Kalen Center focuses on foster kids

Safety and nurturing foster children are of the utmost importance for three Alpharetta organizations.

The Kalen Center facility hosts three groups involved in helping foster children: Giving Children a Chance, Dream Weavers and Moeller & Associates.

Giving Children a Chance provides the housing for foster children who are looking for foster families or reconciliation with the biological family.

Dream Weavers is a nonprofifit that helps raise funds for those foster children to fill needs such as school tutoring and extracurricular activities.

These two organizations worked alongside behavioral health group Moeller & Associates to create a thorough and holistic approach toward the personal transformation of foster children.

“We employ a whole-child approach to help each and every child on an individual level,” Kalen House founder Fred Moeller said.“We want every child to feel welcomed here.”

For all of the darkness and trauma that often occur in foster

care, Moeller and GCAC CEO Susan Lister have for these children.

One example of this hope takes form in their visitation center funded by Dream Weavers called the Cottage.

A homelike setting helps foster children and their biological family participate in bonding experiences in a supervised, yet relatively private capacity.

To Moeller, this setting

was an important contrast to parent-child meetings that often occur in public spaces with limited ability to build relationships.

Another way that the K al en Center creates a positive atmosphere is through its connection with the local community.

Recently, local residents helped build a playground behind the main property as a part of a Dream Weavers

initiative. A gift shop at the Kalen Center donates all proceeds toward Dream Weavers to help fund all the various events and initiatives they bring forth.

The most recent event involving the Kalen Center was their annual Christmas Toy Drive, which sought more than just to provide toys for the children. This event called for requested toys for the children to further the individual as the center of importance.

“It’s just amazing to see the look on children’s faces when they get something they truly want,” Lister said. “These children should have that opportunity just as any child should.”

CONTRIBUTED BY KALENCENTER The KalenCenter inAlpharetta features community groups — GivingChildren a Chance, DreamWeavers andMoeller & Associates— thatwork together to offffer a nurturing environment for local foster kids.