Something Something about New Life Village

The age-old saying, “It Takes A Village,” is what New Life Village lives by, and they should know. Founded and headed up by husband and wife duo Isamarie (Isa) Banks Nieves and James Banks, New Life Village exists to bridge the very wide gap between the foster care of our youth who are about to age out of the foster care system at the age of 18 or who have aged out of the system and have nowhere to go or to turn to. “At New Life, our village is our community of stakeholders that believes that every child deserves an opportunity to succeed in life no matter where they come from. It just so happens that these kids come from a place of not knowing what is going to happen to them once they age out of the system,” Banks Nieves says. She continues, “Once they turn 18, life just falls in front of them and is coming at them at a million miles an hour, and they have nowhere to go or anyone to turn to. But that’s why we exist and are building on what we are standing for.” It’s not just talk. James and Isa are in the process of building out a 4,000 sq. ft. facility in Killeen, Texas. The building will serve as both a fundraising opportunity for New Life Village, complete with a bakery/coffee shop, media arts section, and a big working kitchen. “Our vision for this place is to be a blessing not only for our kids but for the community too,” James says as he points out different sections of the building. “We want to teach our kids responsibility. We want them to work here, make money, and gain the confidence and understanding they need as they move into the workforce beyond here,” Isa adds, looking in on the various stages of construction in the building. Isa continues and begins to become emotional, “The building we are walking through, everything you see here, everything that will be in this place, will be donated. We have an amazing board of directors who believe in us and what we are doing. We share the same vision and want the same thing for our kids: structure and someone, something to believe in.”As they continue to walk through the building, both James and Isa elaborate. “Once our youth, whether it’s a boy, a young man, or a girl, a young woman, turn 18, the foster care system kicks them out. They have nowhere to go,” James says. “Let me be clear, ‘Kicks them out’ is a very harsh term, but I think at this point, where I am and with what I’ve seen with the youth we are working with and have worked with, harsh doesn’t even come close to what these kids, our kids, have been through,” Isa says in a matter-of-fact tone, without any of the emotional context you can feel as she says this. She continues, “Can you imagine growing up in a system that is overcrowded and understaffed? No one has time for you, much less gives you the attention every child needs to develop into self-reliant, confident adults who become productive members of society.” “What happens when foster children and our youth don’t get ANY of that? There’s a developmental gap that begins to widen, and by the time they, the kids, reach the adult age of 18, they are expected to walk out of a system that didn’t prepare them for what they are about to walk into out in the real world,” says Isa.“We see it time and time again. It doesn’t get any easier the longer we work with our youth. It’s heartbreaking when we first meet them. Standoffish, not really knowing who to trust, and the emotional disconnect that will always come with what they have been through,” James says.
But there is hope in what Isa and James are doing by standing in the gap between foster care ending and what is next.
According to their website, New Life Village | Foster Care