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\nThe age-old saying, \u201cIt Takes A\xa0Village,\u201d is what\xa0New\xa0Life\xa0Village\xa0lives\xa0by, and they should know. Founded and headed up by husband and wife duo Isamarie (Isa) Banks Nieves and James Banks,\xa0New\xa0Life\xa0Village\xa0exists 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. \u201cAt\xa0New\xa0Life, our\xa0village\xa0is our community of stakeholders that believes that every child deserves an opportunity to succeed in\xa0life\xa0no 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,\u201d Banks Nieves says. She continues, \u201cOnce they turn 18,\xa0life\xa0just 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\u2019s why we exist and are building on what we are standing for.\u201d It\u2019s 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\xa0New\xa0Life\xa0Village, complete with a bakery/coffee shop, media arts section, and a big working kitchen. \u201cOur vision for this place is to be a blessing not only for our kids but for the community too,\u201d James says as he points out different sections of the building. \u201cWe 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,\u201d Isa adds, looking in on the various stages of construction in the building. Isa continues and begins to become emotional, \u201cThe 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.\u201dAs they continue to walk through the building, both James and Isa elaborate. \u201cOnce our youth, whether it\u2019s 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,\u201d James says. \u201cLet me be clear, \u2018Kicks them out\u2019 is a very harsh term, but I think at this point, where I am and with what I\u2019ve seen with the youth we are working with and have worked with, harsh doesn\u2019t even come close to what these kids, our kids, have been through,\u201d Isa says in a matter-of-fact tone, without any of the emotional context you can feel as she says this. She continues, \u201cCan 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.\u201d \u201cWhat happens when foster children and our youth don\u2019t get ANY of that? There\u2019s 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\u2019t prepare them for what they are about to walk into out in the real world,\u201d says Isa.\u201cWe see it time and time again. It doesn\u2019t get any easier the longer we work with our youth. It\u2019s 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,\u201d 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,\xa0New\xa0Life\xa0Village\xa0| Foster Care\n\n