About

Mission:
Fostering Success Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the lives of foster youth and young adults through encouragement and development of life skills.

Fostering Success Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the lives of foster youth and young adults through encouragement and development of life skills.

Fostering Success Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and all donations are tax deductible. Our EIN is 83-1271296 and our IRS confirmation letter can be downloaded from our website.

Transitional Living Program:
A transitional living program is different from transitional living services in that it involves an environment set aside for transitional living and programmatic services that are generally designed for a group of older youth, rather than individually designed services for youth. A transitional living program is not an independent living program.

Transitional living programs are residential services specifically designed to serve youth 14 years old or older for whom transitional living services or treatment goals include basic life skills training towards independent living.  A transitional living program allows opportunities for youth to start early to build a strong foundation of life skills and community connections.

A transitional living program must have a comprehensive life skills training program for youth that develops competency in the following areas:
- Health and general safety.
- Money management, budget planning, and knowledge of available financial resources.
- Use of local transportation resources.
- Accessing local community resources.
- Child health and safety, child development, and parenting skills, if the youth is a parent of a child living with them.

Other areas of life skills training should include:
- Encouraging the youth to participate in community life and to form interpersonal relationships/friendships outside of the transitional living programs, such as community team sports, extracurricular activities and after-school employment.
- Consumer education such as meal planning, meal preparation, grocery shopping, apartment searches, and setting up utilities.
- Career planning and enrolling in higher education or a vocational/technical training program.
- Assisting in accessing medical and dental care, therapy, mental health services, legal resources, and emergency assistance.
- Problem-solving, stress management, and establishing short and long term goals towards establishing independence.

How did Fostering Success Foundation come to be?

In 2015 Leah Martinez and Monty Ortiz embarked on their first foster to adopt journey. Jennifer Holiman-Miller guided them through the whole process, from the very first informational class to adoption day. Along the way they learned so much about the shortcomings in the foster care system, not just in Texas but in the United States as a whole.

Along the way Leah and Monty vowed to start a nonprofit organization to help as many kids as possible and they set their sights on the largely overlooked population of older foster youth. They started volunteering and mentoring as time permitted and quickly learned that these kids have dreams and goals just like anyone else. They knew without a doubt that they would do something, the question was, "what could we do to make the most impact?".

Time and time again they got feedback from friends, family and pretty much anyone with an opinion. The overwhelming and sad consensus was that these teenagers were damaged, troubled and bad. They were told that it was too much work and too late for them. Leah and Monty could not disagree more!

Fostering Success Foundation is their dream come to life. Now is the time to get to work.