Sometimes, even tough situations can work out for good. That’s something Bill Blevins believes.
Blevins, a former gas supervisor at BGE who now works on the electric side, and his wife, Caitie, became foster parents in 2019. Now, they’re a party of seven, with two biological sons and three foster children—two boys they recently adopted and a baby girl. “We had our two biological children, and unfortunately were unable to have other ones,” said Blevins. “But fostering is something we’ve always talked about.”
In their first year of fostering, they faced a hard situation when a child they fostered for nine months—one they bonded with and loved—was removed from their home “in a really traumatic way. … That was a turning point for me and my wife. We were either going to stop fostering or look for avenues to get involved and make the process better,” said Blevins.
Fortunately for the 1,450 or so children currently in the foster care system in the Baltimore city area, Blevins and his wife chose option two.
They became involved with the Baltimore City Resource Parent Association—a group advocating for foster parents in Baltimore—which had fallen by the wayside after members dropped out. Going strong now for four years, the association has partnered with other groups to offer support services to parents and children while it focuses on working with the city of Baltimore to find solutions to challenges in the foster system.
Blevins, who is president, is most proud of a policy change that now allows foster parents to travel out of state with children in their care for vacations without getting authorization from the city; parents are now only required to communicate their plans. More often than not, the previous process was slow so the request would be denied. Foster parents then had to decide to either cancel the trip or allow the city to place the child with another family.
“It was bad all around,” he said. “So, it may seem trivial, but being able to change that policy has had a really big impact for foster parents and foster kids by providing stability for the kids, the biggest indicator of success.”
BGE has also supported Blevins’ work. Employees can log up to 750 volunteer hours and get that same amount in funds to support their organization. Blevins also earned BGE’s Powering Community Award in 2022, earning another $5,000 for the association.
“I have a great family and a great extended family, and there are children out there who don’t have that, and it breaks my heart,” said Blevins. “I believe I have been blessed to bless other people. This is the best way to really make a change.”