Fostering Change
Fostering Change with Rob Scheer Hosted by Comfort Cases founder Rob Scheer, this inspiring podcast shares powerful stories of resilience, compassion, and community. Each week, Rob sits down with guests who are making a difference in the foster care system — from former foster youth and foster parents to advocates, authors, and celebrities whose lives have been touched by foster care. With warmth, humor, and heart, Rob leads conversations that remind us all how dignity, hope, and love can change a child’s life forever. 💙 Have a story to share or a question for Rob? 📧 Email: info@comfortcases.org Follow us on social media: @comfortcases Learn more at comfortcases.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
What happens to a child when they grow up in foster care… and no one ever comes for them?
Not when they’re five.
Not when they’re ten.
Not even when they’re fifteen.
This week on Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by Jennifer Pinder, Executive Director of You Gotta Believe!, an organization that has spent the last 30 years proving that it is never too late for a young person in foster care to have a permanent, loving fami...
As National Foster Care Awareness Month comes to a close, this episode of Fostering Change focuses on something deeply important: what happens when organizations stop working in silos and start working together for young people.
This week, Rob Scheer is joined by two Los Angeles-based leaders making a meaningful impact in the lives of youth connected to foster care: Beth Ryan, Executive Director & Founder of Stepping Forward...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by Christie Werts, a former foster youth, Army veteran, author, and adoptive mother whose life has come full circle through foster care.
Christie shares her journey in her book, Life’s Sad Story, God’s Love Story, tracing a path from childhood trauma and separation to healing, compassion, and building a family of her own.
This is an especially emotional conversation fo...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by David Sussillo, a neuroscientist, author, and former youth who experienced a childhood marked by instability, poverty, and time in group homes.
His story begins in environments many children in foster care and group settings know all too well — uncertainty, trauma, and systems that don’t always provide the support they should. But his story doesn’t end there.
Through a ...
This episode kicks off National Foster Care Awareness Month — a time not just to reflect, but to act.
On today’s Fostering Change, Rob Scheer welcomes back Laura, The Foster Parent Partner, a therapeutic foster parent, mentor, and now author of First-Time Fostering, releasing May 12.
This conversation focuses on a question many people ask, but far fewer answer: what does it actually take to become a foster parent?
Not the ...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by Jennifer Griffith, author of Both Sides of Then: Finding Love After Abandonment and host of the About Your Mother podcast.
This conversation centers on a deeply personal and universal question: how much of who we become is shaped by the relationship we have—or don’t have—with our mother?
Jennifer’s memoir explores abandonment, generational trauma, and the search for...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer welcomes back Jodi Grinwald, founder of Today is the Day, co-founder of Applaud Our Kids Foundation, and author of the new book Today is the Day: LIVE IT!.
Jodi is a returning guest to the podcast, and we’re excited to continue this important conversation around opportunity, connection, and impact.
Jodi’s work is grounded in a simple but powerful idea: if the table doesn’t exist...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by Katy Encalade, President and CEO of Egg Donor & Surrogate Solutions, who has spent more than two decades helping to create and support families.
Katy brings a unique and deeply personal perspective to this conversation. She has been a foster parent, an egg donor, and a surrogate — offering a rare view across multiple paths of supporting children and building famili...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by Mordy Kurtz of The Boxery, a company that demonstrates how even behind-the-scenes business operations can play a meaningful role in supporting children in foster care.
At Comfort Cases, partnerships are essential. The Boxery has been a valued partner, providing boxes and shipping materials that help deliver Comfort Cases to children across the country. While this suppo...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by leaders and advocates working directly with young people transitioning out of foster care: Sarah Baumgartner of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Brian Robinson of Kids’ Voice of Indiana, and Princess Martinez Casanova, a foster youth leader and member of the Youth Impact Board at Kids’ Voice.
For Comfort Cases, partnerships have always been central to the mission. Th...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by Karen Segal, founder of Photo Safe, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting what many children in foster care often miss: photographs and personal memories.
For most families, childhood photos are a given. They capture milestones, friendships, and the small moments that help us understand who we are and where we come from. But for many children experiencing foster care, fr...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer is joined by his friend, Pedro Andrade, an Emmy Award–winning journalist, producer, and global storyteller whose work explores identity, culture, and what it truly means to be a family.
Pedro is the host and producer of the HBO Max documentary series Somewhat Familiar, which follows Pedro and his husband as they adopt a baby and travel the world exploring how families are formed ac...
On this episode of Fostering Change Podcast, Rob Scheer is joined by Temple Lentz — nonprofit CEO, local elected official, and debut novelist — for a thoughtful conversation about what happens when the systems designed to protect vulnerable families don’t always work the way they’re supposed to.
Temple is the author of the novel Not Quite Home, which explores the cracks in America’s social service safety net. While the book is f...
On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer sits down with Dr. Liz DeBetta — an award-winning writer, educator, and solo performance artist whose work explores adoption, trauma, identity, and healing through storytelling.
Dr. Liz is the founder of Migrating Toward Wholeness, a trauma-informed, arts-based healing framework, and the author of Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal. Her work centers on an often-overlooked truth: ad...
This episode of Fostering Change was originally scheduled to air in March — but after recording, Rob Scheer felt the conversation was too important to wait. He personally requested that it be released early so listeners could hear it as soon as possible.
Rob is joined by Rachel Bruno, a Nashville-based author, speaker, and advocate whose deeply personal experience with the child welfare system ignited a powerful call for account...
Nonprofits exist to serve people — not paperwork.
But too often, outdated financial systems slow growth, strain leadership, and pull focus away from mission-driven work.
This week on Fostering Change, Rob Scheer sits down with Stephen Garten, Founder & CEO of Charity Charge, a Public Benefit Corporation built exclusively to support the financial needs of nonprofit organizations.
Stephen launched Charity Charge in 2015 afte...
As Fostering Change continues through Season 7, this episode dives into an urgent but often unseen issue: menstrual and postpartum poverty, and how it impacts girls in foster care and communities around the world.
Rob Scheer sits down with Yvonne Esipila Patron, Co-Founder and CEO of the PATESI Foundation, an organization working globally to ensure women and girls have the dignity, resources, and education they deserve.
In 20...
As Fostering Change continues into the new year, this episode tackles one of the most urgent issues facing child welfare today: the national shortage of foster parents and what it means for children who need safe, stable homes.
Rob Scheer is joined by Kelsey Davis, National Director of Foster Parent Recruitment, and Stacy Brindley, National Treatment Director at StepStone Family & Youth Services. Together, they explore why f...
In this powerful episode, Rob Scheer sits down with Lindsay Lendyak, South Carolina State Director for Isaiah 117 House, to talk about one of the most overlooked moments in foster care: Removal Day.
Instead of children waiting for hours in government offices, Isaiah 117 House creates a warm, home-like space where kids can exhale, eat a meal, change into clean clothes, and feel safe while caseworkers find placement. Lindsay share...
As Fostering Change continues into the new year, this episode tackles one of the most urgent — and evolving — challenges facing young people today: staying safe, informed, and supported in a digital world.
Rob Scheer is joined by Jenny Coleman, a nationally recognized expert in child welfare and abuse prevention, and a former foster parent whose work is grounded in both professional expertise and lived experience.
Jenny serve...
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