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Topic: Volunteering

HIGHLIGHTS: This State Is Solving The Foster Care Crisis (Here’s How)

This is the shorter “highlights” version of the episode. 

Coach Bill Courtney sits down with Chris Campbell, Executive Director of Oklahoma’s 111 Project, to unpack how Oklahoma has cut the number of children in foster care nearly in half—from 11,500 to 6,000—and what communities across America can learn from their success.

Rather than pointing fingers at government, Chris shares how churches, nonprofits, everyday citizens, and public agencies began working together to build practical pathways for people to help. From recruiting foster families to preventing children from entering foster care in the first place, this conversation is full of ideas that any community can adopt.

Chris also shares the deeply personal moment that changed the course of his life: holding a two-day-old baby with nowhere to go.

In this episode:

  • Why America has a foster parent shortage—and the consequences for children.
  • How Oklahoma dramatically reduced the number of kids in foster care.
  • Why prevention is just as important as recruiting foster families.
  • The story behind CarePortal and how a simple app is helping keep families together.
  • Why supporting struggling families often matters more than removing children.
  • The surprising role churches can play in solving one of America’s biggest challenges.

If An Army of Normal Folks each did what we can, this is one problem we really can solve.

Check out the resources below!

RESOURCES

Learn more about 111 Project at 111Project.org | One Church, One Family, One Purpose

Follow 111 Project on socials @111projectok

Interested in fostering? Search for foster parent classes in your community and join them. No commitment required. Exploration is the first step. 

Want to help prevent kids from unnecessarily entering foster care? Sign up for CarePortal at https://www.careportal.org/

ARMY ACTIONS

Subscribe to the podcast and rate & review us!

Signup to join the Army, visit NormalFolks.org

Follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolks

Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/

Take The 10 Level Challenge, “the hero’s journey for service” at 10LevelChallenge.org

This State Is Solving The Foster Care Crisis (Here’s How)

Coach Bill Courtney sits down with Chris Campbell, Executive Director of Oklahoma’s 111 Project, to unpack how Oklahoma has cut the number of children in foster care nearly in half—from 11,500 to 6,000—and what communities across America can learn from their success.

Rather than pointing fingers at government, Chris shares how churches, nonprofits, everyday citizens, and public agencies began working together to build practical pathways for people to help. From recruiting foster families to preventing children from entering foster care in the first place, this conversation is full of ideas that any community can adopt.

Chris also shares the deeply personal moment that changed the course of his life: holding a two-day-old baby with nowhere to go.

In this episode:

  • Why America has a foster parent shortage—and the consequences for children.
  • How Oklahoma dramatically reduced the number of kids in foster care.
  • Why prevention is just as important as recruiting foster families.
  • The story behind CarePortal and how a simple app is helping keep families together.
  • Why supporting struggling families often matters more than removing children.
  • The surprising role churches can play in solving one of America’s biggest challenges.

If An Army of Normal Folks each did what we can, this is one problem we really can solve.

Check out the resources below!

RESOURCES

Learn more about 111 Project at 111Project.org | One Church, One Family, One Purpose

Follow 111 Project on socials @111projectok

Interested in fostering? Search for foster parent classes in your community and join them. No commitment required. Exploration is the first step. 

Want to help prevent kids from unnecessarily entering foster care? Sign up for CarePortal at https://www.careportal.org/

ARMY ACTIONS

Subscribe to the podcast and rate & review us!

Signup to join the Army, visit NormalFolks.org

Follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolks

Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/

Take The 10 Level Challenge, “the hero’s journey for service” at 10LevelChallenge.org

The Pyramid That Explains Almost Everything

In this Shop Talk, Coach Bill dives into one of his favorite topics, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs!

An Army of Normal Folks diving into Maslow’s pyramid is one of the most important things you can do too, as it reveals how people truly flourish and how you can help empower the most vulnerable Americans to do so at increasingly higher levels. 

ARMY ACTIONS

Subscribe to the podcast and rate & review us! 

Signup to join the Army, visit NormalFolks.org 

Follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolks

Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/

Take The 10 Level Challenge, “the hero’s journey for service at 10LevelChallenge.org 

 

The Hero’s Journey (and Why Ours Starts With Normal Folks)

The Hero’s Journey isn’t just the formula behind Star Wars, Rocky, Pixar classics, and countless Hollywood blockbusters. It’s the oldest pattern found in real-life heroic action—and true across cultures, centuries, and civilizations.

And it always begins the same way: with an ordinary person.

Someone like you.

In this episode, Bill and Alex unpack why the timeless archetype matters and introduce “The 10 Level Challenge”—our new Hero’s Journey for service that you can dare to venture on and designed to help you engage your community, discover your purpose, and become someone who shows up.

Start your journey at TenLevelChallenge.org.

She Heard One Podcast and Drove Nine Hours to Volunteer

For Shop Talk, the extraordinary story one Army member inspiring another one, which inspires us and hopefully you! Amy Crenshaw’s nonprofit ComeUnity Cafe where you can donate money or work for your food inspired Lisa Fox to drive 9 hours from Wellington, OH to Jackson, TN to volunteer there for several days and explore if she can do something similar in her community. Listen to this episode and think: Who can inspire me to do even more? 

The 7 Things Every Person Needs to Flourish (Pt 1)

What does it actually take for a person—and a whole community—to flourish? That’s the nut that Joe Woodward from Stand Together is trying to crack in Wichita, as part of their goal to make it a model city for the country. In this episode, Joe shares the 7 conditions every person needs to thrive, why healthy families and communities matter more than we realize, and how ordinary people can solve problems that institutions can’t. From a $500 e-bike that transformed a single dad’s life to innovative efforts tackling foster care, housing, and poverty, this conversation will challenge the way you think about service, empowerment, and your role in helping your community flourish.

The 7 Things Every Person Needs to Flourish (Pt 2)

What does it actually take for a person—and a whole community—to flourish? That’s the nut that Joe Woodward from Stand Together is trying to crack in Wichita, as part of their goal to make it a model city for the country. In this episode, Joe shares the 7 conditions every person needs to thrive, why healthy families and communities matter more than we realize, and how ordinary people can solve problems that institutions can’t. From a $500 e-bike that transformed a single dad’s life to innovative efforts tackling foster care, housing, and poverty, this conversation will challenge the way you think about service, empowerment, and your role in helping your community flourish.