Child Bridge | By Caitlin Cromwell

Child Bridge is a faith-based nonprofit that finds and equips foster and adoptive families across Montana.

Montana has a record of 3,391 kids in the foster care system. That number has risen by 500 since 2017 and tripled since 2008.

The state is making strides in helping abused and neglected children, but in 2017, Montana’s state legislature cut $50 million from public health and social services, stretching already-thin resources and staff. In particular, Montana needs foster homes.

Child Bridge recruits families and couples to serve as foster parents. In 2017, Child Bridge cared for 228 children who had been removed from their homes. Some of those children were able to return to their biological families, while the remainder stayed in temporary foster care or were permanently adopted by their Child Bridge families.

One of those kids is 16-year-old Cecilia Warricks. Cecilia’s parents struggle with addiction, and she was removed from their home when she was 7. Child Bridge found a foster home for Cecilia and her sister, and their foster family adopted them in 2012.

“Transitioning into a new family was hard at first,” said Cecilia. But over time, her new family “totally changed my life and has given me a hope and purpose. I’m living proof that, when necessary, adoption from foster care is so important.”