Our Team

About Our Founder

FROM FOSTER CHILD > FOSTER PARENT > FOSTERING CHAMPION’S FOUNDER

 

Founder, Elizabeth Scott, was determined to create a platform to make a difference for children in the foster care system. As a former foster child, she wanted to give a hand up to foster children that needed additional stability and support to put their resilience to work for them. She started at the grassroots level with herself by engaging the loving support of her husband and family and becoming a foster parent. The Scott family was fully dedicated and adopted two beautiful daughters in the process. They continue to be a respite resource, while growing a new business.

 

Now she is advocating for those children aging out of the foster care system and alumni through Fostering Champions Independent Living Program as a place of possibilities. 

Her Story 

 

Elizabeth (Beth) was just a four-year-old child when she was put into foster care. She would spend six years with the Harbold’s who modeled a loving family and stability that gave her a firm foundation. She was provided nutritional meals, loving siblings, parental direction, and encouraged to participate in sports and areas of her interest for wholesome development. Like most children, Beth desired to return to her biological mother with the hope of receiving similar loving and nurturing support. Eventually she was returned to her mother’s care. However, her mother lacked stable housing and resources to care for her and her three siblings, while her father abandoned them completely. With grit and perseverance to find consistency for herself, Beth reached out to a program called Mission Home for Christ (later named Mission Home Education & Counseling).  The program was for adjudicated and disruptive youth which worked within the Juvenile Probation Department and Children & Youth Services in Pennsylvania.

 

Having compassion and empathy, Mission Home for Christ’s owner and CEO Keith Beatty Sr. and family obtained permission from Beth’s mother, to voluntarily take her into their home and their hearts. In the Beatty’s care, an African American family, Beth received the cultural diversity she lacked, application of faith in her daily life, love and stability that was indispensable. She successfully graduated from high school and business school, then returned to Mission Home for Christ determined to help other children for the next 16 years. She provided extraordinary passion, faith, inclusivity, and business knowledge to help give emotional, physical, educational, medical, and recreational needs for other children. It helped propel her to success and create a safe space for Fostering Champions like herself, to grow and transition into independent living, turning trauma into resilience. To change generational cycles of poverty, abuse, lack of education and cultural diversity deficits into empowerment opportunities.

FCILP Board Members

Kayla has a MA and BA in Public Relations for the University of Hartford with a minor in Psychology. Originally from New Haven, CT, she started working in the nonprofit space in her teens as a Peer Educator for Planned Parenthood, then later as the Chief of Marketing and Business Development at a local Credit Union. Kayla, similar to the CEO, has personal experience and firsthand knowledge of the benefits of blended families since she grew up in a household that included three adopted children. She has seen how children, when nurtured, valued, and given similar resources, will excel like all other children in their communities. Kayla and her family saw how the impact of their love, guidance, resources, and support improved the quality of life and success of her adopted siblings. When embraced, Kayla saw that foster children and adopted kids can overcome struggles with interpersonal relationships, confusion, and displacement to live harmonious lives as productive members of society.

 

With a love for self-analysis and soul-searching, Kayla is always striving to bring out the best in herself and others. Always gently nudging and encouraging others to reach their full potential, she operates on the notion that – “Everything we need to succeed is already inside of us.”

Larry Tucker comes to FCLIP with a plethora of education and certifications: PhD in Christian Counseling from Emanuel Baptist University, Masters in Administration of Justice from Shippensburg University, certificate in Family Therapist from Philadelphia Child and Family Therapy Center, certificate of Professional Counselor from Therapon University of Texas, and a certificate in Professional Life Coach he obtained from Dream Releaser.

 

As a professional counselor, life coach and family therapist and an individual with a passion for youth and families, Dr. Tucker serves as a great resource and advocate for children coming through the Fostering Champions Independent Living Program. As a distinguished supporter of aspiration and purpose, he strongly believes in fostering the goals of the youth that are served by the program along with the constructive interfacing with the community. He has faith that by assisting the procurement of social, economic, and educational opportunities for these youth within the community, is essential to their ability to thrive as adults. Dr. Tucker is committed to serving on the FCLIP Board of Directors and the excitement of a long-term involvement with the program.

Will is a two-time Super Bowl Champion and 9-year NFL Veteran. He has a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Connecticut. He views himself as a lifelong student inside and outside the classroom since he received so much education and wisdom regarding at-risk children, building businesses and closing transactions from his parents. His father was an entrepreneur who started a business serving adjudicated children, and mentored him while developing the family company. Before the company expanded, some of the children lived inside their home. Will learned firsthand the compassion and love every child deserves from observing his mother and interacting with the foster children. 

 

Will successfully transitioned from the football field into high-level construction project management and consulting work for non-profits. He studies, analyzes, compiles, and interprets complex data from various sources and then effectively presents information for informative decision making. His background, ability to thrive and manage a variety of time-sensitive projects as a visionary and problem-solver makes him effective with diverse groups such as: executives, philanthropists, athletes, coaches, and children from all walks of life and able to overcome project challenges to achieve precise execution and completion.  

 

He recently participated in an MBA course at Harvard Business School to expand his knowledge base and contributions to other businesses. Currently, Will consultants for two other non-profits, is a devoted husband and father to 4 young children. His passion is combing his education, research and knowledge to vigorously and enthusiastically support the projects and dreams of those who actively pursue serving and helping others, no matter the size. He loves seeing the visions come to fruition.