Foster care nonprofit gets major community support for Blackfoot upgrades
Sam Ross
BLACKFOOT, Idaho (KIFI)– The Idaho Foster & Adoptive Parent Association (IDFAPA) recently received an $80,000 donation from AgWest Farm Credit to support renovations to the IDFAPA’s Southeast Idaho ‘The Village’ headquarters.
IDFAPA is a non-profit organization that serves 16 counties across Southeast Idaho by providing support to children as they transition into foster or adoptive families.
“A lot of them come with nothing or very little,” said Jacque Burt, president of IDFAPA and director of The Village. “We provide them right off the bat a suitcase, clothing, new socks, new underwear, toys, comfort items and stuffies, things like that… they’ll come back after they’ve had a growth spurt or change of season, or just want to pop in and visit with us. They’ll come back and shop again and they’re welcome to. We’re just always a resource for those children and for those families that foster them.”
IDFAPA is currently renovating the building which previously housed Kirkham Auto Parts to make room for The Village, a multi-use space with a clothing closet for foster children and teens, family meeting spaces, classrooms, offices for case workers, and more.
Burt said the community of Blackfoot has come together in a major way to support the Village’s expansion-including AgWest’s $89,000 donation.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently donated $65,000 to the IDFAPA. Local contractors donated materials and labor to renovate the building’s frames and electrical work for free-other businesses are supplying HVAC and plumbing updates for a fraction of what they usually cost.
“We’re just really grateful, we absolutely could not do what we do without our community,” said Burt. “We are willing to drive the bus, but we can’t do all of the jobs-we need other people in there with us- and this community has wrapped around my foster children; I could have never predicted how much they would love these kids.”
To learn more about how IDFAPA serves the Southeast Idaho community, visit their website at: www.idfapa.org.