Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced that it's invested more than $4.3 million to help low-income children and youngsters in foster care.
Blue Cross NC said that it relied on strong ties with communities to steer exactly how the money should be used. About 31,000 children are enrolled in North Carolina’s programs for foster care, adoption services, or helping former foster children younger than age 26 transition out of the program. BCBSNC’s investments are spread out over 49 organizations in every county in the state.
"Community leaders across the state tell us often how substance use disorders have increased in recent years and child abuse reports have skyrocketed while there is a shortage of mental health care and foster homes—circumstances that stack the deck against the health and well-being of children and can impact our state for generations," Angela Boykin, vice president of engagement, integration and innovation at Blue Cross NC, told Fierce Healthcare in an email.
Organizations that will receive the funding include SaySo, a statewide group that offers housing assistance to youth in foster care, and Thompson Child & Family Focus, which began as an orphanage in 1886 but now provides services aimed at early childhood development, family stability and mental health.
“At SaySo, we empower youth and provide opportunities that set them up for success in adulthood,” Carmelita Coleman, director of SaySo, said in a press release. “Through collaborative efforts with Blue Cross NC, we are helping address needs like housing assistance that is critical to the well-being of young adults on the path to independence.”
Data from the Annie Casey Foundation show that about one-third of former foster care children in the state do not have stable housing by age 21, according to the release.
Jennifer Stout, Thompson’s operations director, said in the press release that thanks to Blue Cross NC her organization has been able to “utilize the funds provided to more deeply reach out to families considering becoming foster parents. The need to impact people is truly important.
"Everyone needs to know how much foster parents are needed in North Carolina," Stout said.
There’s been a 20% decrease in foster families in North Carolina between 2020 and 2022. With the help of the insurer's funding, Thompson, and other organizations—KidsPeace, Seven Homes, and Children’s Home Society of North Carolina—have been able to recruit foster families for about 250 children, according to the release.
Stout added that even if someone isn’t able to become a foster parent, they can still help the program in numerous ways, and the Blue Cross NC funding will come in handy.
“Relationships like the one that Blue Cross NC and Thompson has is critical to helping stand in the gap in helping children and families become successful,” Stout said.
Because children and youth in foster care use mental health services at a rate 15 to 20 times greater than the general child population, Blue Cross NC also partnered with an organization called Agape NC that provides trauma-based intervention training to foster families.
Of course, the best way to help children and youth in foster care is to keep them out of the system, if possible. Thompson launched an evidence-based model of how to treat family trauma in communities in Cumberland County that have high percentages of individuals in the child welfare system, according to the release.
Fran Gary, Blue Cross NC’s senior vice president for government markets, said in the press release that “supporting the health and well-being of North Carolina means advocating for our most vulnerable, including children, youth and families involved in the child welfare system.”