Our Mission:
We equip Polk County students with emotional capacity and practical skills training that equip them with navigating life's challenges with clarity, confidence, and hope. When crisis strikes students are better equipped to recover faster.
Purpose:
Through consistent support, The Capacity Training for Student Wellness Workshop (monthly), and immersive retreats with ongoing therapeutic support, we meet Polk County students where they are and help them develop the capacity to regulate emotions, make wise decisions, advocate for themselves, and recover from adversity.
Promise:
When students have access to immediate practical care, skill building experiences, and ongoing therapeutic support, they discover their circumstances don't have to control their future—they can think clearly, make different choices, build healthy relationships, and determine what happens next
10 YEARS OF IMPACT
Since November 2016, The Blended Family Foundation (BFF) has responded when children, students, families, and communities throughout Central Florida and Polk County faced immediate needs that could not wait.
Through emergency closets in Polk County schools, community centers, community outreach, and assistance following hurricanes in and beyond Florida, we assisted with clean-up after tornados, flooding, and other crises.
Behind every number is a person. A student who needed shoes to attend school with dignity. A family facing an unexpected crisis. A community recovering after a disaster.
For more than a decade, we have shown up when immediate needs arose.
NOW WE'RE ADDRESSING WHAT COMES NEXT
Meeting an immediate need matters. So does helping a student remain stable while navigating the circumstances surrounding it.
The reality: a student with shoes still faces decisions, relationships, emotions, and responsibilities that no closet can solve.
We've identified the gap. Students may already receive counseling, mentoring, academic support, independent-living instruction, life-skills training, and licensed clinical services. Those services matter in a major way. But receiving information, completing a program, or learning a skill does not automatically mean a student will be able to consistently use what was learned when life becomes difficult.
For students living in adverse situations—especially those in foster care and those aging out of care—the distance between knowing what to do and being able to consistently do it can be long and difficult.
That is the gap BFF is working to address.
OUR EXPANDED STUDENT WORK
Beginning this year, BFF is creating intentional experiences that help students become better prepared to navigate the real-life emotions, decisions, adversity, relationships, responsibilities, and opportunities they face as they grow.
QUARTERLY RETREATS Immersive, interactive day-long experiences designed around real-life challenges and the increasing demands students face as they move toward adulthood. Retreat participants receive ongoing therapy support—paid by BFF—to reinforce what they've learned and extend connection beyond a single experience.
MONTHLY WORKSHOPS: THE CAPACITY TRAINING FOR STUDENT WELLNESS Four-hour interactive experiences providing continued opportunities for practical learning, connection, and reinforcement throughout the year. Students practice emotional regulation, decision-making, conflict resolution, and self-advocacy.
CONTINUED EMERGENCY SUPPORT We continue operating emergency closets at Polk County schools for students facing immediate crises, ensuring they can focus on school and growth.
WHO WE SERVE Upper elementary through high school students in Polk County, with priority focus on those navigating adverse situations, foster care youth, and those aging out of care.
HOW WE MEASURE IMPACT
We do not replace clinical care or existing student services. We strengthen the support surrounding the student by working alongside counselors, social workers, schools, foster care organizations, churches, and community partners.
What we track:
Student attendance and engagement
Parent surveys on family stability
Behavioral shifts reported by schools
Therapy participation and post-retreat outcomes
THE NEXT DECADE
Receiving an opportunity and living in it are two completely different mindsets.
Our next decade expands beyond meeting the immediate need in front of a student to helping Polk County students become better prepared for the emotions, responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities ahead of them
We will continue showing up when immediate needs arise.
And we will equip students with practical tools, meaningful support, and the capacity to determine what happens next—in the classroom, in friendships, in their first job, in college or career, in adulthood, and in the family they may someday build.
PARTNER WITH US
If you are a school leader, foster care organization, LMFT, social worker, licensed clinician, church, community organization, or funder serving students in Polk County, we'd love to connect.
Partnership opportunities:
Sponsor a quarterly retreat
Sponsor The Capacity Training for Student Wellness Workshop
Fund a cohort of students for full program access
Refer students to BFF programs
Provide professional expertise to student experiences
Tell us about the students you serve, the needs you're seeing, and the outcomes you want to strengthen.
Contact us:admin@theblendedfamilyfoundation.com