Providing a Healing Place for Children in Foster Care

A therapeutic transitional residential program to help reduce the experience of trauma in foster care

Names and faces changed to protect privacy of children.

Children in foster care often bounce between child welfare (DCYF) offices, motels, shelters, emergency care facilities, and multiple short-term placements with little chance to get their questions answered, let alone process the trauma they have experienced.

Bridge Receiving Center is a therapeutic residential program where children (ages 4-18) find an immediate safe place to stay where they can begin to process their trauma while awaiting the next steps in their lives.

THE BRIDGE
DIFFERENCE

DETAILED PROGRAM OVERVIEW

• A transitional, safe place for children who need to be removed from home or a failed placement.
• Stability through trauma-responsive support during stay.
• Focus on increased sense of felt safety and security for children in care.
• Ability to keep siblings together.

• Time provided to locate the best option for the child, not the first available bed.

Bridge Difference

GET INVOLVED

DONATE

Bridge only exists because of your generosity! You can donate one-time, on a recurring basis with the 51 Club and/or buy items on our Amazon Wish List.

Give Online

VOLUNTEER

There are several ways to serve at Bridge including tutoring, helping with house repairs, organizing clothing/toy donations, and more. Fill out the volunteer form to get started.

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Caring for teens often means helping them care for their hair…for some it’s taking them to a salon for the first time…for others it is teaching them how to keep their hair clean…and for others, it’s supporting them in using their hair for self expression.

Helping a youth express themselves in ways that make them feel seen and supported is one key way to helping them feel safe in our care.

For D, that support came through a hair coloring session with our staff member Katie. Katie helped D get the perfect rainbow colors, which in turn helped D feel safe and supported by Katie.

All in a day’s work at Bridge.

Because sometimes hair coloring is just good trauma care.

#traumacare
#fostercare
#haircolor
#fosteringandempowering

Duffels for Dignity

This Wish List Wednesday, we have an emergent need for DUFFEL BAGS so our youth can exit Bridge with dignity and style!

To help us meet this need, use the link in our bio to shop our wish list.

We prefer the 85L size in neutral colors.

Thank you for helping every child leave our care with the dignity of their very own duffel bag!

Amazon Wish List:
https://a.co/bBSHZbR

#duffels
#wishlistwednesday
#amazonwishlist
#fostercare
#fosteringandempowering

Sometimes, it just takes a little one-on-one time for a child to be able to get past their self-protective strategies and begin making connections.

Thankfully, our staff is really good at noticing when a child isn’t letting themselves make those important emotional connections. They understand that past experiences of trauma in a child’s life make connections seem way too risky at times …and they begin to gently, carefully, safely offer that child a way to connect that doesn’t seem quite so risky or scary.

Recently, our staff member Katie noticed that L was having a really hard time making connections. So, she offered her some one-on-one time…taking L to McDonald’s and then roller skating.

L began to feel safe with Katie, being able to finally open up about some past bullying that L had experienced and how that had affected her. L then shared with Katie that she didn’t feel connected with the staff or kids at Bridge…and, in sharing this, L began to feel closer to Katie. After talking for a while, the two of them went off skating and had so much fun dancing and listening to the music playing.

When L came back to Bridge later that day, she not only felt more connected to herself and her own emotions …but her connection with Katie that day made it easier for her to begin ti let the others in as well.

And letting safe people in to how she is feeling and what is weighing heavy on her mind, is key to L beginning to heal from the pain of her past.

Roller skating and McDonalds and trauma healing.

All in a day’s work at Bridge Receiving Center.

#traumahealing
#makingconnections
#feltsafety
#rollerskating
#fostercare
#fosteringsaveslives
#fosteringandempowering

Eat pizza 🍕and help Bridge…Today at Mod Pizza Lake Stevens!

Remember to use the code “MODGIVES20” at checkout or online.

#modgives20
#fostercare
#bridgereceivingcenter

Today is the day!!!

Order from Mod Pizza’s Lake Stevens location in Frontier Village using the code “MODGIVES20” and 20% of your order total will be donated to Bridge Receiving Center!

Online and in person orders…ONLY at their Lake Stevens location…all day long!

🍕Helping Bridge Receiving Center never tasted so good! 🍕

#modgives20
#fostercare
#fosteringsaveslives
#fosteringandempowering

On this Valentine’s Day, we celebrate what an amazing privilege it is to work with such courageous children…

Children who, despite all that they have suffered, are finding the courage to do the hard work of facing what they’ve been through …daring to feel their feelings once again, even when doing so feels like to r hardest thing in the world.

Children who dare to trust us and let us into their lives and even their hearts.

This is what we get to be a part of each and every day at Bridge Receiving Center.

What a beautiful thing it is to see a wounded heart when it begins to heal.

Thank you for all you do to enable us to do the really hard and beautiful work of loving wounded children well.

We are grateful for every child… and for every one of you that makes this possible.

💔💝

#fosteringhope
#traumacare
#love
#fosteringandempowering

Next Sunday, you can raise some dough💰for Bridge just by eating pizza🍕! It’s that simple!

Order pizza from @modpizza Lake Stevens’ location on Sunday Feb 16 using the code “ModGives20” and Mod will donate 20% of your order total back to Bridge. Orders valid between 12 AM Sunday Feb 16 - 12 AM Monday Feb 17)

Or order in person at this location:
513 9th St NE, Lake Stevens

Remember:
Sunday Feb 16th only
Exclusively at Lake Stevens’ Mod Pizza

Giving to Bridge never tasted so good!

To get a copy of the flyer, use the link below ⬇️

https://bridgereceivingcenter.org/events

On behalf of every child who benefits, thank you❤️

#pizza
#modpizza
#fostercare
#fosteringandempowering
#fosteringhope

We couldn’t agree more with this quote by Deb Dana…

If we want to help change the world for the better, it has to start with helping people feel safe…at Bridge we help kids feel safe.

Because kids who feel safe can learn and take on new challenges.

Kids who feel safe can regulate themselves and better discern who is and isn’t safe to have in their lives.

Kids who feel safe can begin to heal from trauma and find new ways of being in the world.

If you want to help improve the world, join us in helping children who have been abused and neglected begin to feel safe within themselves and in the world…some for the very first time.

Bridge Receiving Center.

Changing the world by helping children feel safe.

#safespace
#helpingkidsfeelsafe
#traumacare
#fosteringandempowering
#fosteringsaveslives
#fostercare

While practicing can feel pointless at times, it helped 11-year-old D learn she can do hard things! An important lesson for her to learn as she is taught new practices at Bridge that can help her through her trauma triggers.

Life offers our residents so many lessons if they can feel safe enough to begin learning from them.

Bridge is a safe space where every child is given the safety and support they need so the tools and resources we share with them can actually begin to enable them to process the trauma they’ve been through and experience new ways of facing what lies ahead.

#traumaresponsivecare
#traumacare
#fosteringhealing
#fosteringhope
#fosteringandempowering
#fostercare
#safeenoughtolearn

“I’ll read to you because you read to me.”

Children model what the adults in their lives are doing…especially how they treat them. So beautiful to have our little 4-year-old V say she was going to read to our staff member because that is what our staff member offers her often…a story.

Children like V experience such a difference being at Bridge…being read to instead of being yelled at…receiving kindness instead of anger…care instead of neglect.

No matter what comes next in this little one’s life, these experiences of being taken care of in a safe and loving environment will stay with her, reminding her what it feels like to be treated well. And how good it feels to reflect kindness back to someone who treats you with love.

Bridge…a transitional trauma care residential program that is making a tangible difference in children’s lives.

#fostercare
#fosteringhealing
#fosteringhope
#fostercaresaveslives

Bridge works with children who are 4 through 18 years old which sometimes seems like a huge gap…but that age gap often creates moments where hearts grow softer because things need to be simpler.

Seeing two of our residents playing side by side at the arcade yesterday was one of those moments.

They each went off and had their own fun as well… 4 year old V enjoying all the games without us even having to pay for her to actually play any of them and 11 year old D soaring high above us all on the high flying ropes course…

But the sweetness that can happen between children of such different ages each coming from their own place of pain in their own family’s story, is a beautiful thing to experience when it happens.

#keepingitsimple
#arcadefun
#ropescourse
#fostercare
#fosteringandempowering
#fosteringhope
#fosteringhealing

Challenging limiting beliefs and overcoming fears…

Trauma care at work while children play.

All a part of The Bridge Difference.

Support a program that helps children in foster care access good trauma care.

Healing is happening here.
Donors like you make it possible.

Give to Bridge.

https://bridgereceivingcenter.org/donate

#traumacare
#childsplay
#fostercare
#fosteringandempowering
#fosteringhealing
#fosteringsaveslives

When you have two kiddos in the house who have a really hard time being around each other, you have to get creative! Our staff worked so hard yesterday to come up with ways to keep M and G away from each other but still working through their issues…

M took a lot of time and worked hard work to build her creations, even including some for staff! This was a great tool to help deescalate her from G invading her privacy. M has been working hard for many days using her imagination and de-escalating herself!

G has had a rough time spending time on her own and doing things by herself. While she is 13 years old, her mindset is closer to a 6 year old due to what she has been through. When staff are playing with her, G is so sweet, but she can become really physically challenging when left on her own. Our staff set her up on this educational toy for younger kids and she was able to spend at least 7 minutes at a time focused on it! That is quite an accomplishment!

As we start a new day at Bridge today, here are a few things we are grateful :

1. Our creative and patient staff members who work so hard to keep our kids safe while helping them process their personal stories of trauma
2. Educational toys and tools that help us find healthy ways to reach each child and help support them emotionally, mentally and physically in their own way
3. Every child we have received into our care who, despite all they have been up against in their lives, are willing to open themselves up to the possibility of hope and the future promise of healing during their time with us at Bridge. Their courage and willingness to trust our staff are such incredible gifts to receive.
4. Our Donors who make ALL of this possible. We truly couldn’t do ANY of this without you…so THANK YOU!

Another year starts at Bridge…more children to care for …more healing journeys begun.

#fosteringandempowering
#fostercare
#fosteringsaveslives
#fosteringhope
#fosteringhealing
#anotheryearbegins

A new year lies before us…

A year of possibilities …
A year of hope…
A year of healing journeys begun…
A year of trauma not having the last word in children’s lives.

That’s what we are anticipating in the year ahead at Bridge Receiving Center.

How about you?
What are you looking forward to this year?

If it doesn’t feel as powerful or life-changing as what we are anticipating at Bridge, we invite you to join us.

Because the hope, healing and possibilities we offer to children is real…and it can spill over into your own life as well if you let it.

So why not join us?

Donate.
Volunteer.
Share.

The year ahead is calling you …it’s going to be magical.

https://bridgereceivingcenter.org

#newyear
#fosteringhope
#fostercare
#fosteringsaveslives
#fosteringandempowering
#makeitmagical

Thank you @haggenfood Lake Stevens and Haggen Foundation for helping to provide holiday gifts along with much-needed clothing and shoes for the kids in our care. Being in foster care is always hard…being in foster care during the holidays is even harder.

Thanks to our good friends @haggenfood and all the generous people who shop at their Lake Stevens store, the holidays were a little easier because of your gifts:

#haggenhelps is not just a slogan…it is your way of doing business. Thank you for truly helping our kids this year❤️

#haggenhelps
#fostercare
#fosteringsaveslives
#fosteringhope
#fosteringandempowering
#makingtheholidayseasier

Images from Christmas Night spent riding the ferry across the Sound to visit a wonderful bakery for treats…and what is a ferry ride without a reenactment of the famous scene from Titanic…played here by two of our residents:-)

#fostercare
#fosteringandempowering
#fosteringhope
#titanic
#ferryboat

The kids at Bridge are having a fun morning opening up all their presents which our night staff elves tucked under the tree in the early morning hours while the kids were all sleeping …

This house, like our tree, is overflowing with goodness this morning thanks to so many of you who made all this possible.

From all of us at Bridge, on behalf of every child we have been able to help this year…and all those yet to come…Merry Christmas
🎄🎅🎁❤️

From all of us at Bridge Receiving Center, we wish you all a Christmas filled with people you love and the possibility of hope…the gift of healing.

Thank you for giving these most precious gifts to children in our care for this our fifth Christmas.

You have made such a difference.

May that be a gift to your own heart today💝

#fostercare
#fosteringandempowering
#fosteringsaveslives
#fosteringhope

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Development Team at Bridge🎄🎅❤️

You’ve made such a difference in the lives of children and teens who have found themselves in a really hard place in their lives.

We have asked A LOT of you this year…and you have given so beautifully.

For every dollar or in-kind donation you’ve given this year, THANK YOU!

You have helped children start to heal…they wanted us to thank you on their behalf.🙏💝🎁

#thankfulhearts
#fosteringhope
#puttingthecarebackinfostercare
#fostercare

For two of our residents, this weekend meant getting to go to their school dance. It was a dream come true for these two sisters …and the whole house got into the preparations. 12-year-old C even helped support them by laying out their dance clothes and everything they needed for their special night …he even got to be their makeup artist and he did a great job!

In a really hard week for our kids it was a really special night for us all…and the girls felt like princesses heading to the ball after their fairy godmother made magic for them.

Helping children in crisis still get to be part of all the “normal” moments in a child’s life is such an important part of helping them heal from the trauma they’ve been through and dare to find hope for their futures.

A truly magical night for the children at Bridge. ✨👑👸🏾

#schooldance
#makeup
#ifeelpretty
#fosteringandempowering
#fosteringhope
#fosteringhealing
#fostercare

A belated “Thank You” to our friends @lifepointnw Lake Stevens who treated our kids and staff to a movie and all the treats they could eat last weekend!

What a gift it was to the kids to not only get to go to a movie in a theater but to also be told they could get the treats they wanted…because the money to buy those treats had been handed to our staffers when they walked in!

And we got an extra special treat by seeing one of our former residents at the movies with her Grandma with the biggest smile on her face. She had also been invited through friends. So good to see her doing so well post-Bridge.

So grateful for this church that keeps caring for our kids with special holiday movies and dinners as well as gift cards and dollar donations.

Thank you @lifepointnw Lake Stevens!

#holidaymovies
#bestchristmaspageantever
#holidaygiftcarddrive
#fosteringhope
#fosteringhealing
#fostercare

So grateful to Sue Watson and our friends in the OR at St Anne’s in Burien. They filled the back of our Development Director’s car with all sorts of much-needed Welcome Basket items and stockings full of holiday magic for the kids of Bridge Receiving Center.

So grateful for folks like Sue and the team at St Anne’s OR who not only care for people who need help in the hospital…but also remember to care for our kids as well.

#holidaygiftcarddrive
#spreadingmagic
#generoushearts
#fostercare

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