Parent Nights Out
Foster & Adoptive Parent Nights Out are a powerful way for your church to step into the foster care space. Your church’s background-checked volunteers enjoy the satisfaction of serving, parents receive much-needed respite and encouragement, and kids experience fun activities and a sense of belonging. FPNOs generally last 3-4 hours and are held on a Friday or Saturday. Most churches provide a meal for the children in attendance. Equipped & Encouraged aims to host one FPNO each month, rotating among twelve churches so that each church holds one FPNO annually. A PDF Parent Night Out Guide is available to provide all the information and suggestions your church needs to make your FPNO a success!
Because You Care Packages
These packages are shipped quarterly to each registered foster and adoptive family. Packages contain thoughtfully chosen items, intended to encourage families to slow down and take time to focus on connection, which in turn helps children heal from past trauma. Each box prioritizes holistic care and is curated with a focus on play. Play disarms fear, helps children learn and retain new information, and encourages the building of healthy relationships. Caring for children holistically helps ensure that we take into consideration their emotional, physical, relational, academic, spiritual, and environmental needs.
Curious about what's inside a Because You Care Package? Check out the contents of our Spring 2026 package right here.
Peer-to-Peer Support
E&E provides online and in-person opportunities for foster and adoptive parents to connect with their peers. Uplift Adoptive Families welcomes Brevard County adoptive families, grandparents raising grandchildren, and permanent guardianship families to monthly in-person support groups. Dinner, childcare, and training are provided. Families also have ample time for fellowship with other families. Children who have experienced trauma have complex needs, and parenting them comes with a unique set of challenges. Uplift’s goal is to create a safe space where parents can connect to learn practical TBRI-based parenting skills and share their common experiences, insights, struggles, and successes.
Looking for more information about our in-person meetings? Email: info@equippedandencouraged.org
Care Carries Duffel Bags
The Care Carries program provides new, thoughtfully designed, kid-friendly bags to children entering, in, and exiting foster care in Brevard. This program helps ensure that children in foster care are shown that they are far too valuable to carry their belongings in trash bags, but it goes further than that. Each bag contains items chosen carefully to meet the child’s physical, felt safety, connection, and expression needs. Our hope is that these bags will empower children who have experienced significant trauma and begin restoring in them a sense of safety, belonging, and self-worth. Check out our Amazon Wishlist to purchase items needed for bags or donate using the GIVE NOW button at the top of this page.
Download our Care Carries flyer right here.
Practical Support
E&E partners with churches, organizations, and community groups to collect fun and/or practical things that foster families need. Diapers and wipes, hygiene products, toys, cleaning supplies, Christmas gifts, school supplies, baby equipment, and other essentials - when you provide essential items to meet tangible needs, you give encouragement, ease stress, and help parents focus on the children.
Download our Practical Support flyer right here.
Resources & Advocacy
Navigation of the foster care and adoption journey can be overwhelming. E&E connects foster and adoptive families with trusted resources, practical guidance, and advocacy to help them navigate the unique challenges of caring for children impacted by trauma. We support families in identifying community services and work alongside local agencies and partners to strengthen support for caregivers. We also offer Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) caregiver training to equip parents, caregivers, churches, schools, and professionals with practical, trauma-informed strategies that help children heal and thrive. Through community presentations and speaking engagements, we educate and inspire audiences about foster care, adoption, trauma-informed care, and meaningful ways everyone can support vulnerable children and the families who care for them.
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