Meet Michelle Noe of Boost A Foster Family in Gilbert

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Noe.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Michelle. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a full-time special education teacher in Mesa and was privileged to teach many kids in foster care. I saw a need for foster homes through my Sun Valley Community Church. My husband and I took a class to become a foster home for children. Upon getting certified I found I had to purchase many items to pass the state requirement of becoming licensed. In my head, I was thinking, “Wow, I’m surprised the state doesn’t just give us gift basket of the items needed so we would automatically pass the inspection without getting dinged and having to be reinspected. I found that there is a 50% fail rate.” There were items I needed to buy like a different size fire extinguisher instead of the one we had. We had to buy a Co2 monoxide poisoning detector, physical medical exams that had to be within three months of the date. We needed an updated first aid kit and more. I thought, “Hm, too bad someone wouldn’t help folks out to make it easier. What if the people who couldn’t foster could help with these costs?

Soon, my husband and I finished our Financial Peace class and we had to give back to society financially. We have been super blessed in life. We worked hard for so many years. We needed to find a place to help. We first started by helping our first agency. Then, I called my first licensing worker Jenny Cook. She was so amazing. I loved her the first minute I met her. I asked her if she could help me give items away and how to do it well. She was eager to help because she knew the need was great and she found a way to help so efficiently. Boost A Foster Family was born. She suggested we start a non-profit. A non-profit WAS NOT on my bucket list of things. But after I had visited my foster son’s group home, I knew I had to do everything I could to get kids out of shelters and group homes and into families. I already had a full-time job, but there were kids in our state desperately need help.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Boost A Foster family has been a work of joy. Everything just seems to fall in place. We have an amazing board and fantastic volunteers. We have partnered with many churches. Our biggest blessing came when we became a QFCO, a Qualified Foster Care Organization. The most beautiful part about this is, most people who want to give, can donate $1000 if married or up to $500 if single. Just like the school voucher, they can get the entire donation back on their taxes, IF they have a tax liability. We recommend people check with their tax person. Once we got this, we asked our friends and family to donate. A few churches, including my own, did a special offering. Some churches adopted of on their Christmas Tree Gift Giving program. One boy did a PENNY DRIVE at school. We are on fire. Our requests from clients have tripled. Money comes in and items go out. We buy whatever they need from fire extinguishers to car seats, to rabies vaccines, to even help with part of the money to get a new pool fence. We repair broken windows and anything that hinders becoming licensed for kinship families, such as aunts, uncles, grandparents, even older siblings.

Please tell us about Boost A Foster Family – what should we know?
We help kinship foster families. We take away the financial hurdles. If a family can’t afford to keep their family members, children who need a home, we find a way to help that family get the proper items so they can take those kids and keep them safe.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
The most important part of the success is to be the change you wish to see. We are just everyday people. We saw a need, a great need. We didn’t sit home and watch Netflix every night. We are off the couch, being the help that families need to help reduce kids moving and to find stability.

Pricing:

• www.boostafosterfamily.org
• $1000 donations can be made per married couple for the QFCO Foster Care Tax Credit (any number up to this)
• $500 per person donation can be made per person (any number up to this)

Contact Info:

• Website: boostafosterfamily.org
• Phone: 480-2985665
• Email: @boostafosterfamily@gmail.com
• Facebook: @boostafosterfamily
• Twitter: @boostafosterfam

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