What is the Coalition?
The Families and Foster Care Coalition was formed in 2021 to address the high number of children and youth without placement who were staying in hotels at the time. It has since grown to a group of 80+ nonprofit organizations, faith congregations, businesses, community stakeholders, foster parents and individuals interested in the work of foster care.
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The goal of the Families and Foster Care Coalition is: To build awareness and understanding within the greater Waco community through education and mobilization; therefore increasing capacity within the foster care community through community engagement.
Meet the Coordinator
Andrea is originally from Dearborn, Michigan. She has lived in New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Astana, Kazakhstan. Waco has been her home for ten years. Andrea holds degrees in apparel design and production management for apparel from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She has worked as a technical designer, an overseas educator, a church missions & outreach coordinator, founder and executive director of a community outreach organization.
Locally, she has worked in various roles in Waco ISD and organized emergency response teams for natural disasters. Andrea and her husband, Aaron, sent their oldest child off to college this year and have two children at Waco High School. She enjoys traveling locally and abroad, hiking, sewing, reading, cooking and eating delicious food.
Meet the Coalition Chair
Anna Futral is a graduate of Baylor University, where she received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and a Master of Taxation. She built her career as a Certified Public Accountant at JRBT, where she worked for over ten years, followed by six years as Executive Director for CASA of McLennan County. In a return to her professional roots, Anna is now the Director of Operations at JRBT. Anna was an original participant in forming the Families & Foster Care Coalition and serves as the Coalition Chair, drawing on her professional experience at CASA and personal experience as a foster and adoptive parent to lead the coalition forward.