10/01/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ByvKTPSz9/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Hello everyone! Many of you know that foster families, Foster Care Review Board, and FFAN are dear to my heart. FFAN is located 3 buildings down from my office. They are in DIRE need right now! Please help if you can! Foster Families Assistance Network
Good evening FFAN friends...
The photo below tells so many stories.
I have always been very transparent with our FFAN supporters. I open myself up on a personal level a lot on here... I have wanted to ensure that the choice to support us was after knowing what we are dealing with, what's going on for kiddos, and what the needs are...
With that said... The first thing I want to do is apologize to the folks who came out Monday evening, after 2 months of planning and days of work, to get information about our 9th annual holiday drive. We had the center decorated, tours planned, and lots of other activities and information to pass out. The kickoff was to start at 6... And when I showed up at 4:30 to do a final setup, I arrived and immediately found out our electricity had been shut off. It is extremely embarrassing to put that much effort into our event only to have not been able to pay the bill in its entirety and have our power shut off two hours before.
We had the entire event... in the dark.
For everyone who attended, I am deeply sorry that it went like that. And now you know why the picture is dark and shadowed... Someone snapped that with their cell phone while someone else's flashlight was on.
The second issue you can see, is that our shelves are empty. That section is our diaper section. The yellow papers are our diaper sizes. As you can see, we are out of everything above size 2. With 0 wipes available as well. If there were a picture of our underwear and socks wall, it's empty as well.
I would love to tell you things are ok. They aren't. I would love to tell you we have all the support we need. But we don't. I would love to tell you that we aren't needed, but that would be false. And I would love to tell you there is some miraculous plan to survive, but there isn't.
The picture is saying everything.
I told you I'm transparent... And I am going to be transparent now. I dipped into my last remaining reserve, my retirement funds, to get us through another month or two... After that... I don't know what we will do.
Please, please understand we have talked with the state, we have talked to politicians, and we have tried to talk to many churches. We have applied and have applications out for grants. So suggesting those things to us won't help. I had a senator at our event... Who literally said. "There are no resources for the families we help". If the state won't help the kids, they certainly don't have help for us. We do get some support from some churches, but the vast majority, don't answer my requests for an audience. So... We are here.
I have always believed that if the system was going to change, if our kiddos were going to get help, it wasn't going to come from the state or the churches... Both of those entities have had over 100 years to put children first and create a system that works and honestly, it's worse than it's ever been. The only way... THE ONLY WAY... To make a difference for the thousands of kiddos waiting for help... Is for each individual person in our community, each leader, each business, etc. to be involved. That's what FFAN was born for... To bring awareness, opportunity for support, and action.
So... Here we are. Hopefully we can survive, but I'm preparing for the worst. I'm not going to ask for anything today... We have asked for the last couple months in every post and here we are. I just wanted you all to see what we are dealing with. See how tough it is to support the kiddos in care who need it the most. I appreciate you reading this... I know it was a crappy post... But it's real.
Anthony Poteet
