innovative models. Loftis explains that the “Crossnore model is always about excellence,” and that excellence, combined with the mountain ingenuity that has shaped Crossnore for 115 years, is behind Crossnore’s groundbreaking innovation: professional foster parenting. Bridging Families© is a remarkable program in which couples are hired, trained, and licensed as foster parents. For these couples, fostering is a full-time job, with a salary, benefits, extra support, and housing. In addition, they have assigned therapists and case managers. Currently, this extraordinary model is serving over thirty children in the ten homes that are already open, with two in Hendersonville, three in Winston-Salem, and the remaining five here locally. Other organizations are already in the process of committing to training in Bridging Families©, which is being adopted as a statewide model. As Loftis says, even though it requires more investment than the older foster model, it really works, facilitating the ultimate Crossnore goals of providing a permanent place for every child and, whenever possible, reunifying families. Coaching for biological families reduces time to reunification and helps lay the groundwork for a brighter future for both children and their families. Bridging parents partner with biological parents to help with skills like overcoming language barriers or understanding how to administer medicine, increasing the parents’ confidence and helping them to reunite with their children faster.
Loftis describes Crossnore as “a beacon of hope that has filled needs for 115 years,” and he is thrilled that the Bridging Families© initiative is being carried from the mountains across the state. All three of the Crossnore sites continue to provide critical resources for children from all over North Carolina’s 100 counties.
In addition to innovating, Crossnore continues its ongoing mission with an array of programs. With the Campus Foster Care cottages, large groups of siblings—as many as nine—can be kept together, a tremendous gift for children who have already lost everything familiar. Since only a few other facilities include this option, Crossnore is meeting a huge need.
For older children, Crossnore provides experiences such as job training through businesses like the Blair Fraley Sales Store or Miracle Grounds Coffee Shop. As they reach adulthood, support systems and resources aid in older independent living. In fact, one of those adults who was not long ago a child at Crossnore just graduated from law school, and another is currently in medical school. Crossnore works to remove barriers so all children can reach their full potential.
Community Foster Care trains and supports volunteers across the state and places children in licensed foster homes within their communities. While the goal is to reunify families whenever possible, foster parents can also choose to adopt, providing forever families for children unable to return to their biological relatives.
With the new Bridging Families© program, Crossnore is reaching even more children. Loftis acknowledges that we “can’t help all of the 15,000 kids in the system, but we can show how innovation works,” and, in the process Crossnore can help change the system, as well as changing lives for the most vulnerable kids who are not “getting what they need to be safe.”
There are many ways to get involved and help. Those who feel called to foster parenting will find support, training, and a fantastic network of resources with Crossnore. Those seeking to welcome one of the over two thousand children available for adoption can do so without fees by fostering first.
The campuses are open for tours, and visitors are encouraged to come see what’s happening and check out new developments. Loftis hopes more visitors will learn about the wonderful kids who often end up in foster care through no fault of their own. “They didn’t do anything wrong.”
He emphasizes that there is a way for “everybody to do something” to help. Of course, financial support is always welcomed, as 40 percent of Crossnore’s budget is provided by private philanthropy, and that is what makes Crossnore special. Since government funding only covers the minimum amount to care for the basics of care, the generous contributions of supporters help provide the world-class care children experience.
Part of that care includes a remarkable staff of 300 that is always seeking new members. From dietary aides to licensed therapists to cottage parents, a wide range of positions are open at all three sites. Crossnore is “a great place to work with great benefits,” and Loftis stresses that filling more positions will allow Crossnore to serve more kids in need. Volunteers are also important to the Crossnore mission, with an ongoing need for mentors, sponsors, and Williams Academy tutors. The charter school, which serves as many community members as it does cottage residents, has provided such an excellent model that the Winston-Salem campus will be opening a similar charter school next year. Tutors can help all students, especially those whose education has been disrupted.
Supporting foster parents is also a great way to help. Sponsoring a foster family financially would be a fantastic opportunity for a church or civic group. In addition, being a foster parent can be isolating and tiring, so providing social support and encouragement for those who are fostering, and helping with needs like babysitting, can make a tremendous difference.
To find out more about fostering, careers, and other ways to get involved and support the extraordinary Crossnore Communities for Children in its quest to help children find the way home, check out Crossnore.org or schedule a visit to see for yourself the miracles and innovations happening in the High Country and beyond.
Support Crossnore Communities with a Visit to Their Avery Campus
Crossnore Fine Arts Gallery represents regional painters, sculptors, and fine craft persons who want to take part in benefiting the children of Crossnore Communities for Children. The gallery specifically supports Crossnore’s Youth Independent Living program, which transitions students from foster care to successful independent living, and the Avery campus Student Work Program.
Crossnore Weavers was established to preserve the Appalachian art of hand-weaving, to give an economic opportunity to women, and to promote Crossnore Communities for Children through the sale of beautiful hand-woven goods all over the world. Visit the Crossnore Weaving Room, or shop online at crossnore.org/crossnore-weavers/.
E.H. Sloop Chapel is well known for its powerful fresco masterpiece, Suffer the Little Children, by Benjamin F. Long, IV, one of only four master fresco artists in the world. The Chapel is open for viewings daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Miracle Grounds Coffee Shop and Café is a great spot to purchase fine coffee, specialty drinks, breakfast, lunch, and dessert to help support the children of Crossnore.
The Blair Fraley Sales Store is one of the largest resale shops in the High Country. When you shop at the Blair Fraley Sales Store, you “help make miracles happen for children in need”—all the money you spend will benefit Crossnore Communities for Children.
Learn more about each of these locations at crossnore.org.