My City June 2021

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DAVE, TAMI, LYDIA (FRONT WITH CLARA’S PHOTO), JOSH, DEAN, LILLIE, RAY

Clara’s Hope REMOVING BARRIERS BY CHERYL DENNISON x PHOTOS PROVIDED BY TAMI KROMER

T ami Kromer and her hus band, David, have provided foster care for 40 children in their lifetime and their 40th, a teenager, still lives with them along with their two adopted children. The caring couple adopted three of the children they fostered. Tami is now the founder and director of Clara’s Hope, which was created in 2015 under the umbrella of the Freedom Center Church until it became an indepen dent nonprofit in September 2020. According to the founder, Clara’s Hope exists to help families foster and adopt successfully.The organization offers

support that is geared toward moving families from simply surviving to thriv ing. “We work to fill in the gap between agencies and families by providing acces sibility to support and resources,”Kromer states. “We utilize volunteers to provide meals, house-cleaning, small home re pairs and childcare for foster families.” Many of the children who en ter the foster care system have been subjected to trauma of some sort, Kromer explains. “We realized it was really hard, and we didn’t have a lot of knowledge about trauma. We didn’t know how to ask for help and there wasn’t a lot of help out there.” p

A GROUP OF DEDICATED CLARA’S HOPE VOLUNTEERS AT AN APPRECIATION GATHERING.

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