Fostering Change

Welcome to the Season 6 FINALE of Fostering Change! 🎉 What an incredible season it's been — filled with inspiring, motivating, and heartfelt stories. THANK YOU for being part of our journey, for tuning in each week, and for all your comments and reviews. We do this for YOU. 💙 📅 Coming Soon: Starting June 17, join us for our "Best of" Summer Series — a special collection of our favorite episodes...

Welcome to Fostering Change! Today marks the final installment of our special episodes for National Foster Care Awareness Month. We hope you've enjoyed the series—and, more importantly, learned something meaningful from each conversation. As always, we encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments and pass these episodes along to others. In today’s episode, we welcome back one of Rob’s favo...

On today’s episode of Fostering Change, we continue our special acknowledgment that May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. We hope you have taken some moments to reflect on what you can do to support those in the foster care system: donate, volunteer your time, mentor, or even consider taking steps to be a CASA or foster parent. Thank you for all you do! If you’d like a simple way to support...

In this week’s episode of the Comfort Cases Podcast, Rob Scheer sits down with Amy Vale, foster parent and founder of For the Cubs, a purpose-driven brand creating sensory tools to support emotional regulation in children and adults alike. Amy shares how her own foster care journey inspired a mission: to design products that provide real comfort, like Percy, a weighted plush bear that mimics the f...

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, and we’re kicking it off with one of our most powerful episodes yet. This week on Fostering Change, host Rob Scheer is joined by special guest co-host Jennifer Perry, Executive Director of the Children’s Action Network and Co-Founder of FosterMore. Jennifer’s tireless advocacy has brought national attention to the urgent needs of the 108,000+ children i...

When people think of fostering or adopting, the image that often comes to mind is a cute little baby. But what’s often forgotten are the older children—pre-teens and teens—who are just as in need of love, support, and a forever family. On this episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer welcomes Randi Thompson, co-founder of Kidsave—a remarkable nonprofit helping youth ages 9–17 in foster care and orp...

On today’s episode of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer sits down with another incredible “Good Human” — Tristian Smith. After losing his mother at the age of seven, Tristian entered the foster care system, where he experienced over 25 placements and attended 13 different schools. Despite these hardships, he never let his circumstances define him. Tristian shares the powerful story behind his memoir, A...

Don’t you just love a really good person? On today’s episode of Fostering Change you’re about to meet one. Shawn Henss is truly the definition of what we call a “Good Human.” A nice guy, with a HUGE heart. Shawn is the founder of Giving Sole, a non-profit organization that gives new shoes to youth in foster care. Technically, Shawn’s son came up with the idea for Giving Sole at the age of 10! Sinc...

It’s always special when we can welcome both a returning guest and a first-time guest who are making a real difference. Join our host, Rob Scheer, as he sits down with Kate Trambitskaya and Brian Rosenberg for an urgent and eye-opening discussion about how federal cutbacks are impacting youth in foster care, LGBTQ+ youth, and other vulnerable communities. Why This Episode Matters: Kate, who last j...

How do you feel when you receive a hand-written note? Not an email, not a form letter. But an actual note that someone took the time to sit down and write out with a good old-fashioned pen or pencil? Pretty special right? On today’s episode of Fostering Change we welcome Jeremy Su, co-founder of “Cards for Cubs”, an organization that demonstrates how a simple handmade card can profoundly impact a...

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of difficult subject matter, including child abuse and the tragic death/murder of a young child. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If these topics may be triggering or upsetting, we encourage you to prioritize your well-being and consider this before listening to this episode. Welcome back for the second part of our special 2-episode series...

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of difficult subject matter, including child abuse and the tragic death/murder of a young child. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If these topics may be triggering or upsetting, we encourage you to prioritize your well-being and take this all into consideration prior to listening to this episode. On today’s special episode of Fostering Cha...

Happy New Year! On our first episode of the New Year, we are so happy to bring you an amazing human, Hunter Beaton. Hunter is the founder of Day1bags.org. Day1’s mission is right in line with Comfort Cases’ mission: to provide hope and dignity to youth in foster care by giving them new luggage or backpacks in place of the disgusting black trash bags that are still given out in so many states. Hunt...

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! This is our final episode of Fostering Change before we launch into 2025. And what a year it’s been. We’ve celebrated amazing guests on our show, learning so much about each other and our society. Thank you to all of you who have written in with comments and guests suggestions about what you’ve listened to this year. We truly appreciate YOU ALL! Our charity, Co...

Welcome back to another thought-provoking episode of Fostering Change. Today, we speak with Jason Green, a friend and amazing filmmaker. Jason’s documentary, Finding Fellowship, is a story of hope about the unlikely merger of three segregated churches in the 1960s. Jason and Rob belong to this same church, which is how they first met, and both have the same passion for community coming together. W...

A reminder that through the end of November  (National Adoption Awareness Month), when you visit www. BarelyCanadian.com our friend Kelly and her team will donate a Comfort XL Duffle bag for every one of their amazingly plush items purchased.  Today, we go back almost exactly 3 years to revisit a special episode about a remarkable woman, Pam Willis and family.  We know you’ll enjoy!...

It is National Adoption Awareness Month, and Comfort Cases is honoring the occasion with special promotions. Our “Coats for Comfort” Coat Drive, co-sponsored by CNN’s Laura Coates, is in full swing. There are donation boxes throughout the DC Metro area (including Maryland & Virginia), and for those of you outside the district, you can purchase coats and have them delivered directly to Comfort...

“When good people get together, great things happen.” - Jamie Truman On today’s episode of Fostering Change, we welcome our good friend Jamie Truman. She and her husband Jerry co-founded Truman Charities, an organization that truly exemplifies what our host, Rob Scheer, has expressed over the years: it focuses on helping other local and national charities, hosts events multiple times a year, and c...

"If you have nobody, you have yourself." Lillian Colon When Lillian Colon shared that phrase above with Rob Scheer when he interviewed her recently, there was a pause in the conversation as those words hit home. Reflect on them for a moment. On today’s episode of Fostering Change, Rob interviews Lillian Colon, who spent more than a decade in a strict New York City orphanage because her father “tho...

It’s October! Comfort Cases held our annual fundraiser event this past weekend, a “Farm-to-Table Feast.” It was a memorable event, with inspirational speakers, including our keynote speaker, Cowboy Jax, our emcee, the fabulous Jen Lilley, and our founder and host of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer. There’s still time to donate or contribute your most valuable asset - your TIME - to Comfort Cases. Ple...

Welcome back to Season 6 of Fostering Change! We hope you enjoyed our first episode of the season with Andrew Bridge. This is a reminder that if you order his book before its publication date, a portion of the sale will go to CASA chapters nationwide. Please visit AndrewBridgeAuthor.com and select the CASA chapter of your choice. In today’s episode, we have two exceptional guests - one is making h...

Welcome to Season 6 of Fostering Change!  Following 220 amazing episodes, we are so excited for what’s to come this season.  We have special and moving guests, and throughout the season we are inviting some of Comfort Cases’ friends to co-host episodes with Rob Scheer.  That includes today’s episode, as we are so lucky to have Rita Soronen, CEO of the Dave Thomas Center for Adoption...

You’ve made it!  It’s the end of August and our final “Best of Season 5” episode of the season, and we’ve saved a very special episode just for you. Just a note that Season 6 will debut next week, Tuesday, September 3.  We have some amazing guests lined up, and are doing something new this season: on several episodes, we are bringing in special guests to Co-Host interviews with Rob Schee...

Welcome back to the “Best of Fostering Change: Season 5.”  Today, we revisit what was our final episode of our season - our interview with our good friend, Sarah Fraser.  Sarah is not just a friend - she’s an extremely talented broadcaster as the host of one of the most popular podcasts out there, the eponymously titled, “The Sarah Fraser Show.”  On her show, Sarah talks about reali...

Today we continue our “Best of Season 5” Series with an interview Rob conducted in May with friend of Comfort Cases, Benjy Grinberg.  Benjy is an award-winning record producer, who has worked with superstars including Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa, KT Tunsall and more.  But he discovered he had another calling, and that was to become a CASA.  Benjy and Rob discuss why he chose to take on...