Welcome to The Newsfeed.

I'm Paris Jackson.

We're here in Port Townsend, just a little more than two hours outside of Seattle, where hundreds of children and youth are growing up in foster care on the Olympic Peninsula.

Nonprofit Olympic Angels is supporting children in care and families through intentional giving, relationship building and mentorship.

You'll meet some of the people making a difference in the lives of some of the most vulnerable kids in this community.

In quaint Port Townsend, there is a community opening their homes and hearts to change the lives of children in foster care, like Ari Patterson.

I think that even me being a foster parent and a volunteer, I think it makes me a better human all around because I am more empathetic, I'm more understanding, I am more patient.

I understand humans at a different level.

Patterson's understanding of the system runs deep.

Long before she was a foster parent, she was in foster care herself as a child.

She was also a program manager for Olympic Angels.

The nonprofit started in 2020 to be another resource outside of the state system for children and youth in foster care and their foster families to receive additional support.

Patterson says the kids are often overlooked and their foster families overwhelmed.

So we're small out here, so we have a chance to do it right.

I think big cities, you walk on the street and you're a stranger.

In our cities, you walk on the street and you're either a family member or friend or went to school with somebody, Patterson says these kids face immense challenges, such as higher mental health and medical needs.

They have to see doctors and dentists and eye doctors and therapists and visits.

Foster parents can only be 1 or 2 people, right?

And so I couldn't always be in five places at once.

And so they really filled in that gap.

A Northwest Foster Care Alumni study found nearly 65% of youth in foster care, in Washington and Oregon changed schools seven or more times, interrupting their learning and support system.

Olympic Angels executive director Tasha Fitzgerald says that's why one of their programs focuses on mentorship.

Once that mentor enters that relationship, they are giving their time, their energy and their love willingly.

And that means a lot.

It is really important for someone to be in a child's life who knows the color of their eyes and the passions of their hearts.

For nearly a year, Misty Adair has been a mentor.

I think that we came together at a time for her where she was ready for some differences to happen.

So the synergy was there.

So we have already seen some really positive changes in her life.

Adair and her mentee bonded over their shared interest in arts.

We decide on a project we want to do.

I got all the materials and we have this big studio time.

We've actually gone to a professional studio before and made rings together.

We made ourselves matching rings.

I'm actually wearing mine right now.

That was a really cool experience.

As for Patterson, hearing Adair talk about her experience as a mentor and her mentee got her emotional.

I've known this child since they were six years old.

And so, just hearing from her perspective how magical it's been.

It's kind of touched me a lot.

And all three hope that by connecting with more children in care in this area, volunteers can help kids reach their fullest potential.

To learn more about Olympic Angels or to offer support, head to OlympicAngels.org.

I'm Paris Jackson.

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