For more information about Kindred Matters go here.
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Michael Dunne: I’m Michael Dunne. For those of us who have pets, we know how strong separation anxiety can be, for both dogs and cats. Imagine the anxiety and sheer panic created when siblings are separated due to the foster care system, and often that separation is permanent. Today on the show, you'll hear from a relatively new nonprofit in our state that works tirelessly to make sibling separation more tolerable through advocacy, support and camps that bring siblings together. Kindred Matters creates a much more nurturing environment that helps erase the miles of distance. Then, in the second part of the show, you'll hear from two of our reporters about animal welfare: one report on how humans can help animals affected by wildfire, and another about updates to the beloved Cascades Raptor Center.
Dunne: Tia Nordstrand, executive director of Kindred Matters. Tia, thanks so much for coming in and talking with us.
Tia Nordstrand: Thank you so much for having me.
Dunne: Well, let's start with this: What is Kindred Matters? What do you do?
Nordstrand: Kindred Matters is a nonprofit organization serving folks throughout Oregon. We serve siblings who live separately, typically due to foster care, as well as what we like to call families of connection: families doing foster care, resource care, kinship care, guardianship care or adoption, really any families formed through connection rather than biology.
Dunne: And you serve the entire state.
Nordstrand: We do.
Dunne: About how many families and kids do you serve?
Nordstrand: This year, through our family camp programs, we served 162 people, including providers and young people. For our sibling camp programs, we had 20 young people join us in June, and we currently have about 40 scheduled to attend in August, though we still have room.
Dunne: Maybe for folks who don't know, talk about some of the obstacles and challenges of foster care that can lead to siblings being separated.
Nordstrand: Siblings are typically in foster care through no fault of their own; they're incredible young people. Our Connect programs serve four areas of the state: the Eugene area, the Salem area, the Portland area and the Central Oregon area. Those are open to any siblings living separately, they don't have to be campers in one of our camp programs. We have wonderful contracted providers who offer activities like swimming, bowling, trips to Wonderland or Oaks Park in Portland, and the zoo. Siblings who live separately, along with their providers and any other young people in their homes, whether foster siblings or biological siblings, all get to attend, free of cost. We serve about 200 people through those programs each year.
Dunne: Why are siblings separated? What's the main reason in foster care?
Nordstrand: A lot of it comes down to the number of foster homes available and how much space families have to care for young people. There are rules and regulations about home size, bedrooms and available space that affect whether siblings can stay together. So if a sibling group of five is removed at the same time, placements might only be available for two, one and two elsewhere, and separation happens that way. Sometimes siblings are separated because they have different biological parents; one might go live with a biological father who isn't related to the other sibling. And sometimes it comes down to timing: some children enter care before or after a sibling, and a placement isn't available for both at once.
Dunne: How do siblings find out about your organization? How do they contact you?
Nordstrand: We have a wonderful relationship with the Oregon Department of Human Services and Child Welfare, and a lot of caseworkers who put in extra time and care to apply for camp on behalf of their young people. We also have folks who find us through social media and through community partners. Project Lemonade is a wonderful partner, as is Angels in the Outfield. CASA is another avenue people use to find us.
Dunne: The court-appointed special advocates.
Nordstrand: Yes, court-appointed special advocates. They're wonderful, and their volunteers in different locations are incredible, and often it's a CASA volunteer who applies for a camper to attend.
Dunne: You've mentioned it several times, let's talk about it: the camps. What's their purpose, and what do you do there?
Nordstrand: I think there's something magical about summer camp. I don't know if you ever got to go to summer camp as a kid, but it was one of the places where I really felt I could be my full, authentic self, and that's our hope for our summer camp programs. We want them to be designed for the people we serve, by the people we serve, exactly what they need. Our family camp programs, while not technically in the summer, happen over spring break and Memorial Day weekend. Those are for families of connection, so the adults come too. We offer community education events, because to keep their foster care license, families need a certain number of continuing education units per household. So we bring in trainers, offer opportunities to learn from each other as a community, and give some time for respite. Meanwhile, our volunteers hang out with the young people while the adults learn and grow as a community. Those are typically long weekend events; families arrive on a Thursday or Friday and stay through Sunday or Monday, and they get to do all the quintessential summer camp fun alongside people with similar lived experience.
Dunne: So you might have a sibling in Cottage Grove and another up in Portland, and they can come together and meet at these camps?
Nordstrand: Yes, family camp is an opportunity for that, though not every family who attends has a sibling separation component. They're just people in the foster, resource, adoptive, kinship or guardianship community who come to camp. I've been volunteering for the organization since 2012, before I started working in different capacities, and it's been special to see the community that's formed. I think connection and belonging are some of the most important things we can have as people, and it's meaningful to see how these families support each other long after family camp ends. The communities that grow, the way they watch each other's kids (because you need background checks for anyone babysitting a child in care), there are a lot of components to being a foster parent, and it's powerful to see how they support each other through that. Maybe it's talking through what an IEP looks like for their child and how to navigate the school district, or what supports they can offer for behaviors they're seeing at home. Maybe it's talking about supporting sibling relationships or relationships with biological families, because those matter as long as it's safe to maintain them. The way this community has come alongside one another has been really special to witness.
Dunne: Obviously the foster system is necessary, but no system is perfect, and an organization like yours helps augment that. Talk about that need, because I imagine there are more kids out there than homes, right?
Nordstrand: Correct. There's been a lot of growth in that space and a lot of work to find affirming, wonderful foster families for our young people. Again, no system is perfect, and there's always room for improvement and for people to come alongside our young people and support them through a challenging time in their lives. The more foster families, the better. I think the system is difficult to walk through, and I think some people don't fully understand what foster care really is. There are a lot of misconceptions. One thing I hear a lot is that our young people have difficult behaviors, and what I like to say is that behavior is communication. Our young people are telling us what they need. Behaviors that might have kept them safe for a long time are often something they just need to unlearn once they know they're in a safe place with someone who loves them for who they are and will guide them through the next phase. Reunification is always the goal in foster care, and we always want to support families and young people toward that. Sometimes reunification isn't possible. But there aren't enough homes for all our young people, especially not enough to keep siblings together, and the more we can keep siblings together, the better. My brother will be the longest relationship I'll ever have in my life. He'll likely outlive my parents. I'll know him longer than I've known my partner. Having that tie to your family of origin, your culture, the people who share a similar lived experience, is incredibly important. My brother and I had the privilege of growing up in the same home, but we still experienced it very differently. Still, being able to share the same stories and memories with someone throughout your life matters. Our sibling camps strive to give our young people those opportunities: to come together and just be kids. Our kids are wonderful, and while yes, some behaviors exist, they're kids experiencing difficult moments, and the absence of their siblings can make that even harder.
Dunne: Without naming names, could you reflect on some of the comments kids have made about the camps, what they've expressed about the necessity, the fun and the joy of it all?
Nordstrand: Our campers are the reason we do this, and we always strive to make our camps for them, by them. Some of my fondest memories are the silly jokes campers make. I once asked one how camp could be better, and he told me, “Get camp out of the woods, I want it in a glass castle.” We obviously can't quite make that happen. Two wonderful volunteers come to mind: they were former campers who lived separately from one another, one in Washington and one in Oregon. They started coming to our camp programs many years ago and returned every year, and now they've both come back to serve as volunteers alongside each other. One is actually a board member now and gets to be the voice for our young people on our board. The way they talk about how camp connected them as siblings, while we don't want to be the heroes of their story (they're the heroes and authors of their own story), they've shared how important camp was to that connection, how it let them get away from all the outside voices in their lives and just spend time together. You don't have the outside influence of a parent, caseworker, teacher or therapist. There are a lot of paid adults in our young people's lives, and being able to remove that and just be in a space where they can be themselves and share a lived experience, whether horseback riding, hanging out at the beach or swimming, gives them memories to hold on to. We also do some really special sibling-connecting activities at camp. We do something called sibling pillows and quilts. There's a wonderful organization called the Quilting Sisters that provides us with pre-made pillows and quilts for our siblings to take home. The first time siblings come to camp, they write a message or draw a picture on a pillow, then stuff and sew it to take home as something to hold on to. As they keep coming back, we move them up to a quilt, which they also get to take home. We've done scrapbooking in the past too, and those former campers have brought those things back and kept them, something they have from their sibling. We also throw birthday parties at camp, where kids celebrate together and pick out gifts for one another, since they often don't get to celebrate birthdays together otherwise. Those moments are really special, and they're something our campers speak to often.
Dunne: You mentioned being a volunteer before joining the staff. Talk about the volunteer opportunities available at Kindred Matters.
Nordstrand: Our volunteers are some of the most incredible people I've ever met. I think it takes all kinds of people to do nonprofit work, and inclusion, equity and diversity are some of the most important things to us. Our volunteers help fill those roles, and it's powerful for our young people to see people who look like them and share similar experiences. So we strive to have people of all backgrounds join us to volunteer. We have people who come for the day at our family camp programs and help with childcare, and people who attend our full weeks of sibling camp or our weekend sibling camps in a camp-counselor role. You get to go back to camp as an adult, which is so fun.
Dunne: She is Tia Nordstrand, executive director of Kindred Matters. Tia, thank you so much for coming in and talking with us.
Nordstrand: Appreciate you having me.
Dunne: Let's check in with our own Julia Boboc about her story on how humans can help animals during wildfire season. Julia Boboc reports for us here at KLCC. Julia, great to see you, thanks so much for coming in and talking with us.
Julia Boboc: Thanks for having me, Michael.
Dunne: We're obviously immersed in fire season, and we all think about the human toll it causes, but it creates a lot of havoc for wildlife too. You recently talked to a wildlife hospital called Think Wild in Bend. Talk about some of what they shared about the impact on wildlife.
Boboc: Yes. The big thing I took from my interview with a Think Wild spokesperson was that wildlife are, like you said, also at risk for many different reasons during wildfire season, and summer is baby season for a lot of animals native to Central Oregon, which makes it harder for them to flee wildfires and means they're affected more deeply. So there's a lot to consider with this timing.
Dunne: And I'd imagine, like your story pointed out, more of us are going to come into contact with wildlife as they flee fires, maybe more often in urban areas, right?
Boboc: Exactly. As animals flee, they head toward areas that feel protected, which tend to be more urban, as we know.
Dunne: I liked that your story included some tips from Think Wild for what people can do when they come into contact with wildlife. Why don't you share some of those?
Boboc: Yes, exactly. If you want to help, and we all want to help wildlife, the biggest recommendation is to leave out fresh, clean water for animals suffering from smoke inhalation or dehydration. That can look like a dish of water similar to what you'd give a pet, left out and refreshed daily. If you have water features on your property, like bird baths or ponds, make sure that water stays clean and accessible, and make sure animals can escape it. Apparently, animals trying to drink from ponds or water features on people's property can get stuck, so rocks, ropes or wood planks can help something like a young deer climb back out after drinking. Another tip, speaking of pets: keep your pets close to avoid danger to wildlife in urban areas, since pets could attack them, especially babies. And a few other things: give animals space, don't feed them, and if you see an animal that's burned or behaving strangely due to dehydration, try not to engage. Call one of the many wildlife hotlines available, including Think Wild's for Central Oregon. If an animal is burned and needs care while you wait for professionals, the recommendation is to wrap it, when safe to do so, in 100% cotton cloth and place it in a ventilated box in a dark, quiet space until rescuers arrive.
Dunne: And I think your last tip may be the most important: be part of the solution, help prevent wildfires.
Boboc: Yes, exactly. That's more than addressing the surface level, it's about being careful in how we engage with the space. The Fourth of July has passed, so fireworks are less of a concern now, but things like shooting explosive targets or discarding cigarettes still matter. Being careful to prevent wildfires and keeping your home safe with defensible space can mean the difference between life and death for a wild animal.
Dunne: That's good enough incentive. If we needed any more reason to prevent wildfires, think of all the animals out there that need our help. Julia Boboc, really appreciate your reporting, thanks so much for coming in.
Boboc: Thanks, Michael.
Related story: “Wildlife in Central Oregon may need your help this fire season”
Dunne: Now let's finish the show by talking with our reporter about upgrades coming to the Cascades Raptor Center. Hannah Bush reports for us here at KLCC. Hannah, great to see you, thanks so much for coming into the studio.
Hannah Bush: Thanks for having me.
Dunne: You made a trip recently to a well-known facility here in our community, the Cascades Raptor Center. They've been planning some upgrades, talk about it.
Bush: They haven't started the upgrades yet, they're preparing to begin after Labor Day as part of their accessibility initiative. They'll be completely closed for eight weeks to redo their pathways.
Dunne: For many people who've been there, it's built on a hill. Even without mobility challenges, it can be difficult to see all the exhibits, so this will be a great improvement, especially for people who dread that walk.
Bush: Yeah, the Cascades Raptor Center sits right in the woods on Spencer Butte, so it's steep and hilly, with gravel roads that are hard to walk up, especially with any mobility issue. The new initiative will decrease the grade and add new gravel that should be less slippery. They're also adding new educational signs that will be bilingual.
Dunne: That'll be nice. I know you spoke with Executive Director Julie Collins, and she talked about wanting to be even more inclusive, right?
Bush: Yeah, they really believe that the more people connect with nature, the more they'll be able to do good for nature in the future. They want people to connect, but people can't connect with the animals or nature up there if they can't get up there. She talked about people who've visited in the past but might not be able to now if they've been injured or are aging, or people who say, “I wish I could bring my mom, but she can't walk up those steep hills.” It's a barrier, a barrier to learning about the raptors and the nature around us in the Pacific Northwest, and they're working against that.
Dunne: I'm sure people will be excited about that. She is Hannah Bush, a reporter for us here at KLCC. Hannah, thanks again for the story and for coming in.
Bush: Thank you.
Related story: “Cascades Raptor Center prepares for new accessibility initiative”
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at klcc.org. Tomorrow on the show, we talk to a Bend reporter for OPB about yet another controversy at the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
