Bale’s Foster Tale in Palmdale
Over 500,000 children circulate throughout the foster care system each year. Despite the system being overpopulated and a traumatic process for those who experience it, it has undergone nearly no changes in the past 70 years. In an attempt to rectify this, actor Christian Bale is creating a modern set of foster homes. Bale and his wife, Sibi Blažić, declared on Feb. 7 that with their organization, Together California, they are going to build 12 foster homes in Palmdale set to be complete by April 2025. The development will also include apartments for biological parents who wish to reunify with their children.. The announcement took place at a press conference held between Together California and the City of Palmdale. A $1.2 million grant for pre-construction costs was approved in support of the project. Another $500,000 was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to help the project acquire land. The homes are set to be built on a five acre site and each home will have three bedrooms.
The team at Together California chose a unique model for the program, aiming to build a community within their village where each resident has support. Trained foster parents will live in the village to provide company and emotional support for the children who cannot receive it from their birth parents. Being put into the foster care system is terrifying and confusing as is, but on top of this, many siblings are separated in the process. With this in mind, a primary goal for the community is for familial bonds to be built or restored among residents. Together California will provide housing for birth parents working to reunify their family and help them create a stronger connection. The homes will feature areas for the children to thrive and connect with others. These will include gardens, recreational domains and athletic areas that will be provide a greater space for children and families to grow and relate further. The development also focuses on creating a space for siblings to stay together and maintain their important connections. Sophomore Amanda Higuchi is an older sister to two. Since she must care for and take responsibility for them, she feels that her relationship with them is irreplaceable.
“My siblings mean a lot to me and no child should ever have to experience the loss of one in their life,” Higuchi said. “I cannot imagine losing my siblings. It is important for siblings to stay connected and it is not right to take on the responsibility of a child and not take their sibling with them as it is unfair to both of them due to the important bonds between siblings.”
Bale said that the inspiration to form the organization and build the homes came from his philanthropist father David Bale, and expressed that as a kid, the pair would attend protests for this very cause. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he admired his father’s passion and the way he put others before himself. Bale wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and participate in the philanthropy he saw firsthand.
Bale and his wife had the idea to create Together California after his daughter was born, when he began to grasp what parents and children undergo when they are separated. As a result, he wanted to pursue a project to improve the strained foster care system; currently, there are more foster kids in the United States than any other country and the rate of foster parents in the state is declining, leaving many children without a stable household. As a California resident and father, Bale wanted to find ways to help better this crisis in LA, a hot spot for the fostering crises statewide.
To educate himself on the problem, Bale went to Chicago in 2008 and spent several days meeting with children and family service professionals. There, he met Tim McCormick, who was an advocate for affordable and safe housing for children. Having worked on projects similar to Bale’s, McCormick was appointed to head the organization funded by Bale and Eric Esrailian, a doctor and friend of Bale that resides in California. With the help of LA County supervisor Kathryn Barger, the group began to establish the Together Family foster community. Barger says that this community can bring a large but necessary amount of stability to some of the most vulnerable children in California. Sophomore Ashlyn Okada thinks that rather than simply providing a home until they exit the process, the foster system should provide a space where the children are cared for and safe throughout the whole duration of a child’s stay.
“Many kids [in the system] lose their families at young ages [along with] their chance to experience a joyful childhood,” Okada said. “Instead of viewing foster care as a vessel for children to be adopted, [the focus should] be on creating an environment where kids are safe and welcomed.”
While these efforts will help foster children across Southern California, the 12 homes cannot provide space for 437,000 other children in the US foster care system (ABC7). Bale wants Together California to inspire others to make a hands-on impact to improve the system so that there will someday be a stable foster care system in America. Sophomore Julia Abdalla works toward Bale’s mission through her work in the UNITY Club, of which she is one of the presidents. The club meets in and outside of school to raise money for a downtown women’s shelter, UNITY. She decided to get involved with UNITY because she agrees that more than just housing should be provided for residents of foster homes or homeless shelters.
“The [foster] system can only provide bare necessities, but the programs provided are what really matter,” Abdalla said. “The programs help people get continuous support and shelter. With the programs being provided by Together California, children can grow and have a stable household with healthy relationships.”
