CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – Thompson Child & Family Focus (Thompson), Charlotte’s leading human services
organization, was recently awarded a three-year grant of $484,168 by the Trustees of The Duke Endowment to expand
foster care in three eastern North Carolina Counties - New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender. Thompson will grow needed
foster home capacity to meet the increased needs due to the opioid epidemic and what many are predicting to be a
spike in underreported child abuse reports due to COVID-19.
With this funding, Thompson will replicate its proven foster care model in eastern North Carolina using
Together Facing the Challenge, the evidence-informed, affordable, sustainable model to equip foster parents in
providing trauma-informed care to the youth in their homes. Key activities include staff training, foster parent
recruitment and training, and ongoing data collection and program monitoring.
Thompson has decades of experiencing in working not only in the therapeutic foster care realm but also in providing
comprehensive, wraparound services including family education, mental health, medication management and intensive
case management. Thompson has grown its foster care programming statewide to over 200 foster homes and is
expected to grow beyond 300 licensed homes in the coming three years across North Carolina.
“Thompson has a track record of building capacity for therapeutic foster homes, and we are pleased to support their
evidence-informed model as it expands into eastern North Carolina,” said Tamika Williams, Associate Director of the
Endowment’s Child and Family Well-Being program area.
“We know there is a great need for foster care in eastern North Carolina for some of the community’s most traumatized
and challenging youth who have been impacted by the opioid crisis and other adverse childhood experiences,” said Matt
Simon, Chief Program Officer at Thompson. “We are incredibly excited and humbled to partner with The Duke
Endowment to ensure that even more youth are supported in stable foster homes.”
You can positively impact the lives of foster children - learn more about becoming a foster parent by contacting Jennifer
Stout, Statewide Director of Recruitment & Licensing at jstout@thompsoncff.org or call her at 828-447-5720.